MEDIA RELEASE
17 September 2026
New laws strengthen defence against damaging import surges
Australia will have a new weapon to defend local jobs and production from damaging import surges, after new trade laws passed Federal Parliament today.
The Customs Amendment (Safeguard Inquiries) Bill 2026 moves safeguard investigations out of the Productivity Commission and into Australia’s specialist trade remedies body.
The Anti-Dumping Commission will become the Australian Trade Remedies Commission, bringing safeguards, anti-dumping and countervailing investigations under one roof.
The Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union, working with fellow manufacturing unions the AMWU and AWU, has campaigned for the change for more than a decade.
TFTU Acting National Secretary Leo Skourdoumbis said the reform would give Australian workers and manufacturers another important tool to defend local jobs and production from damaging import surges.
“Other countries use safeguard tariffs to defend their industries and their workers. Australia needs to be able to respond when local jobs are put at risk by sudden import surges,” Mr Skourdoumbis said.
“When the US, Canada, the EU, China and other major economies shut products out of their markets, those goods don’t disappear. They get diverted somewhere else — and Australia can end up in the firing line.
“We have seen too many good Australian jobs lost because responsibility for safeguard investigations was left sitting in the Productivity Commission — an arrangement dating back to the Howard Government in 1998.
“This reform gives Australian workers and manufacturers a much better chance to respond to damaging import surges.”
Safeguards allow governments to temporarily impose measures, including tariffs, when a sudden surge in imports is causing serious injury to a local industry.
The reforms come as countries around the world step up action in response to international overcapacity and trade diversion.
The United States has imposed major tariffs on timber and manufactured wood products, while Canada has imposed a provisional 25 per cent safeguard tariff on imported wood cabinets and vanities.
Mr Skourdoumbis said Australia needed the same capacity to respond.
“If our trading partners are putting on tariffs to defend their industries, Australia needs to be able to act when diverted products threaten our market,” he said.
“This is not about shutting Australia off from trade. It is about having a fair go and using the rights Australia has under the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.
“Australian workers can compete with anyone in the world — but they shouldn’t have to compete against global overcapacity with one hand tied behind their back.
“This is a big step after a very long campaign, and we look forward to the new arrangements encouraging Australian industries and the Government to take action when damaging import surges threaten Australian jobs.
“For more than a decade, our union has argued that Australian workers and manufacturers deserve a safeguard system that works. Today, that reform has passed Parliament.”
ENDS
Contact details:
Travis Wacey: 0427900556
