December Compliance
Commitments
In accordance with the
South African Revenue
Service (Sars) “Increased
Customs and Excise
Compliance Commitments”
for its 2016/17 financial year
released on 05 September
2016, for December 2016
it undertook to: “Improve
control over the flow of all
goods and travellers entering
and leaving the country.”;
Design an off-site tracking
and management system to
reduce the risk associated
with goods that are left with
shipping companies for a
lengthy period. For Sars
to “Develop a professional
and disciplined Customs
and Excise workforce”, it
undertook to: Introduce a
pilot rotation approach for
front-line officers in support
of our anti-corruption efforts
as well as career progression,
by the end of December 2016.
Of the 18 commitments, six
have been scheduled for the
end of March 2017 and one
for the end of February 2018.
Year of Data Analysis
The World Customs
Organisation (WCO) on 22
November announced that
2017 would be dedicated to
the promotion of data analysis
under the slogan “Data
Analysis for Effective Border
Management”.
According to the WCO,
Customs has a substantial
amount of data at its disposal,
such as data submitted
for the Customs clearance
process. In addition, Customs
can also tap data from
other government agencies,
commercially available
databases, and open source
information platforms such
as digitised global public
records and multilingual news
sources.
The WCO indicated
that data analysis and
related challenges would be
thoroughly discussed within
the WCO during 2017.
International
Customs Day
International Customs is
celebrated annually by the
global Customs community
on 26 January in honour
of the inaugural session of
the Customs Co-operation
Council (CCC) which took
place on 26 January 1953.
Trade Facilitation
Agreement
The World Trade
Organisation (WTO) on 21
November announced that
Chile (97th) and Swaziland
(98th) had ratified
the Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA), which
means that nearly 90% of
the ratifications needed to
bring the TFA into force
have now been received.
The TFA will enter into
force once two-thirds of
the WTO membership
has formally accepted the
agreement. Thus far three
of the five Southern African
Customs Union (Sacu)
member states, and seven
of the 15 Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) member states
have ratified the TFA.
South Africa has yet to,
and it is unlikely that it will
ratify it anytime soon.
WCO Istanbul
Convention
On 21 November Iran
became the 68th contracting
party to the WCO Istanbul
Convention. The Convention
on Temporary Admission
(Istanbul Convention) is an
international instrument
that combines all existing
conventions on temporary
admission. The ATA system,
which is an integral part of
the convention, allows the free
movement of goods across
frontiers and their temporary
admission into a Customs
territory with relief from
duties and taxes.
The convention entered into
force on 27 November 1993.
DUTY CALLS
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