Customs Valuation of Flash Sales Imported Goods
On 27 May the World Customs Organisation (WCO) announced that at its 48th session held from 13 to 17 May the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation had adopted an instrument (Advisory Opinion 23.1) on the valuation of goods purchased in a flash sale. The two issues, submitted by Mauritius to the technical committee, were whether a highly discounted price of goods purchased in a flash sale could be accepted as the basis for customs valuation under Article 1 and whether the discounted price could be used to determine the transaction value of identical or similar goods for which there was no transaction value. The technical committee reaffirmed transaction value as the primary basis of valuation under the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) 1994 and concluded that the highly discounted price was acceptable for customs valuation purposes provided that the provisions of Article 1 were met. On the second issue, the technical committee also found that the transaction value (TV) in a flash sale may be used when applying Article 2 or Article 3, as the case may be, if all the requirements of these Articles are satisfied. The WCO believes that the adoption of this instrument is timely and will be of assistance to customs administrations and the trade, particularly with the development of e-commerce. This advisory opinion will be submitted to the WCO Council for approval at its sessions of June 2019. An unapproved copy of the instrument has been posted on the website of the WCO, with the disclaimer that it is subject to approval by the WCO council.
Fuel levy notes – Introduction
On 27 May the South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced the introduction on 05 June of Part 5A of Schedule No 1 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 – “The Fuel Levy”, to give effect to the budget proposal to implement the carbon fuel tax on fuel as announced by the finance minister on 20 February. The tariff amendments relate to the insertion of Notes 6 and 7 in Section A to Part 5 of Schedule No 1 to the Act, 1964.
Hot-rolled steel sheets safeguard – Comment due
On 29 May Morocco notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) committee on safeguards that it had initiated a safeguard investigation on hot-rolled sheets of steel, classifiable under tariff heading and tariff subheadings 72.08, 72.11.13, 72.11.14, 72.11.19, 72.25.30, 72.25.40, 72.26.20.00.11, 72.26.20.00.21, 72.26.20.00.30, 72.26.20.00.40, 72.26.20.00.51, 72.26.20.00.52, 72.26.20.00.59, 72.26.91, 72.26.99.90.91 et 72.26.99.90.99. Comment is due by 17 June.
Duty Calls’ Watchlist
Comment on: The Rules to the Act, 1964 relating to the reporting of conveyances and goods (RCG) for trains is due by 14 June. Sars discussion document on the rewrite of the excise legislation is due by 14 June. Form DA180 ‘Environmental Levy’ is due by 14 June. The Environmental Levy on carbon emissions is due by 14 June.
