Tariff & EU Fair Trade Agreement: Keeping You Up to Date / Have Your Say
Tariff Update - ODMA Liaisons Continue However Have Your Say Directly if Desired
Dear ODMA Member,
Firstly, I want to assure you that ODMA continues to follow up the Minister for Home Affairs’ office regarding prior correspondence sent of the impact the tariff concession revocation order has had on our industry. I am afraid, despite a few follow ups, I am still waiting on the update I was promised post the Departments request that BorderForce explain further the decision they made in 2022. I will continue to phone and email the Minister’s office to gain this update.
I wanted to bring to your attention the comments made regarding the EU FTA by our Prime Minister last week when he was in the UK.
Basically, Mr Albanese said that now that the UK trade deal has been finished, he was turning to discussions with European leaders to drive a free trade deal with the European Union.
The PM said he was meeting with EU commission president Ursula Von der Leyen last Friday and has also invited European leaders to Australia for further discussions. He also discussed the trade issue with German chancellor Olaf Scholz last Friday.
Mr Albanese said: “We’re continuing to work very hard because we want that (EU free trade agreement) to come into effect as soon as possible as well. It's not as advanced, of course, as the UK one was. The UK one got approved by our parliamentary processes at the end of last year. But now that this has been finalised, we can really hone in on the European agreement.”
For members wishing to be involved in the EU FTA development directly, there is a call for input through the EUs ‘have your say’ webpage.
Should you want to use some information from ODMA”s submission the main paragraphs follow to assist you. Should you want to read the whole document, then please click here.
You do not need to personalise your submission as such, they can all be the same. If you wish to write your own, then I recommend you include the following points:
That you operate a business that’s impacted by the TCO decision
That the long-term fix for this is through the FTA
That you urge DFAT to ensure this problem is rectified as part of its negotiations with the EU
Key paragraphs from ODMA’s letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for your reference below:
Our primary interest regarding a potential EU-FTA concerns the 5 per cent tariff that Australia applies to imports of multiple categories of frames and mountings for spectacles, and complete spectacles such as sunglasses. The vast majority of optical frames sold in Australia are imported, with most of these from the EU.
The key tariffs with the potential to affect ODMA members have, until recently, been covered by various Tariff Concession Orders (TCOs). These TCOs have been in place for decades, given Australia’s essentially non-existent domestic manufacturing capabilities in our sector.
Unfortunately, on 7 July 2022 the Australian Border Force (ABF) made a decision to revoke the TCO for plastic spectacle frames (the Plastic Frames TCO) [1] that has been in place since 2003, with retrospective effect from 13 May 2022. This decision was made following an application from one small Australian eyewear manufacturer, operating from regional New South Wales. We understand the production capacity of this manufacturer to be in the low thousands.
The effect of revoking the TCO means the $4 billion optical dispensing and eyewear industry, which we estimate sells more than 5 million frames each year, is now faced with a 5 per cent tariff on millions of frames imported annually. [2]
This decision has, after decades of nil tariffs for the industry, increased costs for retailers and consumers, exacerbating cost of living pressures on the millions of Australians who use optical products, as well as putting upward pressure on inflation.
The decision has also created significant additional red tape and uncertainly for our members who are now faced with further administrative burdens when determining which products and countries the tariff applies to. The reimposition of this tariff does nothing to assist the company which sought it, it does little to nothing to assist Australian industry and is to the detriment of Australian consumers, thus it would be sensible for the tariffs to be removed as part of the EU-FTA.
We will continue to keep you updated on this topic.
Kind Regards,
Amanda Trotman
CEO
[1] Tariff Concession Order number: TCO 0315725.
[2] Optometry and Optical Dispensing in Australia - Market Size 2007–2028