Customs Tariff Amendment (Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation) Bill 2012

This Bill is one of several important trade and commerce items recently introduced into the Federal Parliament (Introduced into the House of Representatives 1 November 2012 and at Second Reading stage). The Bill’s primary purpose is to amend the Customs Tariff Act 1995 so as to implement in law the Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

The Bill does this by:

• Providing free rates of customs duty for goods that are Malaysian originating goods in accordance with a new Part VIII Division 1H inserted into the Customs Act 1901;

• Amending the Customs Tariff Act Schedule 4 to maintain customs duty rates for certain Malaysian originating goods in accordance with the applicable concessional item; and creating a new Schedule 9 in the Customs Tariff to accommodate excise equivalent rates of duty.

• Making a number of complementary amendments are also be made to the Customs Act by the Bill to give effect to the Agreement.

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