The Trade Law Centre (tralac) in 2014 began monitoring and reporting on an annual basis the International Trade Administration’s (ITAC) tariffs and trade remedies investigations. The ITAC Act of 2002 and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Agreement, (2002) mandates ITAC to establish and manage an efficient and effective system for the administration of international trade for South Africa and on behalf of other SACU members (i.e., Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini). ITAC has conducted almost 200 investigations that tralac has monitored and reported since 2014, with most applications requesting tariff support largely in response to relatively low-priced imports mainly from emerging economies, such as China, Brazil, and India.

The objective of this Trade Report is to provide the latest information on investigations undertaken by ITAC for the 2021/2022 period. ITAC investigations cover primarily ordinary customs duties (applications for increasing or reducing import tariffs and rebates), trade remedies, and import and export control measures. It is important to note that ITAC investigations and decisions are informed by South Africa’s trade and industrial policy and that industrial policy inform trade policy. For this analysis, as in previous reports, import and export control investigations are excluded and therefore only focusses on tariff and trade remedies investigations and reports.

Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.