Cargo Reporting Compliance

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) has recently received advice from members that they have received Infringement Notices totally thousands of dollars for late cargo reporting.

Whilst these powers have been available to the Australian Border Force (ABF) for over a decade, it is evident that in some regions the ABF are now flexing this enforcement muscle.

FTA is currently in the process of:

  • advocating for reforms / enhancements to current cargo reporting systems and processes;

  • defending compliance action for circumstances where Integrated Cargo System (ICS) design flaws have contributed to the late cargo reporting; and

  • advocating for consistency in the application of the warning and IN scheme.

In the interim, it is important to note that circumstances where forwarders have simply not received timely information from overseas agents, it may prove to be difficult to defend against an IN for what is a strict liability offence.

We highly recommend that members take this issue seriously and utilise the fact sheets provided by the ABF (refer below) to clearly inform overseas agents of cargo reporting obligations.

Paul Zalai - FTA

Australian cargo reporting requirements for overseas counterparts


The Department of Immigration and Border Protection and its operational arm, the Australian Border Force (ABF), are committed to working with industry to identify and address compliance issues.

Reflecting this commitment, the ABF met with a number of cargo reporters earlier this year to discuss the challenges they face when trying to comply with their cargo reporting obligations.
A common theme raised in these meetings was the lack of understanding by overseas counterparts of the importance of cargo reporting requirements in Australia.

The ABF understands the dependency cargo reporters have on their overseas counterparts to report accurately and on time. To assist you in communicating Australia's cargo reporting requirements to your overseas counterparts/ partners, the ABF has developed two fact sheets that you may wish to provide to them:

The fact sheets outline the need for information to be accurate, complete and provided on time.

They also advise of the penalties that can be issued if these requirements are not met.

The fact sheets are provided in English and Simplified Chinese.

For a copy of the translated fact sheets please visit www.border.gov.au/customscompliance.

Need to know more?


As a part of our upcoming CPD & CBC - Border and Biosecurity Compliance Program events, the ABF compliance team will be delivering a detailed presentation addressing the above cargo reporting issues.  

Please note that this session has been accredited for customs broker continuing professional development (CPD) points.

  • Full day (15 CPD points - 11am to 5.15pm) for customs brokers and importers (plus networking function) is available at $275 (incl GST)

  • Afternoon session with OTS / Australian Border Force for forwarders and exporters (plus networking function) is available at $82.50 (incl GST)
     

Full Day - Wed 7 Sept 2016 - Novotel, Brisbane Airport

Afternoon - Wed 7 Sept 2016 - Novotel, Brisbane Airport

Full Day - Wed 21 September 2016 - Novotel, Brighton Le Sands

Afternoon - Wed 21 September 2016 - Novotel, Brighton Le Sands

Full day - Wed 19 October 2016 - Mantra Hotel, Tullamarine

Afternoon - Wed 19 October 2016 - Mantra Hotel, Tullamarine

Copyright © 2016 Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) Pty Ltd, All rights reserved.