The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR), Compliance Division, is implementing a Highly Compliant Importer Project (HCIP). They have announced this in their Notice 71-2018 (10th July 2018) which is issued for the benefit of all importers and customs brokers who lodge imported cargo to the DAWR for biosecurity assessment.
The HCIP introduces an entity compliance overlay to the management of ‘at border biosecurity risk’. Under the HCIP importers who have established a 100% compliance history through repeated physical inspection, over an extended period of time for particular commodities, will be identified during entry processing and receive reduced intervention.
Importers identified as ‘highly compliant’ may be excluded from referral to the department when lodging full import declarations for imported cargo consignments and the relevant community protection profile question will not appear during lodgement. Clients are not required to volunteer entries to the department where these profile tariff exclusions have been applied.
The HCIP does not yet cover all goods. It currently applies to the following tariff codes – and further tariffs may be added in the future:
– 9401 – Seats (other than those of 9402), whether or not convertible into beds, and parts thereof;
– 9403 – Other furniture and parts thereof;
– 8801 – Balloons and dirigibles; gliders, hang gliders and other non-powered aircraft:
– 8802 – Other aircraft (for example, helicopters, aeroplanes); spacecraft (including satellites) and suborbital and spacecraft launch vehicles.
If you are wondering how you find out if you comply as a HCIP, the answer is that you don’t. ‘Highly compliant importers’ will not be advised of their inclusion within the project. Their ongoing compliance will be monitored through a random referral rate through consignment verification inspections. In the event that non-compliance is found, the importer’s consignments will return to the standard rate of biosecurity referral to the DAWR. For certain commodities, DAWR may reduce inspection rates when ongoing compliance has been demonstrated.
