Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2007

The customs tariff proposal that I have just tabled contains an alteration to the Customs Tariff Act 1995, effective from 1 January 2007.

The Customs Tariff Amendment (2007 Harmonized System Changes) Act 2006 implemented approximately 1,200 amendments to the customs tariff. These amendments incorporated changes that resulted from the third review, by the World Customs Organisation, of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System that forms the basis of Australia’s customs tariff.

As part of that review, the text of the new subheading 3821.00.10 referred to ‘Prepared culture media for the development or maintenance of viruses and the like’ and applied a duty rate of five per cent to these goods. However, existing arrangements in the Australian customs tariff provided for a rate of customs duty of free for these culture media.

Customs Tariff Notice No. 1 (2006) was published in a special Commonwealth Gazette on 15 December 2006 giving notice that a customs tariff alteration would be proposed in the parliament to alter the text of this subheading to remove the reference to culture media for viruses.

The effect of this alteration is that the rate of customs duty of free will continue to apply to prepared culture media for the development or maintenance of viruses.

I commend the proposal.

Debate (on motion by Mr Edwards) adjourned.