Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 412

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 412

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Small Business, Construction and Customs

Customs Act 1901

Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 112 of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that:

"(1)       The Governor-General may, by regulation, prohibit the exportation of goods from Australia.

(2)       The power conferred by subsection (1) may be exercised - ... (c) by prohibiting the exportation of goods unless specified conditions or restrictions are complied with.

(2A)       Without limiting the generality of paragraph (2)(c), the Regulations - ...(a) may provide that the exportation of the goods is prohibited unless a licence, permission, consent or approval to export the goods or a class of goods in which the goods are included has been granted as prescribed by the regulations; and ..."

The Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations (the Pro-export Regulations) control the exportation of the goods specified in the various regulations or the Schedules to the Regulations, by prohibiting exportation absolutely, or making exportation subject to the permission of a Minister of State or a specified person.

The Regulations amend the Pro-Export Regulations to:

i)        amend the list of goods the exportation of which is prohibited due to Australia's obligations as a member country of the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM); and

ii)        provide the facility, in conjunction with section 112 of the Act, for the fist of goods to be amended from time to time.

As specified above, section 112 of the Act provides the head of power for the GovernorGeneral to prohibit, by regulation, the exportation of goods from Australia. Under this head of power, regulation 13E of the Pro-export Regulations prohibits the exportation of goods that are specified in the document published by the Minister of State for Defence entitled "Australian Controls on the Export of Technology with Civil and Military Applications" dated October 1991 unless a licence or permission has been granted and is produced to a Collector.

This prohibition gives effect to Australia's Obligations as a member country of COCOM. The list of goods subject to this export prohibition is altered regularly as a result of frequent COCOM deliberations and recommendations. To accord appropriate timeliness to the alterations, it was considered appropriate to amend section 112 of the Act to enable the Minister for Defence to amend the list of goods from time to time.

Section 112 of the Act now provides that the regulations may identify the goods to which the regulations relate by reference to their inclusion in a list or document formulated and published by a Minister, or by reference to their inclusion in that list as amended by the Minister. Where the Minister makes an amendment to the list of goods, the amendment is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. To enable the Minister to exercise this power of amendment, as well as updating the list of prohibited goods, regulation 13E is amended as follows:

Regulation 1 provides that the Pro-export Regulations are amended by the Regulations.

Regulation 2 amends regulation 13E of the Pro-export Regulations to:

(a) update the list of goods published by the Minister for Defence, the exportation of which is prohibited under Australia's obligations under COCOM, from October 1991 to September 1992; and

(b) provide the Minister for Defence the facility, in conjunction with section 112 of the Act, to amend the list of goods from time to time without reference to Executive Council.

The Regulations commence on Gazettal.