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Amendments to Schedule 4 of Customs Tariff
Customs and Border Protection Services will be introducing significant amendments to Schedule 4 of the Customs Tariff Act. The changes will apply from 1 March 2013. More detail is available in Australian Customs Notice 2012/55.

The ABS will be publishing information on impacts to statistical data in Information Paper: Amendments to Schedule 4 of Customs Tariff (cat. no. 5368.0.55.019) to be released on 19 March 2013.

No changes to AHECC or Customs Tariff to be made on 1 January 2013
The ABS sometimes makes changes to statistical codes on 1 January and 1 July. There will be no changes to be applied to either classification as at 1 January 2013.

Malaysia - Australia Free Trade Agreement (MAFTA)
This Free Trade Agreement commenced on 1 January 2013. A new preference code was introduced:

New preference codeFree Standing Descriptor
MGoods which meet Malaysia Australia FTA rules of origin & preferential rate of duty has been claimed


Data for the new preference code will be available from the January 2013 release of merchandise import statistics. Some labels for existing preference codes will be amended to clarify the preference scheme. New labels will be released with January 2013 data:

Preference codeExisting labelRevised label
LLeased Developed Country preferential rate of duty has been claimedLeast Developed Country preferential rate of duty has been claimed - LDC (Schedule 1, Part 2)
TThe Developing Country preferential rate of duty has been claimedThe Developing Country preferential rate of duty has been claimed - DCS (Schedule 1, Parts 1 and 4)
AThe Developing Country preferential rate of duty has been claimed - historicalThe Developing Country preferential rate of duty has been claimed - DC (Schedule 1, Parts 1 and 3)
RGoods manufactured in Singapore but do not meet SAFTA rules of origin receive a Developing Country (The Developing Country preferential rate of duty has been claimed - DCT (Schedule 1, Part 5)


Amendment of confidentiality restriction
See the Changes in this and forthcoming issues section of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) September 2012 issue for details.

Changes to statistics presented on a country basis:
  • introduction of new countries
  • changes to ABS trade overseas port classification
  • changes to the developing countries category
  • amendments to countries and country groups
See the Changes in this and forthcoming issues section of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) September 2012 issue for details.

These changes also affect time series spreadsheet Table 2 in International Merchandise Imports, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0) from the October 2012 issue onwards. New time series IDs for Table 2 are shown below:
CountryTime series IDs
South Sudan A82186083K
SudanA82186084L

Introduction of new time series spreadsheet
See the Changes in this and forthcoming issues section of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0) September 2012 issue for details.

Changes to the Foreign Trade Topics @ a Glance
Some of the links from the Foreign Trade Releases and Using Foreign Trade Statistics pages now include explanations to better direct and assist users in retrieving the needed information.

Future release dates of foreign trade publications

5368.0 – International Trade in Goods and Services

December 20125 February 2013
January 20137 March 2013
February 20133 April 2013
March 20137 May 2013
April 20136 June 2013
May 20133 July 2013


5439.0 – International Merchandise Imports

January 201319 February 2013
February 201320 March 2013
March 201317 April 2013
April 201316 May 2013
May 201319 June 2013
June 201317 July 2013



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