Increase in Rate of Duty on
Sugar
The European Free Trade Area
(EFTA), European Union (EU),
the General, and the Southern
African Development Community
(SADC) rates of customs duty on
sugar have been increased from
free of duty to 1.3c/kg.
Customs Bill – Definitely,
Maybe, One Day
The South African Revenue
Service (Sars) recently provided
an update on the progress of the
Customs Bill to Business Unity
South Africa. According to
Marina van Twisk, the internal
and Southern African Customs
Union (Sacu) review process of
the draft Customs Bill is taking
much longer than expected.
Many comments have
apparently been received and
Sars is now in the process of
redrafting the Bill, which is
expected to take up to six months
to complete. Following this, there
will then be a further round of
internal (within Sars) as well as
Sacu consultations. Van Twisk
confirmed to Busa that the third
draft of the Customs Bill would
then be made available to external
stakeholders, including the
National Economic Development
and Labour Council (Nedlac). It
is understood that may only be in
the second half of 2009. Readers
will recall that the process of the
redrafting of the Customs and
Excise Act commenced in 2003.
Dumping Investigations
Surge By 39%
The World Trade Organisation
(WTO) announced a 39% surge
in the initiation of anti-dumping
investigations for the period
01 January to 30 June, in
comparison with the same period
last year.
Turkey reported the most
initiations, with 13, the United
States 12, India 11, and Argentina
and the European Communities
10 each. South Africa initiated
one investigation.
China was subject to 37
investigations initiated against
it, followed by Thailand (7),
the European Communities and
Indonesia (5 each). South Africa
was subject to only one.
As for the imposition of
final anti-dumping duties, India
imposed 16, the European
Communities eight, Indonesia
five, Argentina, China and
Ukraine four, Brazil and South
Africa three each.
This confirms the dramatic
reduction in the number of
anti-dumping initiations being
undertaken by the International
Trade Administration Commission
of South Africa (Itac). You
may also want to consider the
number of anti-dumping and
countervailing investigations
that Itac reported in its Annual
Report 2007/2008 for the period
01 April 2007 to 31 March 2008,
in which it listed the initiation of
15 investigations compared to its
target of 31.
DUTY CALLS
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