At a time when there is a lot of talk about liberalising
trade through new free trade agreements and adopting trade
facilitation measures, it may come as a surprise to learn that the
use of tariff concession orders (TCOs) is becoming increasingly
difficult or at best, unpredictable.
A TCO is a concession that acts to reduce the duty payable on
certain goods to zero. A TCO is made where the applicant can show
that there is no local manufacturers making substitutable goods.
Once made, any importer can use the TCO, provided their goods are
classified under the same tariff heading as the TCO and that their
goods fit within the terms of the TCO.
The use of TCOs was once relatively simple. In fact the
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Customs) went
through a phase of making TCOs as broad as possible, enabling ease
of use. However, two recent cases demonstrate the current
difficulty of applying TCOs.
