Licensing Review – Final Report (NNF 2017/107)


The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) today released the Final Report into the Review of Customs Licensing Regimes. As members will be aware, the CBFCA provided submissions to, and actively participated in, bilateral and multilateral interfaces with the DIBP. It was from these multilateral discussions that the CBFCA perceived that the Final Report would not deliver any radical change to the licensing process, in particular, that related to individual and corporate licensed customs brokers. There have been some Recommendations of process improvement in terms of electronic lodgement (it is, after all, 2017), management of applications and renewals as well as alignment of certain specific issues such as fit and proper person tests with other regulatory agencies.

In essence, the final report could be seen as “if it's not broken why fix it?”.

From a CBFCA perspective, there are some interesting comments in relation to the industry composition of the National Customs Brokers Licensing Advisory Committee (NCBLAC) where it is suggested that “other parties who represent licensed customs brokers should be considered for inclusion in the process as an industry representative on NCBLAC.” On this issue, the CBFCA is perplexed in that it is not aware of any other industry association which has, as part of its not-for-profit industry association representation or Terms of Reference, a specific commentary that it represents the interest of individual and corporate licensed customs brokers or persons who, as students, are working within the academic arrangements for a Diploma of Customs Broking.

The CBFCA is aware that there are other not-for-profit industry associations (these being referenced in the Report) that may suggest they have a representation of corporate licensed customs broker interests, however nowhere in their respective Terms of Reference does it specifically provide for membership of any, or all, individual or corporate customs brokers which have a right to participate in the running of the organisation through membership, a voting process or Board/Director standing. Other entities referenced in the report are lobbyists and/or for-profit proprietary companies where there would always be a need for a declaration of interest in relation to information acquired. This being very different from the advocacy arrangements of not-for-profit industry associations and interests of members.

In the CBFCA’s opinion, an opportunity to build for the future in the sector of service providers in international trade logistics and supply chain management may have been lost.

The CBFCA will continue to engage with the DIBP on the Recommendations from the Report.

The media release from the DIBP is set out below:

“The final report of the Review of Customs Licensing Regimes (the Licensing Review) has been released and is available from the departmental website.

We appreciate the contribution of industry representatives to the review, particularly your submissions, feedback on the Issues Paper, and attendance at the workshops.

The final report outlines the findings of the Review and sets out 15 recommendations. The first recommendation is that the current licensing regime be retained for customs brokers, depots and warehouses, as no suggested model would be more efficient in meeting the objectives for border management than the existing one. The remaining 14 recommendations will strengthen integrity and streamline processes underpinning the licensing regime for the Department, industry and other government agencies that also license customs brokers, depots and warehouses (e.g. the Australian Taxation Office).

The Department will continue to work with stakeholders during the implementation of the recommendations. Information about how the recommendations will be implemented will be provided by mid-June, 2017. Any queries regarding the Final Report should be directed to [email protected]

Kind regards,

Licensing Review Implementation Team| Trusted Trader and Industry Engagement | Traveller, Customs and Industry Policy Division | Policy Group | Department of Immigration and Border Protection”