Extension of SAD document ‘imminent’

ALAN PEAT A recent query from a reader, Arina van Staden of the commercial department at SABMiller, asked FTW if the recently issued SAD 500 (single administrative document) from SA Revenue Service (Sars) customs referred to “international trade across border in southern Africa only - or all imports and exports?” So we put this before Riaan de Lange, who runs the customs and trade consultancy, SA Tariff & Trade Solutions, and has just taken tenure as a part-time lecturer in international trade at the University of Pretoria’s economics faculty. “The SAD 500,” he said, “is intended to replace the CCA1 form, basically in trade within the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) – SA and the BLNS countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.” And the customs’ CCA1, he added, was there because – with movement of goods within the union – there was no customs duty implication. But the CCA1 and its replacement SAD 500 are designed to show what’s moving where in Sacu. “The new SAD 500 is based on the same-named European version,” said De Lange, “and it basically supplies customs (and its tax-gathering parent Sars) with statistical information and record of goods moved.” It’s only applicable on the trans-Kalahari route at the moment, he added, with SA, Botswana and Namibia all in an SAD 500 regime. But the other countries have it in the pipeline for “imminent introduction”, De Lange told FTW.