Glossary

Adverse Judicial Comment: A comment made by a Judge of a District or higher Court which criticises Customs, or an officer in its employ, in relation to the investigation or presentation of a case made under the Customs and Excise Act 1996.

Agreed Time-Frames for Processing Import and Export Transactions: The agreed time-frames for processing Import and Export transactions are:

• electronically lodged entries processed within 30 minutes; and
• manually lodged entries processed within 24 hours.

Alerts: Targeted intervention of persons, goods and craft considered to pose a risk to border or revenue related issues.

Best Practice Credit Management: The following best practice credit management procedures have been established and are followed by Customs:

• advising potential deferred payment clients of the terms and conditions of the Service’s deferred payment scheme;
• undertaking regular credit assessments of all deferred payment account holders;
• follow-up policy and procedures for those clients who have overdue payments; and
• follow-up policy and procedures for the collection of bad debts.

Bilateral: An agreement/arrangement between two parties/ countries (eg. Cooperative Arrangement with the Australian Customs Service, ANZCERTA with Australia, ANZSCEP with Singapore).

Compliance Checks: The number of goods entries that require further checking by an officer to determine the level of compliance.

Comptroller: Customs-specific title for the Chief Executive Officer.

Customs Controlled Area: An area that is required for one or more of the purposes described below:

• The deposit, keeping or securing of imported or excisable goods, without payment of duty on the goods, pending the export of those goods; or
• The temporary holding of importing goods for the purposes of the examination of those goods under section 151 of the Customs and Excise Act 1996 (including the holding of the goods while they are awaiting examination); or
• The disembarkation, embarkation, or processing of persons arriving in or departing from New Zealand; or
• The processing of craft arriving in or departing from New Zealand or the loading or unloading of goods onto or from such craft.

Doha Development Round: The principal elements of the Doha declaration on agriculture are that the negotiations will aim for “substantial improvements in market access; reductions of, with a view to phasing out, all forms of export subsidies; and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support”. All of these elements are of vital importance to New Zealand.

Intellectual Property Rights: Intellectual property rights are a way of awarding benefits to the originator, or owner, of an idea. The role of customs agencies in the protection of intellectual property rights is mandated in the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Intelligence Product: Intelligence products are developed with a focus on tactical, operational and strategic intelligence and are completed for the purpose of providing knowledge to decision making. Intelligence products include case analysis or assessments, risk assessments, briefings, tactical information reports, situation reports, intelligence collection plans, enquiry requests and reports. Intelligence products also include charting and contributions to the OCO Bulletin.

Investigation: The inquiry process conducted into an offence that has been committed, or where information suggests an offence has been or may be committed, against the Customs and Excise Act 1996 or the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. An inquiry results in an investigation file being initiated.

Investigation Case Completed: An investigation case is completed when all reasonable and practicable avenues of enquiry have been exhausted.

Investigation Case Written off: An investigation case is written off prior to the investigation being completed when all reasonable and practicable avenues of enquiry cannot be exhausted due to influencing factors (eg. work volumes, clashing priorities, resource/finance restraints).

Multilateral: An agreement/arrangement among a large number of parties/countries, usually global (eg. WTO with 145 Contracting Parties, WCO with 161 Member Countries).

Operational Response: This relates to the initiation of an activity, which requires the mobilisation or deployment of resources against a perceived risk or threat. Operations can involve targeted surveillance, search or containment of risk craft, together with searching of persons associated with that craft.

Operational Risk Assessment: An Operational Risk Assessment focuses on the organisation’s policies, practices and procedures and reviews previous operational activity (whether the subject of Tactical, Operational or Strategic Intelligence or not). The purpose is to identify from the previous operational activity risk exposures and to recommend risk treatment.

Outcomes: Outcomes are the results experienced by the community from a combination of government interventions and external factors.

Outputs: Outputs are the goods or services that are produced by a government department.

Pandemic: Widespread infections, prevalent throughout the world that may occur as a result of the emergence of a new viral sub-strain.

Precursor: A substance used in the manufacture of methamphetamine – most commonly ephedrine or pseudoephedrine.

Routine Patrol and Surveillance: This covers all activities that are considered to be routine and pre-planned – i.e., they are a part of normal dayto- day activities. Routine patrol and surveillance does not include activities that have been requested as a result of intelligence or an operation. These fall under targeted operational activity. Patrol and surveillance at airports may be conducted on the tarmac, runway, in the passenger terminal and surrounding security areas. Patrol and surveillance at seaports may be conducted on the wharf, in the areas used for loading and unloading of international freight, on vessels berthing, in areas used for the storing of imported and/or exported goods prior to clearance, in the passenger terminal and surrounding security areas. The purpose of routine patrol and surveillance activities is to support the intelligence gathering function and to mitigate the risk of craft arriving in New Zealand’s contiguous zone without warning.

Rules of Origin: Rules included in a free trade agreement specifying when a good will be regarded as produced within the member countries, so as to cross between members without tariff. Typical RoO are based on percentage of value added or on changes in tariff heading. Criterion for establishing the country of origin of a product. Often based on whether production (processing) leads to a change in tariff heading (classification) or on the level of value added in the country where the good was last processed.

Supply Chain: The continuous linking of activities that take place for the systematic movement of goods from the place of origin to the place of fi nal destination.

Targeted Operational Response: A targeted operational response is carried out as a result of intelligence, and is supported by an operational response plan.

Targeted Surveillance: A targeted operational response is carried out as a result of intelligence, and is supported by an operational response plan. A craft or group of craft (eg. a fishing fleet) or a person or persons (eg. a port-based stevedore servicing a visiting craft) or any situation which has been assessed as posing a high level of threat to the integrity of the New Zealand border.

Tariff Classification: The New Zealand Customs Service Working Tariff document is a commodity coding system used to identify and describe goods. The structure of the tariff is based on the World Customs Organisation International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (commonly referred to as the Harmonized System).

Transnational Crime: An offence committed by the importation or export of goods/material across the border under any regulatory framework. Transnational crime is considered “serious” (high priority) where the offending seriously affects the legitimate interests of New Zealand, and includes; goods that may have a military application; chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, or goods that may be used in the manufacture of such weapons; import/export that breaches UN sanctions; trafficking of class A or B drugs for supply; objectionable material, including child pornography and material promoting acts of terrorism; trafficking in wildlife; and revenue evasion.

Ultra Vires: Beyond the legal power of a person or organisation.