TradeLane

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) in Australia recently published DIBPN 2016/35, Voluntary Disclosures under Section 243T and Section 243U Customs Act 1901. In this notice, DIBP highlighted their commitment to working with industry to encourage higher levels of voluntary compliance by providing increased transparency to the regulatory trade environment.

A voluntary disclosure is the communication of a written notice of an error, omission or adjustment in statements made to DIBP. If you make such disclosures voluntarily, before DIBP instigates any queries or proceedings, you will likely be protected from penalties that would otherwise be imposed.

As one of the newest members of the Tradewin team, having joined our South Pacific practice as a Trade Analyst earlier this year, I have been looking forward to writing my first post here on our blog, so here goes!

In July 2015, shortly after the first phase of the pilot for the Australian Trusted Trader Programme (ATT) commenced, my colleague Jess Cordeta introduced our readers to some of the benefits and requirements of participation.  

Almost 12 months later, the third phase of the pilot is well underway and the Australian Government has recently announced additional funding for the programme over the next four years. The ATT is set to become operational on the 1^st of July, 2016.