Sars campaign nets tons of illegal clothing imports

The clothing and textile campaign launched by South African Revenue Service (Sars) late last year in a bid to clamp down on illegal imports from Asia is making an impact. Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay confirmed to FTW last week that it had confiscated more than 100 tons of clothing imports since mid- December. This, he said, was in addition to the 60 tons of goods confiscated in Sasolburg and the contents of an entire warehouse in Cape Town at the start of the campaign. While the campaign has drawn significant industry support – with undervaluations regarded as one of the biggest problems facing local manufacturers – it has also resulted in delays of up to two weeks. A forwarding industry source who preferred not to be named told FTW that Customs policy had always been to stop 10% of shipments. “But Customs is understaffed. I worked in Customs in the early 90s and for the number of stops and inspections, they don’t have the manpower.” In addition, he said the textile tariff classification was particularly complex. The Sars clampdown coincides with the termination of the quota system on Chinese imports introduced last year to stem the flow of cheap imports from China into South Africa. It was however branded a failure with goods continuing to enter the country from several Eastern destinations other than China.