Have you ever attended a rock concert that celebrated a single album from a single band? To be clear: the music tracks of a singular album, with no bonus tracks. Yes, there is such an album and such a concert. Just before Christmas, I attended such a concert. In an era of music streaming, which, ironically, is said to have “saved the music industry”, the compilation of album tracks is no longer the prerogative of the record label; the consumers can do that.

I would venture to guess that the probability of a band’s ‘album’ being released today with all its tracks being celebrated in a single concert would be less than zero, at best. Such an event did occur on August 3, 1987, just over 31 years ago, when an album lasting 62 minutes and 32 seconds was released. The album consisted of 12 songs, seven of which were hit singles, and it was one of the longest albums ever issued on a single vinyl record. The album, Hysteria, from English rock band Def Leppard, was produced by Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange. The concert was brilliant.

If ever you need a reminder of just how talented South Africans are, Lange produced albums for, among others, Billy Ocean, the Boomtown Rats, Britney Spears, Bryan Adams, the Cars, Céline Dion, the Corrs, Foreigner, Huey Lewis and the News, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Michael Bolton, Nickelback, and his ex-wife, Shania Twain.

According to Wikipedia, Lange’s ‘origin’ is Johannesburg, South Africa, which provides a fitting introduction to ‘nationality’ and the completion of the customs-duty trilogy.

The third consideration in determining the customs duty liability of imported goods is the goods’ ‘nationality’ – where the goods are from. This follows from what the goods are – their tariff classification – and what the goods’ price is – the customs valuation.

Contrary to popular belief, to determine with a fair degree of certainty where a good comes from is no longer a simple task. Quite simply, raw materials and parts crisscross the globe to be used as inputs in manufacturing plants, which are themselves scattered across the globe. As a consequence, rules-of-origin provisions are required to determine the goods’ origin – their ‘made in’ label. But the provisions also have wider application, such as the implementation of other trade policy measures, including trade preferences, quotas, antidumping measures and countervailing duties.

There is a World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on rules of origin, which requires WTO members, of which South Africa is one, to ensure that their rules-of-origin provisions adhere to the following: that they are transparent; that they do not have restricting, distorting or disruptive effects on international trade; that they are administered in a consistent, uniform, impartial and reasonable manner; and that they are based on a positive standard (in other words, they should state what does confer origin rather than what does not).

In the longer term, the rules-of-origin agreement aims for harmonised (common) rules of origin among all WTO members, except in some kinds of preferential trade – for instance, countries setting up a free trade area are allowed to use different rules of origin for products traded under their free-trade agreement.

As has been hinted at, there are two categories of rules of origin: nonpreferential rules of origin and preferential rules of origin. According to the WTO, nonpreferential rules of origin apply in the absence of any trade preference – that is, when trade is conducted on a most-favoured-nation basis. In the WTO rules-of-origin agreement, WTO members agreed to negotiate harmonised nonpreferential rules of origin.

Preferential rules of origin apply in reciprocal trade preferences; in other words, to nonreciprocal trade references – the Generalised System of Preferences – and to regional trade agreements and customs unions.

As a parting thought, with origin, the concern is where it is from, not where it is shipped from.