It appeared almost unnoticed in a flurry of ‘Latest News’ notifications on the National Treasury’s website on November 13. Can you guess what it is? Well, in the order of publication, the items... 

“I’m happy to say that today is the day. I’m super-excited. I’m shouting, 'Hooray!’" A special acknowledgement for this to renowned poet Kenn Nesbitt from https://poetry4kids.com/poems. Of course,... 

The abbreviation Cf stands for the Latin words confer and conferatur, meaning 'compare'. By definition, conferatur instructs the reader to compare one thing with another. But, of course, I wouldn’t... 

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” as Billy Ocean reminds us in his 1986 hit. But, as we listen to those words, one can’t help but wonder: Tough for whom? Is it for you, for me, for... 

The World Customs Organisation (WCO) on October 29 announced the release of its 95-page ‘Final Report of the Exploratory Study on the Possible Strategic Review of the Harmonised System (HS)’. The... 

Do you import goods into the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu)? Do you manufacture goods in the Sacu region? Additionally, do you import components into this region which you use in the... 

Do these acronyms – chemical symbols, to be precise – mean anything to you? I apologise for unearthing any long-buried horrors from your school science days. While you ponder your mark out of a... 

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced on October 7 that it had added new online self-service features for Registration, Licensing and Accreditation (RLA) under the Sars Online Query... 

On September 11, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) announced the commencement of the implementation of a fund for women exporters by welcoming its first... 

If you are a World Trade Organisation (WTO  groupie, you would undoubtedly be familiar with TRIMs and TRIPS. If the acronyms are alien, or you require a quick refresher, TRIMs stands for Agreement... 

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced on August 22 that its Contravention List published on August 13 had been withdrawn and that, as a result, the previous list remains in effect.... 

Just how representative does the coming to its fold of Comoros make the World Trade Organisation (WTO)? To answer this question, you need to know how many countries there are in the world and then... 

What is a technical tariff amendment? On August 22, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced that its Tariff Amendments Landing Page had been updated to expand the note section below the... 

It is said that there is ‘old news’, ‘yesterday’s news’, and ‘new news’. But why can there not be ‘no news’ as well? By ‘no news’ I mean information that simply is not, could not, and should not... 

I vividly recall a time when the radio held proud place – front and centre – on the dining room table. It was also a time when radio pledges were the order of the day. Pledgers were given the... 

"All good things must come to an end, but all bad things can continue forever." This is according to the 'King of Horror', American author Stephen King. Whether 'a good thing' has indeed come to an... 

Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 2: Lady Macbeth comes to share Macbeth’s horrified sense of being stained, exclaiming: “Out, damned spot; out, I say...” The word ‘spot’ derives from the Middle Dutch word... 

If you need a reminder, the headline is borrowed from the late Queen of the UK and other Commonwealth realms. If you take offence at ‘borrowed’, consider that the British have borrowed a lot from... 

In a notice published in the Government Gazette on July 12, the Department of Transport invited maritime stakeholders, the general public and affected communities to submit written representations... 

Quite fittingly, once the comment period for an International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) tariff application published in the Government Gazette for public comment has... 

Have you ever wondered how much it costs the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) to process a ‘duly completed application’ for an import and export permit, a rebate... 

First things first: ICC stands for ‘International Chamber of Commerce’, the biggest and most representative business organisation in the world, with more than 45-million members in more than 100... 

Whether you are an importer or exporter, or a local manufacturer, have you ever pondered how one, or maybe even a few, of your competitors have been more competitive than you when their goods have... 

In the context of African economies and the phasing out of fossil fuels, the issue is not about stranded assets per se, but stranded economies. This phenomenon is playing out in Europe, where... 

The headline should not be confused with the slang that abbreviates the phrase “oil someone’s palm”, which means to derive a favourable outcome based on providing a monetary incentive; in other... 

I do appreciate that the Government Gazette is not the favoured reading material for many, and its detractors might equate reading it to reading a telephone directory, which someone actually did.... 

A token sum, also known as peppercorn, is a symbolic but important part of a contract showing that ‘some consideration’ has been paid. The amount is not important, as long as it shows that... 

On May 8, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Report on South Africa’s Fiscal Transparency Evaluation (FTE) in response to the National... 

In my piece last week, titled ‘Numbing dumping’, you were offered recipes for ‘A Good, Easy Garlic Chicken’ and French fries. The relevance of the recipes was that antidumping duties have been... 

Do you by any chance have a recipe for ‘A Good, Easy Garlic Chicken’ and one for French fries? According to www.allrecipes.com, you simply sprinkle the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder and... 

What were you doing on April 26? Anything nice? Anything memorable? This is the day that is observed yearly as World Intellectual Property Day. It was on this day in 1970 that the convention... 

An alternative headline I had for this week's instalment of this column was ‘Wing it’ but I decided against it, as I am perilously close to exceeding my yearly quota on that topic. What choice, and... 

Where were you 30 years ago, on Friday, April 15, 1994? By the way, if you have been holding on to your old 1994 calendar, you will be able to reuse it in 2033. This is based on the assumption that... 

The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (dtic) on April 4 released an information notice extending an invitation to submit a substantiated application for its Manufacturing Support... 

Of the three cornerstones in the movement of goods – be they in their final, semi-processed or component forms – across a national border, which is the one for which you need to have access to... 

A nuisance is a minor inconvenience, an annoyance or, quite simply, a bother. A tariff, in the context of this column, is a rate of customs duty. So, what does a nuisance tariff? For this, one... 

What does ‘go fish’ mean to you? Could it be your laconic reply to a question where your full answer might well have been: “No, I do not have it, keep guessing, but leave me alone”?" Or does it... 

It has been a full 147 days since I last wrote about Gallus Domesticus. But then, who is counting? For context, or a refresher, you might want to reread two past instalments of this column. The... 

How many fingers do you have? A hint, when pointing your finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you, as the adage goes. Want to reconsider your answer once you have finished... 

Corruption is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “illegal, bad or dishonest behaviour, especially by people in positions of power”. Wikipedia describes it as “a form of dishonesty or a criminal...