Planning to import chemicals in to Australia from overseas?

Australian businesses are increasingly turning to overseas manufacturers to fulfil domestic demand for chemicals and chemical-based consumer products. Year on year, figures show that Australian companies are importing increasing volumes of these products, with some of the strongest performers coming from the domestic fuel, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic sectors of the chemicals-based consumer market. The advantages of importing goods are manifold, and include reduced costs per unit, higher quality of products, and the ability for overseas manufacturers to produce items that cannot currently be produced in Australia.

Although the importation of chemical-based products presents clear financial advantages to Australian businesses, care must be taken by importers so as to not fall foul of Australia’s stringent chemical importation regulations. Australian importers must ensure that the products they import are packaged and labelled in accordance with an array of complex packaging and labelling laws.

Importers contravening these laws risk harsh penalties under Australian consumer protection laws, or under the legislation designed to regulate the labelling or importation of chemical goods. Moreover, businesses that have incurred penalties under these importation and labelling regimes may also be subject to significant reputational risk, and may suffer severe impacts to consumer sentiment and goodwill.

In order to assist businesses navigate Australia’s complex chemical laws, we have produced a brief guide to the importation of chemicals and chemical-based products into Australia. In our guide, we present a series of questions that prospective importers may work through in order to quickly assess the laws and regulations that apply to them, and to make informed and risk-mitigated decisions for the importation of industrial and consumer chemical goods into Australia.

Our guide is available via our Marketplace hub, and is directly accessible here. We are happy to assist you in navigating Australia’s complex array of chemical importation laws, so if your business is thinking about importing these products into Australia, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team.