Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1991 NO. 413

STATUTORY RULES 1991 No. 413

CUSTOMS ACT 1901

CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SMALL BUSINESS AND CUSTOMS

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 sub-section (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 specified person or Minister of State.

The Regulations amend the Pro-Export Regulations to:

i)       change the date of the document published by the Minister of State for Defence referred to in subregulation 13E(2); and

ii)       add nine additional chemical weapons precursors to the list of chemical compounds in Schedule 15, the exportation of which is prohibited unless permission is granted by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Background

i)       Amendment to subregulation 13E(2)

Australia controls the exportation of dual-use technology through regulation 13E of the Pro-Export Regulations. Subregulation 13E(2) provides in part that:

"(2) The exportation from Australia of goods 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 May 1991 is prohibited ... "

The list of goods in that document is based on guidelines (the Industrial List) issued by the Co-ordinating Committee for Multilateral Strategic Export Controls (COCOM). Over the past twelve months COCOM has completely re-written the guidelines to identify only those items that are strategically sensitive.

To reflect those new guidelines, and to separately identify dual-use goods and technology related to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and the Australia Group (of all of which Australia is a member), the Minister published a new document in October 1991, which has the same title as the document referred to in subregulation 13E(2).

Regulation 2.1 amends the reference to the document by changing the date from "May 1991" to "October 1991".

ii)       Amendment to Schedule 15

The exportation from Australia of chemical compounds which are chemical weapons precursors is regulated by the controls provided for in regulation 13D of the Pro-Export Regulations. Subregulation 13D(2) prohibits the exportation of prescribed goods unless written permission is granted by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and that permission is produced to the Collector. Subregulation 13D(1) defines prescribed goods as "... goods containing more than 10%, by weight, of a chemical compound specified in column 2 of an item in Schedule 15 whose Chemical Abstracts Service number is specified in column 3 of that Schedule in that item."

On 14 October 1991 the Government decided to amend the Regulations to add nine chemical weapons precursors to the list of fifty chemical compounds in Schedule 15, in order to control trade in these chemicals and to prevent the proliferation of chemical weapons. These chemical compounds are the subject of consideration by the Australia Group, an informal organisation of twenty countries chaired by Australia, which aims to control the proliferation of chemical weapons by harmonising export controls on chemical weapons related materials, and by exchanging information about trade in such materials.

Regulation 3.1 amends the Regulations to add the nine new chemical compounds, listed in the Attachment hereto, to the list of chemical weapons precursors in Schedule 15.

ATTACHMENT

CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS INCLUDED IN SCHEDULE 15 TO THE CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED EXPORTS) REGULATIONS

Item         51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

Chemical Compound sulphur monochloride sulphur dichloride triethanolamine hydrochloride oxalyl chloride thiophosphoryl chloride diethyl methylphosphonate methylphosphonic acid N,N-Dimethylamidophosphoryl dichloride N,N-Diisopropyl-2-aminoethyl chloride hydrochloride

Chemical Abstracts Service Number (10025-67-9) (10545-99-0) (637-39-8) (79-37-8) (3982-91-0) (683-08-9) (993-13-5) (677-43-0) (4261-68-1)