DUTY CALLS

25 Nov 2016 - by Riaan de Lange

Russian Federation

GSP

On 11 November – the

implementation date – the

South African Revenue

Service (Sars) published the

amendment of rule 46A3

to the Customs and Excise

Act, 1964. The amendment

relates to the non-reciprocal

preferential tariff treatment

under the Generalised

System of Preferences (GSP)

granted to developing and

least developed countries by

the Russian Federation, the

Republic of Belarus and the

Republic of Kazakhstan.

Counterfeit Goods

The Department of Trade

and Industry (the dti)

on 18 November invited

comments on the designation

of a warehouse facility as

a counterfeit goods depot

and the appointment of

persons in charge in terms

of the Counterfeit Goods

Act, which is due by 30

November.

The warehouse facility

is that of DC Storage

cc 2009/124364/23 of

50 Akwamaryn Street,

Klerksoord, Pretoria, and the

contact persons are Daniel

Potgieter and Zelda Potgieter

– zelda@dcstorage.co.za.

HS2017 - Reminder

On 23 November comment

was due on Sars’ draft rule

amendment to the Act, 1964

for the registration of rebate

users in schedules no 3 and

4, effective from 01 January

2017. These proposed

amendments relate to the

implementation of the 2017

version of the Harmonised

System (HS) Nomenclature

– HS2017 – which South

Africa will implement in

terms of section 48(1)(c) of

the Act, 1964.

There are, however,

numerous schedules to the

Act, 1964 that would be

impacted by the HS2017

amendments.

It is anticipated that

the South African HS2017

schedules will be published

by Sars by no later than

15 December 2016. With

the festive season fast

approaching, you may want

to take some time to prepare

for HS2017, as one would

expect that there would be

little change from the draft

South African HS2017

version.

'ePing' TBT System

A new online alert system

designed to help government

agencies and small and

medium-sized enterprises

(SMEs) keep track of the

latest information on

regulatory requirements

for international trade has

been launched by the United

Nations Department of

Economic and Social Affairs

(DESA), the World Trade

Organisation (WTO) and the

International Trade Centre

(ITC).

The system, known as

“ePing” and launched at a

special meeting of the WTO

Technical Barriers to Trade

(TBT) committee, allows

access to WTO members’

notifications of TBT and

Sanitary and Phytosanitary

(SPS) measures. It also

facilitates dialogue among

the public and private sector

in addressing potential trade

problems at an early stage.

Users of “ePing” will be able

to easily keep up-to-date with

notifications affecting foreign

markets and products of

particular interest to them.

For more information, and

to register for alerts, visit

www.epingalert.org.

Guide to Trade Policy

Analysis

The WTO and the United

Nations Conference on Trade

and Development (Unctad) on

15 November launched its new

book on trade policy analysis

titled “An Advanced Guide

to Trade Policy Analysis: The

Structural Gravity Model”.