Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO.129

STATUTORY RULES 1997 No. 129

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Small Business and Consumer Affairs

Customs Act 1901 (C'th)

Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 (C'th) (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed for giving effect to the Act.

Section 50 of the Customs Act 1901 ("the Act") provides in part that..

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

"(2)       The power conferred by the last preceding subsection may be exercised - (a) by prohibiting the importation of goods absolutely.' ... or (aa) by prohibiting the importation of goods in specified circumstances;... or (c) by prohibiting the importation of goods unless specified conditions or restrictions are complied with.

"(3) Without limiting the generality of paragraph (2)(c), the regulations - ...(a) may provide that the importation of the goods is prohibited unless a licence, permission, consent or approval to import 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 Imports) Regulations (the Regulations) control the import of goods specified in the various Regulations or the Schedules to the Regulations, by prohibiting exportation absolutely, or making importation subject to the permission of a Minister or a specified person.

The import restrictions on coffee in Regulation 4C were originally introduced to meet Australia's treaty obligations as a member of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA).

Quotas under the ICA have been suspended since July 1989 and Australia is currently not a member of the ICA. Therefore, the continuing inclusion of coffee in the Regulations is serving no purpose at present and is unlikely to be required in the future.

Regulation 2 repeals the import controls on coffee prescribed by current Regulation 4C.

The Regulation commences on gazettal.