HS Committee’s 59th
Session
The World Customs
Organisation’s (WCO)
Harmonised System
(HS) committee held its
59th Session from March
15-24.The number of
contracting parties to the
HS Convention has risen to
156 following the accession
of Burundi in January and
Palestine in March.
At the session, the
HS committtee took 22
classification decisions and
held discussions on how
to classify products newly
released onto the world
market in areas such as
cutting-edge technology
ie, 3D printers; the textile
industry ie, laminated
fabrics and articles made
thereof; with an exchange
on how a new tobacco
product should be classified.
The HS committee
also adopted 33 sets
of amendments to the
Explanatory Notes
(EN), approved 20 new
classification opinions,
revised four existing
opinions, and deleted one
opinion attributable to
HS2017, introduced on
January 1.
In addition, as part of
its work to prepare the
HS2022 (7th edition),
eight amendments to
the nomenclature were
adopted and decisions on
the classification of goods
were submitted to the HS
review sub-committee for
consideration of possible
amendments to the
nomenclature to facilitate
the classification of various
products, such as laminated
knitted or crocheted gloves.
The HS committee
also looked at re-opening
the examination into
the possible amendment
to Article 8 of the HS
Convention (Role of the
Council) with a view to
speeding up the decisionmaking
process for the HS
committee by limiting the
number of reservations in
respect of its decisions.
Lastly, the HS Committee
looked at the position of
contracting parties with
respect to the application of
the new recommendation,
adopted by the WCO
Council in July 2016, on
the insertion in national
statistical nomenclatures
of subheadings to facilitate
the monitoring of the
international movement
of goods required for
the production and use
of Improvised Explosive
Devices (IED).
Customs Control Act
turns 1 000
April 18 marks 1 000 days
since the publication of the
Customs Control Act, 2014.
Although the Act has not
entered into force, it has
been subject to amendments
proposed in terms of the
Taxation Laws Amendment
Bills of 2016, 2015 and 2014.
2017 is expected to be no
different.
April 21 marks 4 500 days
since the drafting of the
Customs Duty Act and the
Customs Control Act, 2014
commenced.
Customs Conventions
The South African Revenue
Service (Sars) has updated
– on its website – the
International Treaties and
Agreements and particularly
the Multilateral Mutual
Administrative Assistance
Conventions/Agreements
(MAAs) on Customs.
Duty Calls Watch List
Comment due: on the
adjustment of certain
dairy products to the
World Trade Organisation
(WTO) binding rates by
April 14; on South Africa’s
WTO technical barrriers
to trade (TBT) notification
on bananas by April 16; on
the sunset review of antidumping
duties on frozen
bone-in portions of chicken
(fowls of species gallus
domesticus) by April 24;
and on National Treasury’s
diesel fuel tax refund system
by May 15.
