On 14 February 2024, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced that South Africa was streamlining the process of technical tariff amendments with other Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Member States for the insertion of 8-digit tariff subheadings for statistical purposes in the Common External Tariff. The date for submitting applications has changed from 31 August to 31 March each year.
Submissions should be sent to technicaltariff@sars.gov.za.
The request should be accompanied by a motivational letter outlining the reasons for the application. Motivation for the application should include, but is not limited to the following:
- Financial impact of the applicant and/or industry in the SACU market.
- Contribution to job creation by the applicant and/or industry in the SACU market.
- If it is a request for statistical purposes, elaboration on why statistical information of this nature cannot be obtained by any other means.
- Indication whether the proposed request has a consequential effect on the current Schedules of the Common External Tariff.
- Indication whether the request has an impact on trade remedies, rebates, refunds or drawbacks under investigation by the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC). If so, indication of whether ITAC was consulted and include their response (ITAC email correspondences) in the application.
The following disclaimer will apply to non-confidential requests:
Please note that the particulars given will form the basis of the application and could be made available to interested parties.
The Technical Tariff Amendments are accessible at:
www.sars.gov.za/legal-counsel/secondary-legislation/tariff-amendments/