EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1985 No. 1
CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the Authority of the Minister of State for Industry, Technology and Commerce
On 28 December 1984 the Acting Prime Minister, the Hon. Lionel Bowen MP, the Acting Minister for Trade, Senator the Hon. Peter Walsh, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Bill Hayden MP and the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce, Senator the Hon. John Button endorsed the terms of an arrangement with the United States concerning access to the United States market for Australian exports of steel.
The arrangement provides for restraints on the volumes of Australian steel (defined as all steel mill and basic steel products produced in Australia) exported to the United States, for the withdrawal of an existing United States anti-dumping action on Australian steel and for an undertaking that the petitioner would not file any petition seeking import relief during the five year currency of the arrangement.
In order to implement, and enforce compliance with, Australia’s commitments under the arrangement the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations have been amended to insert a new export control over Australian steel.
The new regulations provide as follows:
(a) regulation 1 provides for the amending regulations to come into operation on 1 February 1985.
(b) regulation 2 amends regulation 12 of the Regulations to replace references in that regulation to the Department and Minister for Trade and Resources with references to the Department and Minister for Trade, as a consequence of the re-naming of certain Departments in March 1983; and
(c) regulation 3 repeals the existing Tenth Schedule to the Regulations and substitutes a new Schedule, which provides that the exportation from Australia of steel mill and basic steel products is prohibited unless the approval of the Minister for Trade or of an authorized officer is produced to the Collector.