EU shipping tax will hit SA cargo

The shipping tax due to introduced next year by the European Union (EU) will likely see numbers of SA exporters looking at other markets for the export products they are currently sending to Europe, according to Ron Frick, SA MD of DAL Agency. This is already part of the reason for SA perishable exporters looking away from the current main markets in Europe and now shipping reefers (refrigerated containers) to the Middle East and Asia, he told FTW. And it’s not only going to hit SA exports. “The EU tax should also have an effect on the automotive industry, for example, where a large number of imported components for the likes of VW, BMW and Mercedes Benz originate in Europe,” Frick added. He also didn’t feel that protests currently being made about the tax would have any effect on its imposition. “It’s just like toll roads,” he said. “You won’t have any option.” And there’s no escape for the airfreight industry and its users. SA is one of 21 countries that are already battling with the EU on an aviation tax to become effective on January 1. The tax on all airlines flying through the EU’s airspace, like that on shipping, is being introduced as part of bold measures to reduce carbon emissions. Roeland van de Geer, the EU’s envoy to SA, was quoted in the press as saying that shipping and aviation contributed “significantly” to carbon emissions, which the bloc wanted to limit. “That is why we are quite persistent that a shipping and aviation tax must be included in any deal that hopes to limit carbon emissions.” The shipping and aviation taxes are like any others, they will add to the cost of moving products to and from Europe, according to Duncan Bonnett, trade specialist at Whitehouse & Associates. “Any sort of tax going in will have a multiplier effect,” he said. “The only good thing is that it is the same for everyone importing from or exporting to Europe.” He suggested that it would have an incidental effect of acting as a sort of protection for local producers of imported goods that are made in Europe.