✦ Plain-English Summary

Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals and Other Measures) 2020

What it does

This law changes Australia's import taxes (called tariffs) on several types of goods. Most importantly, it removes tariffs on COVID-19 medical and hygiene products for the year 2020, and it changes the rules around importing used vehicles and various food and supplement products.

Why it matters

Removing import taxes on COVID-19 protective equipment and medical supplies made these items cheaper to bring into Australia when the country needed them most. The other changes affect what you pay for imported goods like second-hand cars, sports drinks, vitamins, and steel products—small costs that add up across the economy.

Key details

• COVID-19 products: Medical masks, sanitisers, and similar hygiene items imported between 1 February 2020 and 31 December 2020 faced zero import tax
• Used vehicles: The law removed some preferential tariff rates for second-hand cars that had applied under previous trade agreements
• Other goods affected: The law also adjusted tariffs on energy drinks, protein supplements, wheelie bins, and metal pipes and profiles—mostly effective 28 days after the law received Royal Assent

Official Description

Amends the Customs Tariff Act 1995 to: provide for a free rate of customs duty for certain medical and hygiene products between 1 February 2020 and 31 December 2020; remove the $12 000 special customs duty on used and second-hand motor vehicles that are Peruvian originating goods or that are Trans-Pacific Partnership originating goods; separately identify specifically formulated caffeinated beverages, formulated supplementary sports foods and formulated supplementary foods; specifically identify vitamins and food supplements; provide that wheelie bins do not fall within the classification of vehicles; provide that plates, rods, angles, shapes, sections, tubes, pipes and the like requiring further modification prior to being used cannot be classified as parts; and repeal redundant provisions specifying phasing rates of customs duty under certain free trade agreements.

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.