Andrew Hudson of Gadens Lawyers write:
The CBFCA National Conference is currently in session in the Gold Coast and many of the early sessions (including mine) have addressed the relationship between the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (“Customs”) and those who deal with and report to Customs such as licensed customs brokers (“LCB”).
…. it was with some surprise during the lunch break after my presentation that I came across ACBPN No 2014/52 which appears to have been released while we were in the conference sessions. The Notice can be found here.
The Notice raises a serious issue of “identity theft” within the Customs Integrated Cargo System (“ICS”) whereby Customs suggest that LCB allow parties to “piggyback” on the identity and details of legitimate traders without checking that the party is, in fact that legitimate trader. The intent would be that the person incorrectly claiming the identity of the legitimate trader would not receive the same level of scrutiny of their consignments.
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