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1996-97-98
THE
PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF
AUSTRALIA
HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
EXPLANATORY
MEMORANDUM
(Circulated
by authority of the Minister for Customs and Consumer
Affairs,
The Honourable Warren Truss,
MP)
The purpose of the Bill is to make consequential
amendments to a taxing Act, the Customs Tariff (Anti-Dumping) Act 1975
(referred to in this memorandum as “the Act”), made necessary by
amendments to the Customs Act 1901 (“the Customs Act”)
proposed in the Customs Legislation (Anti-dumping Amendments) Bill 1998
(referred to as the “Anti-dumping Amendments
Bill”).
In Item 57 to Schedule 1 to the
Anti-dumping Amendments Bill, it is proposed to repeal, amongst others,
subsections 269TJ (4), (5), (6), (7) and (9) of the Customs Act. Those
provisions currently permit Australia to take retaliatory countervailing action
against another country in certain circumstances. They are inconsistent with
Australia’s obligations to the World Trade Organization (“the
WTO”). These obligations require that WTO dispute settlement procedures be
exhausted before such action can be taken.
In
that context, the Government has decided to remove from the Customs Act the
provisions enabling retaliatory countervailing action to be
taken.
In consequence, the capacity to impose
countervailing duty pursuant to those sections should also be repealed. It is
proposed to do this in this Bill.
The measures in this Bill have no financial
impact.
This clause provides for the Bill, when enacted, to be
cited as the Customs Tariff (Anti-Dumping Amendment) Act
1998.
This clause provides that the Bill will commence
operation at the same time that Schedules 1 (other than item 39), 2, 3 (other
than item 11) and 4 of the Anti-dumping Amendments Bill commence operation. That
is proposed to be a day fixed by proclamation, or, if such a day is not
proclaimed, the day which is 6 months after the day that Bill received the Royal
Assent.
This clause is the formal enabling clause for the
Schedule to the Bill, providing that, in this case, the Act is amended in
accordance with the applicable items of the Schedule.
These items remove from the Act those provisions that
impose countervailing duties on particular goods exported to Australia, as a
result of the exercise of the Minister’s powers under subsections 269TJ
(4), (5), (6), (7), and (9) of the Customs
Act.
For the policy reasons discussed in
the Outline to this Bill, it is proposed to repeal the Customs Act
provisions referred to above. Should that occur, the provisions of the Act
proposed to be repealed in this Bill would be nugatory. Hence the repeal of
these provisions of the Act is proposed.