The South African Revenue Service (SARS) introduced new customs procedures on September 4 for goods traded under China’s Zero-Tariff Trade Scheme, which provides zero-tariff treatment for eligible South African exports to China subject to rules-of-origin requirements and forms part of a temporary arrangement pending a wider China-Africa economic partnership framework.
Traders are now required to declare the additional information code CHN and complete the corresponding certificate information when submitting customs entries. SARS said manual endorsements, including stamped certificates, will continue to be accepted for 30 business days while service providers implement the required system changes.