Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Labor supports the Customs Tariff Amendment (Expanded Information Technology Agreement Implementation and Other Measures) Bill 2016, which amends the Customs Tariff Act to meet Australia's obligations under the World Trade Organization's expanded Information Technology Agreement. The bill creates new tariff subheadings to allow certain technology products to be separately identified for custom purposes, phases out custom duty rates for products listed under selected subheadings and removes obsolete duty rates. Gradual reductions in the duty rates for the selected products, which will incrementally reduce to free, begin on 1 January and will be completed by 2021. The measure was included in the 2016-17 budget, which estimates that the phase-out will reduce custom revenues by $80 million over the forward estimates.

These new subheadings are required because of a commitment to reduce the duty rate for some goods within a classification but not for all of those products. Some Australian made items will be affected by these changes, including speakers and car components. Reduction of tariffs in these categories will, accordingly, take the longest time. In the light of inclusion of measures that accommodate those needs while meeting our global obligations, Labor supports this bill.