TradeLane

Last year the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement had a few hurdles you may have heard about. However, it has been brought back to life with a few tweaks and fewer tweets.

So here it is…

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP or TPP11) was signed on the 8^th of March 2018 in Santiago and brings together 11 countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Whilst a few things are bigger than the original, and most are bigger than the remake, the Asbestos issue for importers in Australia is certainly up there.

First and foremost, Asbestos is no joking matter. I will refrain from the scientific explanations (not my forte) but suffice to say that Asbestos is bad and can cause significant respiratory issues, cancer, and death. Rightfully, the Australian Government has taken steps to limit people’s exposure to Asbestos and Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) by introducing, amongst other measures, a total import and export ban in 2003.

Time has certainly flown since I last posted about the first Goods Compliance Update for 2017 and here we are looking at the second Update from Australian Border Force (ABF) for the year. Here is a brief summary of the relevant points importers and exporters should be aware of:

A Rose by Any Other Name, or The Lack Thereof

For Shakespeare, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; perhaps for lovers too. This, though, isn’t a love most customs authorities share, and for good reason.  Unfortunately, most businesses find themselves so heavily tied up with the “big ticket items” on the trade compliance pyramid that prioritising quality trade descriptions often becomes an afterthought.

Not to be downplayed, countries like the Philippines have strict customs rules regulating goods description where importers potentially face criminal sanctions and customs brokers risk suspension of their licenses for the offense of insufficient goods description on customs entry documents.

There has been a lot of information to digest recently regarding developments in Customs and Trade Compliance in Australia.

The minutes from the first quarterly Compliance Advisory Group meeting (CAG) and Goods Compliance Updates (GCU) for 2017 were recently published, with some important issues for industry to be aware of.