Simplified Trade System
Whole-of-government microeconomic trade reform, delivering value for Australians
The Simplified Trade System will simplify Australia's international trade regulations, modernise outdated ICT systems, and strengthen Australia's economic resilience.
Challenges faced in today's trade industry For Australian businesses looking to import or export, the process can be expensive and time-consuming, with multiple government jurisdictions and regulations to navigate. Our engagement with businesses so far has shown they can find it difficult to navigate trade related information which is available on multiple government and non-government sources. We have heard that better coordination between Commonwealth agencies and review of duplicative processes will benefit Australian importers and exporters. At present, the regulations that impact cross-border goods are administered by more than 28 Commonwealth government agencies. We also know that clearer communication will assist Australian trade businesses to plan more effectively and improve their productivity. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has both exacerbated operating costs for business and accelerated interest in digital solutions leading to the reduction of manual and paper based processes.
Australia’s trade system reimagined
The time is right for the Government to increase its efforts and review the end-to-end trade environment to see how it can simplify processes for Australian businesses. This will drive Australia’s post COVID-19 economic recovery and future prosperity.
A Taskforce has been established to cut red tape and progress toward a simplified, tell-us-once digital model for government-business interactions for importers and exporters. The Simplified Trade System reforms will streamline Australia’s international trade regulations, modernise outdated ICT systems and help strengthen Australia’s economic resilience.
The Government will co-design this reform with business to ensure business needs are at the centre of the new trade environment. It will:
Simplify and streamline trade processes for Australian business
Produce modern and globally competitive trade practices
Boost economic recovery
Trade growth and diversification
Productivity and job creation
Strengthen trade system resilience
More information: here
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STS consultation paper
We are pleased to release an STS consultation paper, which seeks your views on what is working well and what improvements could be made to Australia’s cross-border trade system. This paper is available on the STS webpage.
We’ve kept the paper short and have focused on the themes relating directly to the STS agenda.
Written submissions to the paper are due by 14 January 2022.
Randall Brugeaud
Head of the Simplified Trade System Implementation Taskforce
Head of the APS Digital Profession
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Best regards,
David James Connolly