EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CUSTOMS ACT 1901
CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO. 64
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 importation of coffee from the Second Schedule to a new Regulation 4C of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) 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 import 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 import control on coffee was established under Item 7A of the Second Schedule to the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations. This control prohibited the importation 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 importation of coffee were removed and a blanket approval to import 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 Imports) Regulations, it was considered appropriate to transfer the control to new Regulation 4C, for which the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy will be responsible.
Details of the Regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1: is a machinery provision which defines the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations as the “Principal Regulations” for the purposes of these Statutory Rules.
Regulation 2: deletes the definition of “coffee” in Regulation 2 of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations. A new, more detailed definition of the term “coffee” is inserted in new Regulation 4C (see Regulation 3 below).
Regulation 3: inserts a new Regulation 4C into the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations as follows:
- subregulation 4C(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 4C(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 importation of coffee under subparagraph 4C(4)(a)(ii);
- subregulation 4C(2) and subregulation 4C(3) establish the mechanism whereby controls on the importation 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 importation of coffee is prohibited unless it falls within one of the categories of exceptions set out in subregulation 4C(4).
The prohibition on the importation of coffee continues in force until a further Gazette notice revoking the first notice appears in the Gazette: subregulation 6(3);
- subregulation 4C(4) sets out the circumstances in which coffee may be imported 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 importation of coffee is where the coffee to be imported is:
• accompanied by a certificate valid under the International Coffee Agreement for the exportation of the coffee from the country of exportation to 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 importation 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 4C(4)(b). This provision allows the importation 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 importation which contains two or more of the forms of coffee listed in paragraph 4C(4)(b), the total quantity of the importation must not exceed the equivalent of 60 kilograms of green coffee;
- subregulation 4C(5) permits the Minister or an authorised person to grant permissions under subparagraph 4C(4)(a)(ii) subject to conditions or requirements which must be complied with by the holder of the permission;
- subregulation 4C(6) restricts the powers that an authorised person may exercise under subparagraph 4C (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 4C(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 Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations generally. The Committee opined that where unreviewable decisions relating to the granting of import 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 4C(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 import 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 4: amends the Second Schedule to the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations by omitting item 7A, i.e. coffee. This is a consequential drafting change, due to the transfer of this item into the new Regulation 4C of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations.