Do you consider yourself an ‘expert’ or a ‘specialist’ in your chosen profession? If you answered ‘expert’, I would raise a wry smile, for a wise person once told me of an unwittingly (maybe not) self-professing ‘donkey’ that offered to provide him with invaluable insights in his area of expertise.

Just in case you consider such a perception derogatory, in Afrikaans, ‘ex’ means past, and ‘pert’ (yes, if you are a purist, it is spelt with a ‘d’, not a ‘t’) a horse. So, a past-horse is a donkey.

I dare you, or, as my son would say, ‘double-dare’ you to keep a straight face the next time anyone introduces himself or herself as an expert. More often than not, the self-proclaimed label would be most fitting.

If, in your company, you have the responsibility for customs, there are three core issues that you need to grasp. No matter what the experts say, customs is about three things, and three things only. The rest is administrative, at best. That is why the delayed introduction of the 2014 Customs Acts (which have not been enacted for 4 695 days as you read this column) is most astounding.

What then are the three cornerstones of customs that you need to take account of? If you do not quite believe that it is only three things, consider that these cornerstones were internationally conceptualised and enforced. That is partly why we refer to a ‘customs duty’, and not a ‘customs tax’, for example. The three customs cornerstones, which transcend international borders, are tariff classification, customs valuation, and origin. If you know nothing about customs – I mean nothing – and want to know as little about it as possible, then know only this. If anyone tells you otherwise . . . well, you have been warned.

You might well respond by indicating that these cornerstones are enacted, as they are contained in the 1964 Customs and Excise Act. That is true, but, if you invest the time to retrieve the World Customs Organisation (WCO) convention and two World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements, you will find evidence of plagiarism. (Just in case I annoy a few lawyers out there, the texts of the convention and the agreements have been incorporated, mostly verbatim, in the South African customs legislation.)

Let me digress for a moment. I always smile when people talk about free trade and how countries are in charge of their own destiny, that they are able to make their own decisions and determinations. Yet, in the instance of customs, this reminds me of the opening lyrics of Sandie Shaw’s 1967 song (come to think of it, it is nearly as old as the present Customs and Excise Act): “I wonder if one day that; You’ll say that, you care; If you say you love me madly; I’ll gladly, be there; Like a puppet on a string . . .” The song’s title, given away by the lyrics, is Puppet on a String.

Just in case you want to take issue, can you venture a guess as to how many South Africans work for the WCO and the WTO? To clarify, how many South Africans are employed by these organisations? None. So, then, which nationalities are? And who do you think make the decisions at these organisations?

Let us return to the customs cornerstones. If you are serious about customs compliance, then you need to be serious about the three cornerstones. There are core things that you need to know about each of them.

Tariff classification is concerned with the ‘essential character’ of the product that you import or export. Put simply, ‘what is it?’ There are six international rules of classification, the source of which can be found in the WCO convention, the Convention on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, which is commonly known as the HS Nomenclature. It is an international multipurpose nomenclature that was elaborated under the auspices of the WCO.

Customs valuation is concerned with the ‘price paid or payable’. Put simply, ‘what is its price?’ The WTO valuation agreement was formally known as the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994. This replaced the GATT valuation code as a result of the Uruguay Round multilateral trade negotiations, which created the WTO on January 1, 1995.

Origin (you could also read ‘rules of origin’) is concerned with ‘where it is made, not where it is from’. It gets no simpler than that. The rules of origin provisions in trade agreements and trade preferences are governed by the WTO’s agreement on rules of origin.

So, there you have it, the trinity (you might even say the triad) of customs – tariff classification, customs valuation and origin.

This reminds me of The Rule of Three, or The Power of Three. Ever heard of it? The rule suggests that things that come in threes are funnier, more satisfying, more effective, and/or more memorable than other numbers of things.

As I take my leave, I would like you to ponder the following: What do the Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Three Musketeers, the Three Wise Men and the Three Stooges have in common? Why is the three-act structure the dominant approach to books and movies? Why are three bullet points more effective than two or four?