SACU Executive Secretary, Paulina Elago has said that the successful launch of the Advance Ruling initiative by the Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra) will set Namibia apart and allow her to serve as a model for the rest of the SACU member states.
Elago highlighted that as part of the mandate of revenue administrations to facilitate seamless and timely movement of goods within SACU and beyond, Advance Rulings is one of the key enablers.
“In doing business it is critical that there is predictability across the entire value chain of doing business including the customs requirements at the borders. It is important that our traders are certain with regards to importation requirements for their goods, as this will reduce chances of misclassification on products and time spent by Customs administration in classifying goods.
“In addition, this will support Namibian traders in reducing the amount of time spent at the border which will further contribute towards reducing the cost of doing business, improve Namibia’s performance and rating in the Trading Across Borders Index as well as the Ease of Doing Business. This will make our business in the region to be more competitive and maximise on benefits that have arisen from developments such as the AfCFTA among others,” Elago said.
The official launch of the Advance Ruling in Namibia comes at an opportune period, as nations globally are at a stage of recovering from human suffering and, global economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This initiative will also go a long way in responding to the broader international framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (Article 3) that places an obligation on WTO Members to issue advance rulings in respect of tariff classification, origin and valuation matters.
“Advance Ruling Programmes are critical because it provides for transparent and formal processes upon which importers and exporters receive, upon request, a binding written ruling from a Customs Administration prior to the transaction. In addition, Advance Rulings provides certainty and predictability of cross border trade transactions. This reduces disputes during the clearance of goods, thus eliminating unnecessary delays at the border,” Elago further said.
She went on to note that the launch is taking place when the SACU Council of Ministers in their Meeting held on 28 June 2022 in Gaborone, Botswana, approved the SACU Regional Authorised Economic Operator Programme which will see accredited traders enjoying faster clearance of goods across the SACU border posts.
“The Advanced Ruling further complete such a Programme and I wish to implore our business community in Namibia, to fully utilise these initiatives. This will result in their goods being cleared within a shorter time at the border. Namibia will serve as a model for the rest of the SACU Member States.
“In addition, this launch is timely for our region as we have embarked on a process to develop a SACU Trade Facilitation and Logistics Programme that is envisaged to improve the seamless flow of cross border trade environment in SACU. The Programme is to support industrialisation and the trade agenda in SACU by creating a seamless and conducive trade environment,” added Elago further stating that she is aware that the activities of Advance Rulings for Namibia have also been supported by development partners under the EU-WCO Programme for Harmonised Systems (HS) in Africa.
“The Programme was launched to assist the continent build the required organizational capacity and resources to apply the HS 2022 version in a timely and coordinated manner. We hope that the support from our development partners will continue into a foreseeable future which will advance our region and we value this, given the financial hardships most organisations are facing.
“We are therefore pleased with the progress achieved by Namibia under the EU-WCO Programme for HS in Africa. Namibia will again serve as a model for rest of the SACU Member States. I believe it is also important, to highlight that all Member States are also making progress on the implementation of Advance Ruling which in turn provides a goods basis for SACU to consider a regional framework for Advance Ruling in future,” concluded Elago.