Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor supports the Customs Tariff Amendment (2017 Harmonized System Changes) Bill 2016 and Customs Amendment (2017 Harmonized System Changes) Bill 2016, which amend the Customs Act to implement changes arising from the fifth review of the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System. The Customs Amendment (2017 Harmonized System Changes) Bill 2016, the non-tariff bill, also makes minor amendments to provide for collections of the correct import duties for biofuels under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. We note that the government is cutting it entirely fine with the timing of these bills. The changes authorised by the fifth review have to be in place by 1 January 2017. So Labor is willing to facilitate the passage of these bills.

Australia is a member of the World Customs Organization and is part of its harmonising system, and it is important that we remain compliant. This country made a significant contribution to the fifth review, and government agencies and industry groups were consulted during the review process. The tariff bill makes approximately 950 amendments to create change and clarification in tariff codes. Australia uses codes based on a six-digit international classification supplemented by two additional digits used by the Bureau of Statistics for its own purposes. Under the changes, tariff codes for items no longer widely used, such as typewriters, are removed and items for new technologies are included. There are new subheadings requested by the International Narcotics Control Board to improve the monitoring and control of narcotics and psychotropic drugs. The amendment will also allow for better monitoring of the trade in some fish species and tropical woods by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Labor is pleased to support the bills.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Customs Tariff Amendment (2017 Harmonized System Changes) Bill 2016 contains 950 amendments to create, change and clarify tariff classifications in the Customs Tariff Act 1995. These amendments give effect to changes resulting from the World Customs Organization's fifth review of the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, commonly referred to as the harmonised system. Australia provided significant input to the fifth review. Relevant Australian government agencies and industry groups were consulted during this review process. I might say that this harmonised system is of significant benefit to Australia as an open trading nation. Of course, as an open trading nation, our interest is not only in exports but also in the harmonised system supporting our imports.

On a day like today, I would like to highlight the fact that I am a particularly strong supporter of free trade. One of the prouder moments of the liberal political movement was, of course, the campaigns against the Corn Laws in the 1840s and William Gladstone's campaigns in the 1860s. We have come to this point now, and at the same time there has been unprecedented prosperity right across the world, with the findings and conclusions of everyone from Adam Smith to David Ricardo ensuring that the arguments for free trade were not based simply on the old mercantilist principle of how much I can sell but also on those basic, important theories of the laws of comparative advantage, because it also goes to what I can buy.

Australia's interest in trade is not simply in what we can sell, although that is sometimes the public debate. It is also very much in what our consumers can afford to buy and what our businesses can afford to buy as business inputs on a more affordable basis. I commend this bill to the Senate to ensure that this strong record in trade continues.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.