Tariffs Update November 2025
Add your support to including Frames on the list of nuisance tariffs that Government should abolish – Deadline 10th December.
You may remember in 2024 I advised of ODMA’s application to have spectacle frames include in the list of nuisance tariffs that are to be abolished. I called for member support to produce your own submission or write in, in support of ODMA’s. On checking, only one member has done this. (Thank you Aarons Eyewear.)
This could be our last opportunity to get some action soon. The deadline is 10th December for submissions. You write a letter – any length – and send it via this email address to the Nuisance Tariffs Team:NuisanceTariffs@Treasury.gov.au… easy!
Use this link https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/c2024-506306 for full details on how to submit and here you can also view the Optical Distributors and Manufacturers Association application and Aaron’s Eyewear’s letter for reference.
Showing how this tariff impacts you specifically as an Australian distributor in both administration burden and costs is crucial.
Here now follows a bulletin on ODMA’s efforts this last 12 months on this matter.
I appreciate that the situation of the revocation of the tariff concession on imported frames from countries where there is no Free Trade Agreement has affected many of you hard.
ODMA’s last updates in 2024 outlined how after the Government approaches to both those in power and in shadow positions yielded no results. Then we attempted to get the tariff listed on the nuisance tariff list for abolishment. Sadly, this also yielded no results.
Since then, ODMA has continued with various activities such as writing to the Health Minister and Chairs of the Parliamentary Friends Group in March of this year. We also produced a joint letter with Vision20/20 that was sent to MPs local to the ODMA offices, being Zali Steggal and Dr Sophie Scamps.
At the end of July, it was brought to ODMA’s attention that the company at the centre of the concession revocation had gone into voluntary liquidation and was no longer manufacturing. During August and September ODMA worked with a customs broker to explore if any re-application could be made for the concession to be reinstated. ODMA made it known we were prepared to fund and manage new applications for the Tariff Concession Orders, and work commenced. Sadly, the process has resulted in the recent advice from a customs expert that it is not currently worth pursuing an application as it would not be accepted. This is due to there being a few small organisations in Australia that class as manufacturers of eyewear and the Government continuing to take a broad definition of what constitutes substitutable goods. "Substitutable goods" refers to Australian-made products that are capable of being used in the same or a similar way (including their intended use) as the goods covered by the TCO application.
A TCO can be applied for only if, on the date the application is submitted, there are no "substitutable goods" produced in Australia in the ordinary course of business. We were advised that this is the situation even if the companies involved do not object to the concession as they do not view their goods as substitutable. Arguments we had felt valid such as the imported goods differ, branded goods are not substitutable, the product specs or manufacturing processes differ, or the goods don’t compete in the same market do not help in proving that no substitutable goods exist in Australia. This has led to the customs broker advising ODMA that “reapplying for the TCO at this stage is not viable.”
You can rest assured ODMA will keep up the fight and continue to gain advice and keep abreast of ongoing channels such as following up local MPs, getting correspondence through to Ministers that are involved in Eye Health causes via Vision 20/20 and keeping abreast of potential channels through the nuisance tariff consultation process.
We will keep you updated periodically,
Regards,
Amanda Trotman
CEO
ODMA
