The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) has been searching for a deputy chief commissioner for quite some time. The first attempt was through a Government Gazette notice on October 26, 2012, with the all-inclusive salary on offer being R939 621; the closing date for applications was November 12, 2012. Then, a day less than a year later, on October 25, 2013, the Economic Development Department (EDD) re-advertised the position at a reduced all-inclusive salary of R934 866, with the closing date for applications being November 1, 2013.

The EDD advertisement was the last advertisement for the position of Itac deputy chief commissioner. No appointment has been made and neither has there been any announcement on the outcome of the recruitment process for the position. Then, on January 15 this year, a Government Gazette notice appeared relating to applications for the position of Itac deputy chief commissioner, with the closing date being January 29. It is not certain why the applications are always published for such a short time.

According to the notice, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel had invited members of the public to nominate candidates to serve as deputy chief commissioner of Itac for five years. In terms of the International Trade Administration Act, the deputy chief commissioner of Itac may perform any function of the chief commissioner, as assigned by the latter, including functions conferred on the chief commissioner by the Act, and managing and directing the activities of Itac and supervising the commission’s staff.

The all-inclusive salary package being offered this time is R1 042 500. According to Itac’s 2013/14 annual report, the chief commissioner received a salary package of R1 333 266, up from R1 261 377 in 2012/13, and two senior staff members, the GM for corporate services and the chief economist, received R1 063 629 and R1 063 749 respectively. With an all-inclusive salary package of R1 042 500, the deputy chief commissioner would be the fourth-highest-paid official at Itac. The commission’s employment-related costs for 2013/14 amounted to R67 385 969, up from R61 108 793 in 2012/13.

According to the EDD notice, the success- ful candidate will be part of Itac’s senior management with a mandate to promote employment and investment and to raise the incomes of South Africa and other Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) member States through the administration of international trade.

The notice also specifies the qualifications nominees must have to be eligible for appointment and to continue to hold office as a member of Itac. The person must be ordinarily resident in South Africa and have suitable qualifications and experience in economics, accounting, law, commerce, agriculture, industry or public affairs. The person may not be a member of Itac if he or she is an office bearer of any party, movement, organisation or body of a partisan political nature; is an unrehabilitated insolvent; has been found to be mentally unfit by an order of a competent court; or has been convicted of an offence committed after the Constitution of South Africa, 1993, took effect, and sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine.

All nominations must be accompanied by a detailed curriculum vitae, a shares and other financial interest form, the register of interest information form, a written motivation setting out the nominee’s suitability for appointment, a signed letter of acceptance from the candidate and written disclosure of business interests and membership of other boards. All the relevant forms can be obtained from the EDD website – www.economic.gov.za.

The notice concludes with a note that the members of Itac must, when viewed collec- tively, be representative of the broad cross- section of the population of South Africa, inclusive of women.

The aim of Itac, as stated in the International Trade Administration Act, is to foster economic growth and development in order to raise incomes and promote investment and employment in South Africa and within the Sacu region by establishing an efficient and effective system for the administration of international trade, subject to the Act and the Sacu Agreement.

However, Sacu envisages the establishment of a Tariff Board, which would effectively replace Itac and significantly amend the role that it plays currently. According to Sacu’s constitution and mandate of the Tariff Board, it would be an independent institution consisting of experts from the member States (Sacu consists of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland). The Tariff Board would be responsible for making recommendations to the Council on the level and changes of customs, as well as antidumping, counter- vailing and safeguard duties, on goods imported from outside the Common Customs Area, and rebates, refunds, or duty drawbacks, based on the directives given to it by the Council, as provided for in Article 8 of the Sacu Agreement. The terms of reference, policy mandates, procedures and regulations of the Tariff Board are determined by the Council in accordance with Article 8 of the Sacu Agreement. It is stated on the Sacu website (www.sacu.int) that “the Tariff Board is yet to be established”.

Readers may recall that, on April 1, 2014, Sacu announced the appointment of Paulina Mbala Elago, a Namibian national, as its new executive secretary for the next five years and that she has not yet made any pronouncements on the Sacu Tariff Board. Will 2016 be the year in which the Sacu Tariff Board is established?

Itac’s Dated Publications
The ‘Publications’ section on the Itac home page indicates that there are, effectively, five types of publications, namely Trade Indicators, the Trade Bulletin, Occasional Papers, South African Trade Reports and Impact Evaluation Reports. With the exception of the Impact Evaluation Report, dated 2015, all reports are either for 2014 or 2013. The Trade Bulletin is for May 2013 and is titled ‘South Africa’s trade relations with the EU: Implications for the local agricultural sector’, the most recent Occasional Paper was published in May 2014 and is titled ‘Anchoring Growth and Employment: the Interaction between Manufacturing and Services in South Africa’, while the latest Occasional Paper, titled ‘African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa): How Far and Where to from Here’, was published in November 2014. The latest South African Trade Report was published in 2014.