Introduction The novel Covid-19 is spreading expeditiously through China and resultantly, U.S. and Australia have imposed a ban on travellers who have been through China in light of its safety and security concerns. WTO primarily regulates the goods and services and not the movement of persons however there is an increased probability of imposition of…

The High Court decision on the tariff classification of ‘Vita gummies’ and ‘Garcinia weight-loss preparation’.  We have previously written at length on decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), or State or Federal Courts on the classification of goods for customs purposes. The classification of goods is a vital process as many things follow from…

The decision of the Victorian County Court in Technology Swiss Pty Ltd and Ecology SRL v Famous Pacific Shipping Pty Ltd which was delivered on 30 September 2019 and published on 13 November 2019 has already received some attention and commentary within industry. Much of the attention has focussed on one of the outcomes of the decision…

The term seems to have first arisen in the early 1990s with reference to an ‘open distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way’ and was developed to serve as a ‘public transaction ledger’ for the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Of course, blockchain no longer exists solely as…

In the week leading to the recent Federal election, the Minister for Industry Science and Technology (Minister) released her decisions as to the imposition of interim dumping and countervailing duties on steel pallet racking and PVC covered electrical cabling Both followed lengthy investigations by the Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) including several extensions of time for the…

During each year we discuss various important decisions handed down by the Tribunals and Courts. Recently, this included the High Court appeal in Comptroller General of Customs v Zappia from late 2018 which has been covered in webinars and presentations to various groups. We can now report that the High Court has granted leave to appeal sought…

The Federal Budget 2019 was formally released by the Federal Government last night (2 April 2019). However, in an election year, the Federal Government took the unusual path of confirming that the government would not be seeking to pass new legislation implementing that Budget in the remaining Parliamentary sitting days. Instead, the Budget legislation would…

For a variety of reasons Australians have wholeheartedly embraced the various means of electronic communication and social media platforms. One lawyer’s brief history of the digital revolution In large part, technological progress has been benign, albeit confusing for certain generations. After all, when I first started in the law, our most sophisticated form of communication…

The Australian border is a busy place, not just in terms of the movement of goods and people and not just in terms of the many free trade agreements (FTAs) and other trade developments. As many readers would be aware, the border also happens to be a busy place for legislation and other regulation by…

While there has recently been significant commentary on Chain of Responsibility under the Heavy Vehicle National Law and transport of goods by road the most common manner of importing and exporting goods to and from Australia is by sea. While carriage by sea meets practical requirements of importing and exporting it does carry inherent risk….

One of the essential elements of good regulation is the need for clear contemporary supporting legislation and associated regulation. That need has underscored new legislation in Australia (the Biosecurity Act 2015) and in New Zealand (the Customs and Excise Act 2018). In the former case, the Biosecurity legislation succeeded the Quarantine Act 1908 and in the latter case, it…

I have been working with the Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia (CBFCA) to develop guidance material and host legal forums on the introduction of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-11), a free trade agreement that comes into play from 30 December 2018. Similarly to China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), the TPP-11 will come with many…

There has been a significant amendment to the Trade Marks Act 1995 which further entrenches the legality of parallel imports in Australia. Until recently, s123 of the Trade Marks Act 1995 provided a defence to parties (including importers) using a trade mark to sell or import goods where the trade mark had been applied with…

While most of the Australian population (and its media) are fixated on the Royal visit or the AFL player trade, those in the industry have had a similar level of interest in the movement towards Australian domestic ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP-11) (aka the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)) and…

A SENIOR trade lawyer says the Trans-Pacific Partnership still will be subject to a transparent review process before being implemented by the government. The Maritime Union National Council recently passed a resolution describing the TPP-11 as enabling corporations to seek “unfettered access to Australian government contracts” and something that would “destroy Australian jobs”. Partner for…

We wanted to draw your attention to some interesting articles about the topics of the Regulating for Globalization blog that appeared in the European Foreign Affairs Review Volume 23, Issue 3, 2018, edited by Jörg Monar & Nanette Neuwahl.   Han Dorussen, Emil J. Kirchner, Thomas Christiansen, ‘Security Cooperation in EU–China Relations: Towards Convergence?’ (2018)…

INFRINGEMENT Notices (INs) were once a relatively minor nuisance in industry, largely associated with speeding or parking fines. However, since the introduction of the Infringement Notice Scheme (INS) to the Customs Act 1901 (Customs Act), INs have taken on much greater significance. That significance may escalate again following a recent media release by the Australian…