Grass is . . .

Grass (read marijuana) is nature’s way of saying ‘high’, as the tongue-in-cheek adage goes. Before putting this column to pasture, however, you might be interested to know that on February 18, the... 

Mere talk leads to poverty

“Talk is cheap, because supply exceeds demand”. Should you prefer the proudly South African version – yes, there is one, first referenced in 1955 – it is: "Talk is cheap, but money buys whiskey.” I... 

Recycled SoNA priorities

As the famed slogan goes, there are three Rs as far as waste management is concerned: reduce, reuse, recycle. But shouldn’t there be a fourth R – rethink? Or rather five, with the sequence being... 

Priorities not achieved

When, on February 7, I asked my favourite search engine this question, “What are the most serious problems in South Africa today?”, it directed me to the South African government’s very own... 

I owe, I owe

In the King James version of the Bible, Proverbs 22 verse 7 states: “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Similarly, in Hamlet, William Shakespeare cautions... 

Déjà vu all over again

In her book, The Lies about Truth, Courtney C Stevens states: “If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you are doing, you are going to keep getting what you are getting. You... 

422 not out

If you are reading this column early enough in 2022, you might want to add to your New Year’s resolutions list – that list of realistic and attainable goals – a desire to join your local chamber of... 

New rules on forex payments

On November 26, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) informed of its collaboration with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to combat illicit financial flows and customs valuation fraud... 

Covid vaccine trade tracker

On November 22, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced the launch of the WTO-IMF Covid-19 Vaccine Trade Tracker, which is aimed at providing greater... 

Market analysis tools

By now you must have recovered from the noise that was generated by COP26, which, arguably, should have been labelled a cop-out. If you are not familiar with the reference to ‘cop out’, it simply... 

The final frontier

You might recall these immortal words, or  maybe not, depending on your age: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange... 

GATT – 74 not out

October 30 was the seventy-fourth anniversary of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor (but not in the truest sense of the word) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).... 

HS2022 landing page

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1839 work, Letters Addressed to R H Horne, stated that “the luck of the third adventure is proverbial”, said to be the origin of the expression “third time’s a charm”.... 

Govt procurement anniversary

On October 2, as I sat down to write this piece, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had just released its new webpage to mark the dual anniversary of its plurilateral Agreement on Government... 

Sars-CoV-2 tariffs

The headlight might lead you to believe that it relates to the South African Revenue Service, or Sars. Sars-CoV-2, however, refers to a virus – the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.... 

DTIC incentives

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.” So said Orison Swett Marden, but this begs the question: Would the... 

Structural transformation

Could this be the latest South African economic buzzword? Structural transformation, that is. In its publication, Structural Transformation in Developing Countries: Cross Regional Analysis, the... 

HS 2022 now available – gratis

It’s not often that you get something without having to pay for it. Nowadays, if you are offered something for ‘free,’ it implies that you have to make some kind of commitment, financial or... 

Asycuda turns 40

Before breaking into a celebratory cheer, it bears explaining who, or what, Asycuda is. Asycuda – or the Automated System for Customs Data – is a computerised customs management system covering... 

Scrap metal exportation

Introduced on May 10, 2013, through a trade policy directive, the Price Preference System (PPS) has been subject to numerous reviews and amendments in recent years. The most recent, which is the... 

Customs data analysis

The World Customs Organisation’s (WCO’s) 2018 ‘Draft Guidance on Data Analytics’ describes data analytics as the process of analysing datasets to discover or uncover patterns, associations and... 

National distress duty relief

In the instalment of this column published on August 20 and titled ‘Looting Survey and Hotline’, I wrote about the announcement, on August 11, by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition... 

Pluperfect

Heard what happened when the Past, the Present and the Future walked into a bar? It was tense. There must have been some ‘tense’ engagements then at the 2021 Public Economics Winter School. If you... 

Looting survey and hotline

Looting is defined as the act of stealing or the taking of goods by force in the midst of a military, political or other social crisis, such as a war, a natural disaster or rioting. The proceeds of... 

Team South Africa?

Do the names Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson mean anything to you? No? What about 10.61, 10.74 and 10.76? These are the times recorded by the top three women... 

Customs inspections

The Cambridge Dictionary defines an inspection as “the act of looking at something carefully, or an official visit to a building or organisation to check that everything is correct and legal”. As... 

The UK’s trade preferences

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) on July 19 announced an open consultation in its efforts to design the country’s trade preferences scheme for developing nations, with comments due... 

AEO – calling South Africa

Harry S Truman, the thirty-third President of the US, famously said that “there is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know”. In similar vein, Marie Antoinette, the last queen of... 

WCO’s Trade Tools platform

Over the years, I have written numerous articles and conducted extensive research on the cornerstones of customs, which the World Customs Organisation (WCO) calls the 'international trade actors'.... 

Sacu: the oldest of the RTAs

About 132 years ago, the world’s oldest customs union that is still operational was established – and that’s the South African Customs Union, which brought together the Orange River Colony... 

SA’s competitiveness limbo

It is June 17 as I find myself humming Chubby Checker’s Limbo Rock: “All around the limbo clock; Hey, let’s do the limbo rock; Limbo lower now; Limbo lower now; How low can you go . . .” A few... 

Magnificent Seven Plus-1

If you have not been out for a while and need reminding, a ‘plus-1’ is an extra guest allowed on an invitation to a social event. Which begs the question – well, two in fact: Who was the ‘plus-1’,... 

RAF Jekyll and Hyde

The American journalist James Surowiecki avers that, “in the business world, bad news is usually good news – for somebody else”. This is reminiscent of, but perhaps less dramatic than, the Dutch... 

In the mirrel, Cyril

When last did you think about Irvin & Johnson’s Steakhouse Melts? The challenge with ageing, having grown up long before the Internet and Google, is that my memory is just as fragile as the... 

Trade and competition policy

Over the course of two days in May, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) released two policy statements. Now, a policy is “a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by... 

Message in a bottle

There was a time, not so long ago, when people would send messages in bottles, even when in great distress. This is now frowned upon, since bottles constitute waste or litter that can harm the... 

A digital levy

Ever been so bored that you took to contemplating the difference between a duty, a tax or a levy? You might also have pondered whether a tax is a duty that governments levy. Well, “therein lies the... 

New trade barriers database

Did you know that trade policy barriers such as tariffs and other regulations account for at least 14% of total trade costs? Would you be interested in gaining a sense of the degree of... 

When you hear the signal

It would cost you 47.5c. This begs the question: When last did you phone 1026? This should not be confused with 1023, the directory enquiries number you would dial when looking for a telephone... 

Gagarin’s poyekhali moment

Sixty years ago – on April 12, 1961 – Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ (USSR’s) Vostok spacecraft, in a flight lasting 108 minutes,...