Support for 24-hour rule

The new 24-hour regulation for
air and sea cargo to SA, soon to
be brought in under the Customs
Control Act, will have little or no
impact on shipping or air lines,
according to Dave Watts, maritime
director of the SA Association of
Freight Forwarders (Saaff).
“What it means is that sea
carriers will have to advise SA
customs of all shipments 24
hours before they are loaded on a
vessel,” he told FTW. “The timing
is different for air (as per the act),
but the same logic applies.”
It is designed to give customs
the chance to prevent the shipment
of any goods which may be
suspicious.
“The details of the shipments
will be fed into their risk
management system, which will
then f lag any shipments which
may require further examination,”
Watts said. “Customs can then
send a ‘no load’ notification to
the carrier if there is anything
suspicious.”
How will it affect the carriers?
“It probably won’t cause them
any problems,” said Watts. “The
shipping lines, for example, have
been dealing with this for some
time under the US container
security initiative (CSI), and
similar 24-hour rules in the likes
of South Korea, China and Japan.
“So they are all perfectly used to
the principle.”
And for it now to be applied in
SA?
“I think it’s a good thing,”
said Watts, “and can only add
to security in the international
supply chain.”
The new regulation will only be
applied when the new act comes
into force, Watts added. And that
will only be once SA Revenue
Service (Sars) customs has
completed all its necessary rules to
go with the new regulations.