The Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) has put out a request for tenders for a study to investigate the situation in the Sacu region regarding unfair trade practices.

The purpose of this study is to objectively investigate the current context and undertake a situation analysis of the status of unfair trade practices, including dumping and countervailing, in the Sacu region and to recommend the way forward with respect to tackling these issues within the framework of a customs union.

The scope of the study includes determining the fundamental policy divergences and associated challenges, if any, that Sacu member States have on the issue of dumping; identifying specific unfair trade practices that are currently taking place in the customs union and defining their nature and magnitude; proposing measures, including policy measures, in the context of the 2002 Sacu Agreement on how to deal with possible unfair trade practices, while taking cognisance of Article 41 of the agreement and the current draft annex on unfair trade practices; determining whether other practices that may fall under Article 41 relating to unfair trade practices, other than dumping, could be dealt with by the draft annex/cooperation mechanism of Article 40 (such practices include access to distribution channels, refusal to supply, rebates, and so on); determining whether the draft annex/cooperation mechanism in Article 40 can adequately cover aspects of predatory pricing through cooperation on enforcement mechanisms; and redrafting the current annex to Article 41 of the 2002 Sacu Agreement in a manner that takes into account member States’ concerns about this issue and in accordance with the comments made during the March 2009 workshop and any other subsequent submissions and findings.
This tender closes at 16:00 on September 30.

Refunds and Drawbacks Letter of Authority
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has released a letter dated July 30, 2010, titled ‘Letter of authority in respect of general refund/drawback applications’.

The letter, from the senior manager for centralised customs operations, reads as follows: “A letter of authority from the importer is a requirement in terms of Section 100 of the Customs and Excise Act (an agent may be called upon to produce written authority) when an agent, a consultant, and so on, applies on his/her behalf for a refund/drawback.

“This authority may not be transferred to a third party (another agent, consultant, etc). “The letter of authority must be on the importer’s letterhead and specifically refer to the type of authority given, that is, the specific declaration number(s), [and the] date and place of entry. Please refer to ‘External Policy – Customs Refunds and Drawbacks’, paragraph 2.1.

“No general letters will be accepted in an effort to reduce the opportunity for fraudulent claims purported to be submitted on behalf of an importer. “In the case of a single refund application, the original letter of authority must be attached to page 2 of the refund application (DA 66) form.

“Where the importer has provided a letter of authority for multiple refund applications, such must be stated on the letter with the time period of the refund applications handled. “The agent/consultant must retain the original and produce such when requested to do so. Certified copies of the original letter must be submitted with each claim.”

Customs Modernisation Programme
The third of Sars’ key modernisation initiatives is the implementation of a risk-based customs assessment. The new way of working will provide a risk-based automated facility that will ‘push’ the highest risk declaration at any given time to the assessment officer. This improves the integrity of the customs process and will ensure that any opportunity for gain by either an internal user or through collusion between internal and external parties is negated.

Sunset Review – Polyethylene Terephthalate
Comment is respect of the initiation of the sunset review of the antidumping duties on polyethylene terephthalate, classifiable under tariff subheading 3907.60, originating in or imported from India, South Korea or Taiwan, is due by August 30.