CHANGES IN THIS AND FORTHCOMING ISSUES


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

AMENDMENT TO SCHEDULE 4 OF CUSTOMS TARIFF

The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has introduced significant amendments to Schedule 4 of the Customs Tariff Act. The changes were implemented on 1 March 2013. More detail is available in Australian Customs Notice 2012/55.

The Information Paper: Amendments to Schedule 4 of Customs Tariff (cat. no. 5368.0.55.019) which provides information on new treatment codes, commodity codes and a correspondence between the ceasing codes and the replacement codes was released on the ABS website on 19 March 2013.

These changes to treatment codes and commodity classifications have been applied to import statistics from the March 2013 reference period and will impact on statistics available on request. The changes will not impact on statistics in this publication.


CHANGES TO COUNTRY AND PORT NAMES PRESENTED ON A COUNTRY BASIS

From this issue there will be name changes for two countries shown as follows:

	Country	New name
	Burma (Republic of Myanmar)	Myanmar, Republic of
	East Timor, Dem Rep of	Timor–Leste

Time series spreadsheet tables affected in this publication are: 14a, 14b, 36a – 36j and 37a – 37i. Time series IDs will remain the same. International Merchandise Imports, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0) and international merchandise trade data available on request showing these countries will also be affected.

Table 14 of this publication showing data for selected countries on an international merchandise trade basis will not be affected.

Changes will also be made to the ABS international trade overseas port classification for Timor–Leste. These changes will affect port data only, available on request. There will be no changes to publication tables or time series spreadsheets. Details of changes are shown as follows:

	ABS port code	Label	New label
	626	East Timor	Timor–Leste
	626100	Dili, East Timor	Dili, Timor–Leste
	626399	Other and Unspecified Ports, East Timor	Other and Unspecified Ports, Timor–Leste

CHANGES IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES

CHANGES TO COUNTRY GROUPINGS

From the April 2013 issue there will be changes to the composition of the Least Developed Countries, Developing Countries and OPEC country groupings.

South Sudan will be added to the Least Developed Countries and Developing Countries groupings. These changes will impact on statistics in time series spreadsheet tables 14a, 14b, 36a – 36j and 37a – 37i in this publication, and time series spreadsheet table 2 in International Merchandise Imports, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0). The new composition will apply to the whole time series. Time series IDs will remain the same.

The OPEC country grouping will also be amended to include Angola and Ecuador and exclude Gabon, Indonesia and Niger to match current membership. The OPEC group will consist of:

Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Time series spreadsheet tables and tables in this publication and International Merchandise Imports, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0) do not include the OPEC country group and will not be affected. International merchandise trade data available on request including the OPEC country group will be affected. The new composition will apply to the whole time series.