A tariff investigation that should have taken the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (Itac) four to six months lasted 644 days (more than one-and-a-half years) from initiation to implementation. The most striking thing about it is not that Itac exceeded its own timeline, but that more than half that delay occurred after Itac had finished its work.

Let’s look a bit deeper into how the 644 days were accumulated. Itac published a tariff application for an “increase in the ‘general’ rate of customs duty applicable to rails . . . from 5% to 10% ad valorem” in the Government Gazette of August 23, 2024. A period of four weeks (28 days) was allowed for comments, which were due by September 20, 2024.

The expectation would have been that the investigation would be completed within Itac’s timeline. In its ‘Tariff Investigations’ booklet, Itac states that “it carries out its investigations speedily and with rigour” and that “the timelines have been revised to ensure speedy delivery of the instruments. It now takes the commission generally four months for sectors in distress and six months for normal investigations.”

This equates to 180 days for “normal investigations” and 121 days for investigations relating to “sectors in distress”. Thus, depending on your basis, Itac had to complete its investigation on December 22, 2024, or on March 19, 2025, to remain within its timeline. An aside: according to the Engineering News & Mining Weekly edition published on September 23, 2025, on average, tariff investigations take 27 months to complete.

In conducting its investigation, Itac makes no information public. It is only once the South African Revenue Service (SARS) publishes the notice of the tariff amendment on its website and in the Government Gazette that the commission publishes its report on its website. If Itac terminates a tariff investigation, a notice is published both on its website and in the Government Gazette.

On May 29, SARS published a notice announcing an increase in the ‘general’ rate of customs duty on rails, referencing Itac’s Report No 751, which spells out the reasoning behind that decision.

Publication of the Itac report provides further insight into the tariff investigation timelines. Itac’s nine-page Report No 751, titled ‘Increase in the general rate of customs duty on rails, . . . , from 5% ad valorem to 10% ad valorem’, was signed by its chief commissioner on July 2, 2025. This is 313 days (ten-and-a-half months) after the tariff application was initiated.

This raises questions about what happened during the 331 days after the report’s signing by Itac’s chief commissioner and the publication of the SARS notice. Once the report has been signed, Itac sends its formal tariff recommendations directly to the Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, who, incidentally, is based on the same campus as Itac. The Minister then makes the ultimate policy decision and instructs SARS to implement the tariff amendment. Once the Minister has made his decision, it is sent to SARS for implementation and to the Government Printing Works – which operates under the oversight of the Public Works and Infrastructure Department – for publication.

Why does this take 331 days, or 51.4% of the tariff investigation process? Is this not the primary issue in tariff investigations exceeding the ‘turnaround time’ in the Itac booklet? That does not exonerate Itac, as its own turnaround times are quite evidently unattainable. In addition, the Itac booklet details only its own timelines for the investigation process. Why does Itac not reference the timelines for the whole tariff investigation process? With the Itac booklet being outdated, Itac might want to review it and provide the full turnaround time, rather than merely stating its own in the tariff investigation process.

The question remains: Why is more than half of the time of the investigation process being taken up by the consideration of Itac’s tariff recommendation, the Minister’s acceptance, the instruction to SARS, and publication in the Government Gazette?

Whether this tariff amendment will even make the slightest difference is for another day.

Resources to consider:

1. Itac Report No.751: https://itac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Report-No.751.pdf; and

2. SARS tariff amendments: https://www.sars.gov.za/legal-counsel/secondary-legislation/tariff-amendments/tariff-amendments-2026/

3. Itac ‘Tariff Investigations’ booklet: https://itac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Tariff_Investigations.pdf