EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CUSTOMS ACT 1901
CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO. 65
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCIENCE, CUSTOMS AND SMALL BUSINESS
These Regulations effect the transfer of the control on the exportation of coffee from the Second Schedule to a new Regulation 6 of the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations.
This will allow the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, who has the policy and administrative responsibility for this commodity, to be responsible for the granting of export permissions relating to it.
Background
Australia is a signatory to the International Coffee Agreement 1983, which is designed to stabilise the world coffee market by regulating international trade in that commodity. To give effect to Australia’s international obligations, an export control on coffee was established under Item 3A of Part I of the Second Schedule to the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations. This control prohibited the exportation of coffee unless the permission of the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce was first obtained.
Quotas on coffee were suspended from 16 February 1986 because the price of coffee had stabilised above the Agreement’s “Composite Indicator Price”. Subsequently, all limitations on the exportation of coffee were removed and a blanket approval to export coffee was granted by the Minister on 4 March 1986.
At the International Coffee Organization Council Session, which concluded on 5 October 1987, members of the International Coffee Agreement decided to re-introduce quotas as provided for under the terms of the Agreement. However, rather than reimplement the control under the Second Schedule to the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations, it was considered appropriate to transfer the control to new Regulation 6, for which the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy is responsible.
Details of the Regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1: is a machinery provision which defines the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations as the “Principal Regulations” for the purposes of these Statutory Rules.
Regulation 2: inserts a new Regulation 6 into the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations as follows:
- subregulation 6(1) provides definitions of terms used in the new Regulation. Thus, the term “Agreement” is defined as meaning the International Coffee Agreement 1983, and the terms “coffee”, “Council”, “dried coffee cherry”, “green coffee”, “liquid coffee”, “parchment coffee”, “roasted coffee”, and “soluble coffee” are all given definitions which are consistent with the definitions of those terms in the International Coffee Agreement 1983; and
- in addition, subregulation 6(1) defines the term “Minister” as meaning the Minister of State for Primary Industries and Energy; and the term “authorised person” as meaning a person who is authorised in writing by the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy to grant permission for the exportation of coffee under subparagraph 4(a)(ii);
- subregulation 6(2) and subregulation 6(3) establish the mechanism whereby controls on the exportation of coffee may be imposed and removed.
Where the Minister has published a notice in the Gazette stating that quotas are in operation under the International Coffee Agreement 1983, the exportation of coffee is prohibited unless it falls within one of the categories of exceptions set out in subregulation 6(4).
The prohibition on the exportation of coffee continues in force until a further Gazette notice revoking the first notice appears in the Gazette: subregulation 6(3).
- subregulation 6(4) sets out the circumstances in which coffee may be exported during a period when the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy has published, and not revoked, a notice in the Gazette. The permitted circumstances for the exportation of coffee is where the coffee to be exported is:
• accompanied by a certificate valid under the International Coffee Agreement for the exportation of the coffee from Australia (such as a Certificate of Origin, or Certificate of Re-export) and this certificate is produced to the Collector; or
covered by a permission in writing granted by the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, or by an authorised person, which allows the exportation of that coffee and this permission is produced to the Collector; or
in a quantity which does not exceed 60kg of green coffee or the equivalent thereof which is set out in subparagraphs (i), (iii), (iv), (v) and (vi) of paragraph 6(4)(b). This provision allows the exportation of coffee in samples or small parcels, and is in accordance with the principles of the International Coffee Agreement 1983.
Further, in the case of an exportation which contains two or more of the forms of coffee listed in paragraph 6(4)(b), the total quantity of the exportation must not exceed the equivalent of 60 kilograms of green coffee; or
for use as ship’s or aircraft’s stores in accordance with an approval granted under subsection 129(1) of the Customs Act 1901;
subregulation 6(5) permits the Minister or an authorised person to grant permissions under subparagraph 6(4)(a) (ii) subject to conditions or requirements which must be complied with by the holder of the permission;
subregulation 6(6) restricts the powers that an authorised person may exercise under subparagraph 6(4)(a)(ii) by providing that where an authorised person has formed an opinion that a permission should not be granted, that authorised person shall refer the matter to the Minister of State for Primary Industries and Energy, and under subregulation 6(7), the Minister may then decide whether to grant or refuse to grant the permission.
This restriction has been inserted to take account of the comments made by the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances last year in relation to the Principal Regulations generally. The Committee opined that where unreviewable decisions relating to the granting of export permissions are involved, it is undesirable to permit authorised persons (ie. Public Servants) to exercise such powers, without the facility of having their decision reviewed by the Minister; and
subregulation 6(8) requires the Minister and, where applicable, an authorised person, to have regard to the relevant provisions of the International Coffee Agreement 1983, and to relevant decisions made by the International Coffee Council, when giving notice that quotas are, or have ceased to be, in operation under the
International Coffee Agreement 1983, or when granting or refusing a permission to export coffee. This provision is designed to make it clear that Australia will act according to the spirit of the International Coffee Agreement 1983 and, for example, will not issue permissions in cases where to do so would defeat the introduction of quota controls.
Regulation 3: amends the Second Schedule to the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations by omitting item 3A, i.e. coffee. This is a consequential drafting change, due to the transfer of this item into the new Regulation 6 of the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations.