Deadline looms for comments on labelling requirement

Belated notification sent to WTO ALAN PEAT IT IS being said that Mandisi Mpahlwa, minister of trade and industry, had a dream – a vision of an all-encompassing “country of origin” labelling for all SA clothing, textiles and footwear imports. But in reality, said numerous commentators, this is a nightmare. In terms of the new regulations contained in amendments to the Merchandise Marks Act of 1941, any imported garment entering SA needs to have a “permanently affixed label” stating its country of origin together with the importer’s registration number. But, readers have revealed over the weeks, this superficially easy task is one which is actually festooned with difficulties. Not so much of a problem where long runs of material or clothing enable a standard origin mark to be applied to each product or cloth length. But, pointed out the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff), for example, it becomes a critical issue where the second demand for the registration number of the importer is concerned. It is Saaff’s thinking that the practicalities of this requirement at the point of production will be either impossible - or require substantial additional processing and cost. The SA Revenue Service (SARS) customs revealed that they had been told nothing official about it by the department of trade and industry, despite numerous attempts to make contact – and, anyway, the dti demand for a “stop everything” process for containers of textile/clothing imports was impossible to carry out. Random stops maybe, but no more policing than that. On top of this a senior official of the dti revealed that no application had been made to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – a prerequisite to passing what is “technical trade barrier” legislation. The prompt reaction has been a notification sent by the department to the WTO – with a stated implementation date of September 1. It is designed, said the note, for the “prevention of deceptive practices, consumer information and prevention of trade circumvention”. The dti has given industry until July 31 to comment – time, said Saaff, for forwarders to consult with clients before a combined submission may be made to both the department and customs. The notification names the contact person at the department – being Shareen Osman on the textiles, clothing, leather and footwear sector desk - e-mail: shareeno@thedti.gov.za A final suggestion from Saaff to importers of any of the goods covered by the notice is that they should bring these to the attention of the SA Chamber of Business (Sacob), their respective chambers of commerce, or the embassies of the countries from which the goods are being imported - and NOT leave it all in the hands of their clearing and forwarding agents.