Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1839 work, Letters Addressed to R H Horne, stated that “the luck of the third adventure is proverbial”, said which is to be the origin of the expression “third time’s a charm”. It simply means that the third time something is attempted, luck is sure to result.

It should not be confused with “the third time’s lucky”, a listed Scottish proverb since 1862. As for its origin there is no certainty. The most common explanation is that, under English law, anyone who survived three attempts at hanging would be set free. The first fortunate man was John ‘Babbacombe’ Lee, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang at Exeter prison. With the third failed attempt, the Home Secretary of the time, Sir William Harcourt, commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. After some time, Lee was freed, gaining a reputation as “the man they couldn't hang”. Could it be, as the saying goes, that fortune favours the brave? A second explanation is that three seems to be the right number of times to try. It is said that two is not enough but four is too many. There is, after all, the Rule of Three in writing.

This is the third article in this column this year, and the last, that will focus on the 2022 Edition of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, also known as the Harmonised System (HS) of tariff nomenclature, which is an internationally standardised system of names and numbers to classify traded products. The HS came into effect on January 1, 1988, having been developed by the World Customs Organisation (WCO), formerly the Customs Cooperation Council. HS2022 will enter into force on January 1, 2022.

The previous two articles on this topic were ‘HS2022 now available – gratis’, published on October 1, and ‘Are we HS2022 ready?’, published on February 5.

So, let it not be said that you were no aware, or, as it is said in Latin, ignorantia juris non excusat, which means “ignorance of the law excuses not”, or ignorantia legis neminem excusat, meaning “ignorance of the law excuses no one”.

On October 23, the South African Revenue Service announced the launch of its HS2022 landing page, which you can find at www.sars.gov.za/legal-counsel/primary-legislation/hs-2022/. The international amendments and correlation table can be viewed on the WCO’s website – www.wcoomd.org.

The amendments relate mainly to:

• Electrical and electronic waste, commonly referred to as e-waste, a product class which presents significant policy concerns as well as a high value of trade. As a result, the HS2022 includes specific provisions for its classification to assist countries in their work under the Basel Convention.

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New subheadings for novel tobacco- and nicotine-based products resulted from the difficulties of the classification of these products, lack of visibility in trade statistics and the high monetary value of this trade.

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New subheadings and notes have been created for smartphones that will also clarify and confirm the current heading classification of these multifunctional devices.

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New subheadings have been created for placebos and clinical trial kits for medical research to enable classification without information on the ingredients in placebos to facilitate cross-border medical research.

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Cell cultures and cell therapy are among the product classes that have gained new and specific provisions.

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The HS2022 amendment aims to changes the provisions for diagnostic kits, owing to the recognition of the dangers of delays in the deployment of tools for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases in outbreaks.

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New subheadings have been introduced for the monitoring and control of fentanyls and their derivatives as well as two fentanyl precursors.

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The HS2022 changes are not confined to creating new specific provisions for various goods; they also include clarification of texts to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature.