The owners of Avalon Airport recently announced their plans to have the airport service international flights from late 2018. Jetstar and Air Asia have both committed to operating international flights from Avalon over the next few years. Air Asia plans to fly twice daily from Avalon to Kuala Lumpur. This new service will be able to carry air freight cargo which is great news for agricultural exporters that operate in the Western region and have exports to South East Asia. Air Asia have stated that they expect to be able to carry 14 tonne of fresh produce daily on their services to Malaysia.The required expansion of the airport is set to create a large number of jobs which is expected to ease some of the impact for local auto workers who recently found themselves unemployed.

"Again????", we hear you say! Yes, unfortunately there is another change to the format of Quarantine Packing Declarations being introduced by AQIS. With the recent decision by AQIS to accept bamboo packaging as long as it is treated by an approved method, the word bamboo has been removed from the prohibited packaging list, and alterations made to the pallets section.

The new declarations are required to be in place by 1 July 2018, but it is suggested that you introduce the new declarations to your suppliers asap so that they know about the revised requirements well beforehand. Attached are the new format declarations, and we have also provided links below:

FCL LCL Packing Dec
Annual Packing Dec

The long debated TPP is likely to be signed in March, and will then come into effect once the 6 member countries have finalised their domestic ratification processes. It is possible that everything will be in place for the Agreement to take effect from late 2018. But what is it all actually going to mean for Australian importers and exporters? Here is a point by point look at the proposed outcomes, good and bad.

POSITIVIES
- Access to Canadian and Mexican markets for the first time via an FTA
- Easier certification arrangements with less red tape
- Better duty reductions in some markets over and above existing FTAs
- New countries can join the TPP by application - similar to EU

NEGATIVES
- Other countries can now compete against Australia in markets where only we held FTAs
- With some countries, Australia will now have up to 3 Free Trade Agreements in place - a bit messy
- The Agreement is filled with a lot of subjective text which could be used against us legally to benefit other nations

All in all, most agree that the TPP is a disaster for Australia, but that if it is going to exist, then it is better that we are a part of it than not. At the very least, reducing the burden of providing problematic FTA Certificates of Origin and replacing them with supplier issued certificates will make our lives a little easier.

Maersk has recently announced that it will begin requesting importers to return empty containers directly back to the terminal, instead of to empty container parks. Around 25% of containers exported from Australia are empty (mainly 40's), and currently they often have to be moved from the empty yards into the terminal for empty export. Shipping lines are seeking to reduce their costs, and as such are more and more often these days requiring that empty containers go straight back to the terminal.

This may well reduce costs for shipping lines, but it puts a large burden on the transport companies returning the empties. To return an empty container to the terminal, the transport company must lodge a PRA (Pre-Receival Advice) with Customs in order to get a clearance to take the empty container into the bonded wharf area, obtain a time slot booking with the terminal (sometimes not easily obtained), and sit in the often very long queues at the wharf. On top of this, if it takes longer than expected to empty the container at an importers premises, and the transport company does not get back to the terminal to meet the timeslot it booked, then there will be fines from the terminal. Jugging this new arrangement will not be easy, and transporters are expected to be introducing fees on top of the additional costs that will be incurred for the PRA and timeslot arrangements. We'll keep you updated on this issue as industry continues to discuss and push back against the shipping lines involved.

Will these jokes brighten your day?? We're not making any promises...

A cop is sitting on the side of the highway when all of a sudden he sees a guy driving a truck full of penguins. Confused he pulls the truck over.
“What seems to be the problem officer?”
“Well you have a truck full of penguins, i’m just going to give you a warning but you need to take these penguins to the zoo immediately.”
A few hours later, the truck passes again, still filled with penguins. So again the officer pulls the man over.
“I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!”
“I did, and they loved it. Now we’re going to the movies!”

A man runs into the vet’s office carrying his dog, screaming for help. The vet rushes him back to an examination room and has him put his dog down on the examination table. The vet examines the still, limp body and after a few moments, tells the man that his dog, regrettably, is dead. The man, clearly agitated and not willing to accept this, demands a second opinion.
The vet goes into the back room and comes out with a cat and puts the cat down next to the dog’s body. The cat sniffs the body, walks from head to tail, poking and sniffing the dog’s body and finally looks at the vet and meows. The vet looks at the man and says, “I’m sorry, but the cat thinks that you’re dog is dead, too.”
The man is still unwilling to accept that his dog is dead. So the vet brings in a black Labrador retriever. The lab sniffs the body, walks from head to tail, and finally looks at the vet and barks. The vet looks at the man and says, “I’m sorry, but the lab thinks your dog is dead too.”
The man, finally resigned to the diagnosis, thanks the vet and asks how much he owes. The vet answers, “$650.”
“$650 to tell me my dog is dead?” exclaims the man.
“Well,” the vet replies, “I would only have charged you $50 for my initial diagnosis. The additional $600 was for the cat scan and lab tests.