18 October 2007
Australia The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has decided to apply special agricultural safeguard (SSG) provisions under the Thailand Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) to imports of prepared and preserved tuna from Thailand. These imports will now be subject to a temporary increase in the tariff rate.
The SSG provision allows Australia to impose the general tariff rate (which applies to all other trading partners) instead of the TAFTA preferential rate for the rest of the calendar year once the import trigger level for that product has been reached. SSG provisions can be invoked until the end of 2008.
Imports of canned tuna (tariff line 1604.14.00) from Thailand for the 2007 calendar year have now reached the import trigger volume of 23,556,320 kilograms. Following the decision by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to apply the special safeguard and following formal gazettal, the safeguard on imports of canned tuna will apply from 18 October 2007.
As a result, the tariff on imports of canned tuna from Thailand will increase from the TAFTA preferential rate of zero percent to the general rate of 5 percent for the remainder of the 2007 calendar year.
This will not apply to shipments contracted and in-transit before 18 October 2007. However, any shipments in this category will be counted against next year’s safeguard trigger levels.
Source: Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestries Media Release
