Tariff investigations in South Africa had been open for an average of almost three years by the end of 2025 – far longer than the six-month target previously set for normal tariff probes.
This is according to the 8th edition of XA Global Trade Advisors’ Import Duty Investigation Report released last week, which found that although the number of open investigations decreased from 47 to 33 between 2022 and 2025, the backlog had become increasingly outdated.
“In 2025, 97% of investigations are older than six months! To make matters worse, the older investigations are not getting finalised and cleared. They remain forgotten on a shelf somewhere,” said Anneke Jansen van Vuuren, manager – data solutions at XA.
The report found that open investigations had been pending for an average of 34 months by the end of 2025, while the oldest case had been open for 70 months. This compares with a six-month target previously set by Itac for normal tariff investigations.
“Just think how much the world has changed in the last five years and ten months,” Van Vuuren said.
The report also found that fewer tariff cases were being finalised. In 2025, only eight cases were finalised, compared with 24 in 2024 and 12 in 2023.
The slowdown in finalised cases has coincided with a sharp drop in new applications. In the last six months of 2025, there was only one private-sector application, which the report identified as the lowest level of private-sector participation in Itac’s 23-year history.
The report said it was not clear whether the fall in applications reflected a temporary slowdown or whether companies were losing confidence in the tariff investigation process.
It also found that duty relief applications had fallen to their lowest level in 22 years. According to the report, the last time Itac initiated a duty removal application was in the first half of 2023.
Rebate concerns
XA’s analysis also raised concerns about the increased use of rebates instead of full duty removals.
The report found that 21% of all rebates required a permit but that 100% of new rebates carried this requirement. It said permit conditions could affect planning because conditions could change without the same consultation process required for the creation of a rebate.
The report also highlighted the concentration of rebate benefits, stating that 79.8% of rebates were used by eight traders, all in the automotive sector, reducing their duty payable by R34.3 billion.
Report calls for hard deadlines
The report recommended that overdue duties be reviewed, reciprocal agreements be removed or made more transparent and tariff regulations be amended to introduce legal time limits for investigations.
XA proposed a 12-month limit from initiation to completion for tariff investigations, after which an investigation would automatically terminate if no decision had been made.
The report also recommended that cases based on outdated information be terminated and reinitiated where there was still a need for investigation.
It said review dates should be published for all duty increases and that, where no review date was specified, duties should be reviewed automatically after three years.
XA also recommended that Itac publish its investigation reports immediately after the conclusion of investigations, in line with international trade obligations.
