7 December 2023
Who does this notice affect?
All importers, accredited persons and customs brokers who lodge full import declarations for containerised sea cargo.
What has changed?
The Department has not changed the requirement for declaring rural destination of FCL/X consignments. This is a clarification relating to the Autumn 2023 Goods Compliance Update, published by Australian Border Force (ABF) that reminded licensed Customs Brokers of requirements for completing the Delivery Address field in Full Import Declarations (FIDs).
This notice clarifies DAFF requirements when declaring FCL/X consignments that are being delivered to a postcode classified as a rural destination but are being deconsolidated in a metropolitan location prior to delivery.
The Biosecurity Regulation 2016 requires the notice of goods that are the subject of an import declaration to include the place in Australian territory that is, or is intended to be, the final destination of the goods.
This aligns with the following ABF requirement as articulated in the Autumn 2023 Goods Compliance Update:
‘“The address identifying where the goods are finally destined.”, except in limited cases where, post importation, a single consignment is to be delivered to multiple customers or addresses of the importer. In this case, the customer/importer location or a logistics service provider warehouse can be reported as the delivery address in FIDs. Please ensure accurate address details are recorded on import declarations.’
Declaring rural destination concerns
Declaration of containers that are delivered to postcodes classified as rural destinations are not managed via the delivery address field in ICS. Rural destination concerns are managed through the Class 19.1 – Non-commodity for containerised cargo clearance (NCCC) Approved Arrangement (AA).
When lodging a FID, the accredited person is asked the General Declaration question (Q.7): DO ALL FCL/X CONTAINERS ON THIS DECLARATION MEET NON-COMMODITY REQUIREMENTS AND ARE THEY ALL DESIGNATED TO BE UNPACKED IN A METROPOLITAN POSTCODE OR INSIDE THE BOUNDARY OF AN APPROVED PORT?
If the container is being unpacked in metropolitan postcode and there are no other non-commodity concerns, the accredited person can answer Y to this question and a rural tailgate inspection is not required.
If the container is being unpacked at a postcode classified as a rural destination, then the question must be answered N and a concern type is to be entered. A rural tailgate inspection direction will then be issued.
If some containers on a FID are being unpacked in a metropolitan location and some containers are being unpacked in a rural destination, the accredited person must answer N to General Declaration question 7 and enter a rural concern type along with the concern type BNCC and in the free text field in COLS list which containers are destined for a metropolitan unpack and which containers are a rural unpack. A biosecurity officer will then issue directions relevant to the destination of each container.
Declarations are only non-compliant if General Declaration questions are answered falsely or incorrectly.
Biosecurity officers will not request amendments to the Delivery Address field to support changes to the unpack location of containers from rural to metropolitan. However, biosecurity officers may request amendments to General Declaration questions and concern types and/or request documentary evidence to support changes to unpack locations.
Further information
For more information about how we manage the risks of containers being delivered to rural destinations visit: Arrival of goods in Australia - Rural tailgate inspections
Please contact AEP Support if you have any questions about declaring rural destination of containers under your Class 19.1 NCCC Approved Arrangement.