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…
This article was first published by Daily Cargo News. As I write this article, news of the spread of the ‘coronavirus’ becomes worse on a regular basis. According to today’s media, nearly 60 million people in China’s largest cities are in lockdown, there are 2700 confirmed cases and 80 people have died. There have been cases…
This article was first published by Daily Cargo News. Only the beginning of the end of tension? In much the same way that Australia welcomed rain this week, the release of ‘Phase One’ of the US and China Agreement had led to some degree of relief and confidence in the commercial and financial world. However, like…
This article was first published by Daily Cargo News. I have been in the fortunate position of being involved with the Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia (CBFCA) for a number of years. That has encompassed a wider variety of tasks than merely providing legal advice in an office! There has been legal and policy advice ranging…
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…
This article was first published by Air Cargo. On occasion, life has a habit of appearing to imitate art. Both Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ and Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ are now widely being considered as contemporary literary representations of the UK’s tortured Brexit process. Both works are underpinned by the themes of frustration and absurdity, with the…
This article was first published by Daily Cargo News. As much of Australia’s focus was taken by the Melbourne Cup carnival, the leaders of 15 of the 16 nations negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) announced the conclusion of ‘text-based’ negotiations with formal signing now expected in 2020. The announcement was made during the third RCEP summit…
This article was first published by Daily Cargo News. The Australian Trusted Trader Programme (ATTP) is one of the lead offerings of the Australian Border Force (ABF) and represents an example of how industry and government can work closely together to co-develop a program which has largely delivered on its intended outcomes and is actively supported…
The start of a new financial year is often used by the business community to launch new initiatives into the market. However, in this case, by media release on 1 July 2019, the Australian Border Force (ABF) as a division within the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) provided details of the establishment of a new…
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…
Those in industry (let alone anyone with an interest in world news) would be painfully aware that global trade is under massive pressure at the moment. Examples of these threats are everywhere and if they come to pass, the consequences will be uniformly bad. Trade and global integration has been a driver of financial and…
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…
Now that the Australian Federal election has been run and won, attention will turn to the priorities of the Coalition Government once Parliament resumes, whether in relation to the introduction of new initiatives or pursuit of the agenda which had been on hold pending the election outcome. Implementation of FTAs signed but not in effect…
I write this article on 12 April 2019, shortly after the announcement of the Federal Budget and the announcement of the date for the Federal election. As expected, this period encompassed the usual claim and counter – claim between the major political parties and the usual cynicism that even after the election, the political landscape…
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…
As many readers would be aware, when the New Zealand Customs Act 2018 (Act) commenced on 10 October 2018, not all of its provisions come into force on the same day. I had been working with Custom Brokers & Freight Forwarders Federation of New Zealand (CBAFF) and other members of the Stakeholders Reference Group (Group) established by…
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…
Beware those working in licensed premises – you can be liable for amounts equal to duty owing on goods stolen from those premises. Beware those working in licensed premises – you can be liable for amounts equal to duty owing on goods stolen from those premises. On 14 November 2018, following decisions of the Administrative…
AS THE confusion continues over whether the UK’s exit from the EU will be “hard”, “soft” or “just right”, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)has announced certain goods entering Britain from the EU will be allowed through without checks or payment of duty for a temporary period. This approach is consistent with promises from the UK…
