30 November 2018
Who does this notice affect?
Importers and brokers of sea containers and break bulk cargo from countries listed on the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’ Country Action List (CAL).
Stakeholders in the import and shipping industries—including freight forwarders, importers, customs brokers, stevedores and master consolidators—associated with imported goods that require increased intervention during the Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) risk season (shipped between 1 September 2018 and 30 April 2019 inclusive).
What has changed?
Further to the IAN (169-2018) of 27, November 2018, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (the department) is continuing to experience issues with the S-Cargo system. This means that cargo reports lodged may experience processing delays.
The department is currently working to resolve the issue as a high priority.
GAS/CAL cargo reports
As a result of the outage, the department is unable to process high risk cargo from CAL countries through S-Cargo.
The department is implementing manual processes to manage the clearance of cargo from CAL countries. However, delays are expected pending the resolution of this outage.
Management of LCL/FAK containers for BMSB risk
The management of LCL/FAK containers subject to BMSB measures is also affected by this outage as cargo reports of some LCL/FAK containers may not have been referred to the S-Cargo system.
During this outage, industry stakeholders affected by the LCL/FAK containers for BMSB risk, can assist by emailing BMSB processing with the container number and the following details in advance or as early as possible:
- Declaration that all the BMSB target high risk goods have been treated for BMSB requirements by an approved offshore treatment provider and supported by a valid treatment certificate which includes the container number as evidence, or links to all the target high risk goods of concern, or
- Declaration that there are no BMSB target high risk goods inside the container, or
- Declaration with a signed Agreement to Treat Goods form, authorising the onshore treatment of the whole container at a nominated approved arrangement site and treatment option, or
- Request to move the container seals intact to a nominated approved arrangement site pending further advice on the preferred risk management option. This advice needs to be provided to the department within 7 days of arrival, otherwise the container will be directed for export. There are four options:
- Declare there is no BMSB target high risk goods, or
- Treat the whole container onshore, or
- Export the whole container, or
- Destruction of the whole container.
Please note the BMSB processing inbox only deals with enquiries relating to LCL/FAK containers. For FID level processing, please submit your documents through COLS.
Further information
Industry stakeholders currently experiencing delays due to this outage are requested to follow the guidance provided above, rather than call the department’s call centre.
All available staff are working to manually process affected entries and increased call volumes will only further increase processing delays.
For further information relating to the assessment and processing of LCL/FAK containers from BMSB target countries, please contact BMSB processing.
For further information relating to processing of cargo from CAL countries, please contact Container NCC.
For further information regarding the policy for BMSB measures, visit the Seasonal Measures for BMSB webpage or contact Air and Sea Cargo.
If you see something that could have entered Australia with imported goods report it to See. Secure. Report. on 1800 798 636 or complete the online form.