Customs Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 9) 2000 No. 241
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 2000 No. 241
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Justice and Customs
Customs Act 1901
Customs Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 9)
Section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed for giving effect to the Act.
The purpose of the amending Regulations is to amend the Customs Regulations 1926 (the Customs Regulations) to declare that Tariff Concession Orders (TCOs) should not extend to certain polyvinyl chlorides.
Part XVA of the Act sets out a regime under which people can apply for TCOs in respect of goods. The Chief Executive Officer of Customs (CEO) may make a TCO in respect of those goods if he or she is satisfied that if, on the day on which the application was lodged, no substitutable goods were produced in Australia in the ordinary course of business. Once a TCO has been made in respect of goods a concessional rate of duty of free or 3% applies to those goods.
Subsection 269SJ(1) of the Act provides that the CEO must not make a TCO in respect of goods declared by the regulations to be goods to which a TCO should not extend.
Regulation 185 of the Customs Regulations in part provides that for the purposes of subsection 269SJ(1) of the Act, a TCO should not extend to goods classified under a heading or subheading in Column 2 of an item in Schedule 2 to the Customs Regulations unless the goods are listed in Column 3 of the item as goods to which this restriction does not apply.
The amending Regulations will preclude TCOs being made in respect of homopolymer vinyl resins produced by the suspension process (S-PVC) that has all the following characteristics:
* a mean granular size of at least 100 microns and at most 200 microns;
* 95% by volume of which has; a granular size of at least 50 microns and at most 300 microns; and
* a K-value of at least 55 and at most 80, as determined in accordance with International Standard ISO 1628-2: 1998 (Plastics - Determination of viscosity of polymers in dilute solution using capillary viscomoters).
The amending Regulations are explained in more detail in the attachment.
The amending Regulations commence on gazettal.
ATTACHMENT
Customs Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 9)
Regulation 1 - Name of Regulations
Regulation 1 provides that amending Regulations are the Customs Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 9).
Regulation 2 - Commencement
Regulation 2 provides that the amending Regulations commence on gazettal.
Regulation 3 - Amendment of Customs Regulations 1926
Regulation 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the Customs Regulations 1926 (the Customs Regulations).
Schedule 1 - Amendment
Item 1 - Schedule 2, after 8B
Item 1 inserts a new item 8C into Schedule 2 to the Customs Regulations.
TCOs cannot be made in respect of goods classified under a heading or subheading in Column 2 of Schedule 2 to the Customs Regulations unless the goods are listed in Column 3 of the item as goods to which this restriction does not apply.
Column 2 of new item 8C sets out a new class of goods to which a TCO will not be able to extend. Those goods are goods classified to subheading 3904.10.00 of Schedule 3 to the Customs Tariff Act 1995. That subheading covers goods that are polyvinyl chloride, not mixed with any other substances.
Column 3 of new item 8C sets out those goods to which the restriction will not apply. Those goods are goods, other than homopolymer vinyl resins produced by the suspension process
(S-PVC) where the S-PVC has all of the following characteristics:
* mean granular size of at least 100 microns and at most 200 microns;
* 95% by volume of which has a granular size of at least 50 microns and at most 300 microns; and
* K-value of at least 55 and at most 80, as determined in accordance with International Standard ISO 1628-2: 1998 (Plastics - Determination of viscosity of polymers in dilute solution using capillary viscometers).
The effect of new item 8C is that TCOs will not be able to be made in respect of S-PVC with those qualities listed above.