Foss Craig: Border Processing (Trade Single Window and Duties) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoss Craig: Border Processing (Trade Single Window and Duties) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:13089. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister of Commerce) on behalf of theMinister of Customs: I moveThat the Border Processing (Trade Single Window and Duties) Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee to consider the bill. This is an omnibus bill and it amends the Customs and Excise Act 1996 and the Biosecurity Act 1993. This bill makes important amendments to existing legislation to underpin the implementation of the Trade Single Window component of the new $89 million Joint Border Management System.The Trade Single Window component of the system provides a single electronic gateway for industry to interact with Government agencies for its customs and biosecurity requirements. The Trade Single Window will promote more effective protection of New Zealand’s border facilitate a smoother flow of legitimate trade and is consistent with the Government’s priorities relating to the provision of more joined-up online services.Regarding the purpose of the bill the bill contains three main categories of amendments that underpin the implementation of the Trade Single Window: registering users of the Joint Border Management System; providing information to and receiving information from the Trade Single Window; and consequential changes to offences.The bill also makes minor technical changes to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 to provide more clarity and to improve the effectiveness of the Act to meet Government policy goals for border management.Regarding registering users of the border management system the Customs and Excise Act 1996 requires that all goods imported or exported must be entered into the Customs Service computer system by individuals being importers exporters or their agents who are registered users of the system. The Trade Single Window will provide for a wider range of border requirements. For example registered users will be able to provide and receive information on the movement of their goods streamlining supply chains.The bill amends several aspects of the Customs and Excise Act to ensure there is an appropriate registration mechanism for access to and use of the Joint Border Management System. The areas covered by the amendments include allowing companies to be registered users instead of individuals only. Specific grounds on which the Chief Executive of the Customs Service can refuse an application are included allowing the chief executive to issue unique user identifiers for the Joint Border Management System that can be used by both the Customs Service and the Ministry for Primary Industries for border-related purposes.The provision of information to the Trade Single Window will be through the use of the World Customs Organization’s new international data model for lodgment messages supporting access for our exporters and reducing compliance costs for industry. The new lodgment messages will include customs biosecurity and food safety - related information enabling the Customs Service and the Ministry for Primary Industries to receive more accurate and current information to better identify and target potential risks to New Zealand.Several amendments will assist in supporting how information is provided to the Trade Single Window. These amendments cover advance notices of arrival and departure for all goods and craft crossing our border and inward and outward cargo reports and establish a more effective and transparent transhipment process for the national movement of imported goods. Additionally the bill amends the Customs and Excise Act to provide the Chief Executive of the Customs Service with the ability to prescribe customs rules that reflect other border-related requirements such as health biosecurity and marine safety. This will be done using a process agreed by the chief executives of those agencies. This process will promote clarity and consistency to industry and reduce the administrative burden of maintaining multiple often disparate requirements via agencies at the border.There are consequential changes to offences in the bill. To enforce the amendments contained in the bill some consequential changes to offence provisions are necessary. These amendments relate to the advance notice of the arrival of goods and craft and the departure of goods and craft. The amendments are to cover such aspects as failing to comply with the new requirements and failing to update the Customs Service with the correct information.There are other minor technical amendments in the bill. The bill includes some minor technical changes to provide more clarity and improve the effectiveness of the Customs and Excise Act to meet Government policy goals. These amendments include updating the definition of motor spirits to reflect the 2012 changes to the excise and excise-equivalent duties table in the Act but the amendment does not alter the type of fuel on which excise duty is collected; replacing the term “rate of duty” with “amount of duty” where goods are re-imported into New Zealand and a refund of duty has been claimed on the previous export; delegating the power from the Minister of Customs to the ChiefExecutive of the Customs Service to approved certain international organisations exempt from excise duty on alcohol and tobacco; and enabling regulations to be made that may prescribe the valuation method and value for an import consignment below which duty need not be collected by the Customs Service known as de minimis.In summary the bill will help underpin the implementation of the Trade Single Window which will deliver at least $450 million of benefits to our economy over the next 10 years. I commend the bill.