The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) yesterday issued notice no. IAN 12-2019 – “Reporting Requirements for Goods Treated with Sulfuryl Fluoride Fumigation.†The notice is aimed at: Customs Brokers, importers and biosecurity industry participants operating under the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Class 19.1 Approved Arrangement: Non-commodity for containerised cargo clearance (NCCC) and class 19.2 Automatic Entry processing for Commodities (AEPCOMM).
The changes are that DAWR now requires consignments that have been directed for a rural tailgate or tailgate inspection to have details of Sulfuryl Fluoride treatment included on the entry. Entries processed via Automatic Entry Processing (AEP) are assessed by accredited persons, therefore commercial documentation is not always available to DAWR’s officers to determine type of treatment utilised at the time of inspection.
From the 30th January 2019 DAWR will require Self-reporting Importers and Customs Brokers to report containers that have been treated with Sulfuryl Fluoride when lodging the import declaration.
DAWR wishes to avoid unnecessary referrals of entries that are subject to high risk Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) measures and have been treated offshore. Â As Sulfuryl Fluoride is also an approved biosecurity treatment for pests other than BMSB, the new generic Entity Identifier (AEI) must be reported whenever Sulfuryl Fluoride is used as a treatment. When non-BMSB treatments are performed by providers that are not registered as an approved offshore treatment provider, there will not be an associated AEI for the treatment provider (e.g. timber products from non-BMSB country). In this scenario only, the generic AEI (SFTREATED) is required to be entered into the import declaration.
At the time of inspection, a biosecurity officer may request documentation from the person in charge of the goods to assist them in making this assessment in relation to Biosecurity or Work Health and Safety. In order to streamline processes at the point of tailgate or rural tailgate inspection, the person in charge of the goods (importer representative at inspection) should be able to provide treatment certificates and the packing declaration on the request of the biosecurity officer.
