Let’s ask the obvious. Do you, as the importer or the exporter, on a monthly basis monitor your own imports and exports, and that of others? If you do not do it, have you entrusted someone – your agent – or someone else to fulfil this task?
It is astounding how many South African companies are oblivious of their import and export trends. They therefore rely on import and export intelligence to make the observations.
Without exception the tariff applications and trade remedy applications are brought on injury (material injury) information that substantiates increased imports of many months or even years. The persistence and/or continued increase in imports seem to serve the required substantiation of the initiation of an investigation. This is ultimate fallacy.
You may well question the accuracy of the import and export statistics. This is a constructive waste of time. Trade statistics should serve to provide you with a trend. Once the trend has been identified then you could explore it further.
As a final point, did you know that you can request Sars to provide you with your company’s own import and export statistics? Have you ever requested it? Have you ever compared it to your own records?
Let us know if you would be interested in having your tariff subheadings (codes) monitored.