Harmonized System Customs Tariff and Statistical Classification of Covid-19 medical supplies in the Southern African Customs Union_200521
About the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the SACU Common External Tariff (CET)
The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) comprises the Customs administrations of the following Southern African Development Community (SADC), namely the:
Republic of Botswana,
Kingdom of Eswatini (previously Swaziland),
Kingdom of Lesotho,
Republic of Namibia, and
Republic of South Africa.
The Customs Tariff of the South Africa is also the Common External Tariff (CET) of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). It means that there are no Customs (import) duties applicable when goods are imported from one SACU Country to another, but that the Customs duty rates from any country which is not a Member of the SACU would be identical in any SACU Country.
The Customs Tariff of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is based on the Sixth Edition of the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System). The Sixth Edition of the Harmonized System is called HS 2017. Like any other country or Customs administration, the National Tariff Bodies of the Southern African Customs Union may make certain changes to the SACU CET for the purposes of the trade policy of the Southern African Customs Union. These changes are discussed in more detail in the Jacobsens Guide to Classification which is a Guide to the SACU CET.
Customs Tariff / Statistical Classification of Medical Supplies
Below is a list of the HS 2017 Customs Tariff / Statistical classification of medical supplies in the SACU. These goods may be exported or imported to assist in the fight against Covid-19 of any similar disease.
This list is based on a joint World Customs Organization (WCO) and World Health Organization (WHO) classification reference for Covid-19 medical supplies, Edition 2.1 dated 30 April 2020.
It should be noted that this is the most recent document on the WCO Classification reference dated 30 April. Please be very careful when you rely on the classification of goods based on the guidance of any document as information, particularly on a pandemic of the nature of Covid-19 changes promptly and you may rely on an outdated document for guidance.
ITaCS specialises in updating our clients on SACU Trade Policy issues, and therefore we have noticed that, even on the WCO website, the older version of this document (Edition 2 dated 9 April 2020) has still not been removed and many organizations, for example PWC still refer to that outdated information
It should be noted that Covid-19 virus spreads quickly and any information on the virus is also updated regularly. For instance, the joint Classification Reference was updated on three occasions in 6 weeks. Do not rely on information that is based on earlier versions (such as the 9 April 2020 version) of the HS classification reference for Covid-19 medical supplies. Download below
Harmonized System Customs Tariff and Statistical Classification of Covid 19
