As South Africa expands in the digital era, the country offers opportunities for economic growth. Ensuring streamlined processes and effective compliance programs in the customs environment is key to achieving growth while effectively managing South Africa’s land border, which is over 4,800 km long and shared with six countries. South Africa has 53 land ports of entry, 11 international airports, and 8 seaports, all of which need to be effectively managed to facilitate the trade needed for economic growth. 

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is a division of the Ministry of Finance and administers import duties and controls. By leveraging advancements in technology, SARS has enhanced the customs engagement experience with importers, exporters, and customs clearing agents by automating processes.

Understanding that increased trade results in economic growth, much investment has been made over the last decade, especially to effectively facilitate trade by:

• Providing border control management, community protection, and Industry protection
• Administering trade policy measures and industry schemes and
• Collecting duties and taxes

In 2023, the South African government established the Border Management Authority (BMA) in response to the realization that the South African borders were vulnerable by the sheer number of different government entities managing the border, resulting in an unsynchronized approach and fragmented accountability. The increase in cross-border crime, illicit trade, and illegal migration presents a serious threat to economic growth. The BMA ensures that the borders are well protected, ports of entry are well managed, and immigration laws are enforced. The expectation is that investment in this crucial area for economic growth will combat slowdown of trade flows, which hampers economic development.

Implementing Best Practices for Efficient Customs Procedures

Best practices have become crucial for South African importers and exporters to ensure a quick turnaround in processing customs entries and releasing their goods. Expeditors manages Customs brokerage at all levels to provide an infrastructure for global customs services. Expeditors is uniquely positioned to provide a well-structured and integrated approach to global customs brokerage, which includes utilizing consistent processes and dynamic systems emphasizing integration and analytics. Our structure supports in-country Customs expertise with global oversight. 

At Expeditors, we focus on key areas to assist in avoiding potential bottlenecks and constantly working together with them to prevent them.

• Pre-arrival Processing
  Expeditors' standardized procedures and electronic capabilities allow for entries to be filed prior to arrival in South Africa. Process steps include receipt and verification of documents, entry preparation, entry review, document submission, duty statement management, and delivery.

  Standard procedures are established for each customer and documented in a single, unified collaboration platform, which is available on each employee's desktop globally.

  Part of our standard process includes reviewing the documents and preparing the declaration based on the document receipt date instead of shipment arrival. Proactive document quality checking and using our exception management platform remain strengths of our Customs program.

• Risk Management
  

  Our customs compliance program requires that every branch have personnel dedicated to customs compliance. These Customs Compliance Managers work under the direction of a Regional Customs Compliance Manager. These customs experts are responsible for the day-to-day management of applicable regulations and requirements of government and regulatory bodies, including:

  • Ensure compliance within the branch with all applicable government regulations

  • Implement Expeditors' branch review program for customs regulatory compliance

  • Provide updated materials and information necessary to support compliant entry processing

  • Understand the regulatory environment and changes

  • Train employees on regulations, as well as update them on changes

  • Coordinate protests and petitions where applicable
    
    
• Documentation Simplification and Standardization
  

  Our customs experts assist customers with quarterly document and shipment reviews. These reviews provide feedback on how to simplify and standardize commercial documents in accordance with regulatory requirements to minimize the risk of customs document query stops and penalties.

• Integration of Digital Technologies
  

  Expeditors in South Africa is fully integrated with SARS Customs. Our automated and paperless process allows for efficiency in our declaration process, with all documents retained immediately upon receipt in our document repository system. Key milestones can easily be updated in reporting and real-time dashboards, as required by customers. Customs event milestones are built into our customs system to facilitate an effective exception management platform that is fully transparent to our customers through EXP.O NOW.

• Collaboration with Customs Authorities and Other Stakeholders
  

  Expeditors belongs to various trade organizations and engages in industry and government forums. We have a very high standing with SARS due to our strict and high standards of compliance throughout our organization. We believe collaboration facilitates optimization and often participate in pilot projects with key stakeholders.

In South Africa, Expeditors' strong customs team uses the best systems to provide real-time visibility of Customs declaration milestones. We key entries once the cargo is confirmed on board so there is sufficient time to focus on document quality checking prior to shipment pre-clearance submission of customs entries. Our knowledgeable team can support with tariffing opinions, duty drawbacks, refund applications, value determinations, tariff determinations, and protest applications as required. 

By taking advantage of Expeditors' tools and best practices, South African customers are better able to:

• Meet the ever-changing regulatory environment

• Enhance existing customs compliance programs to meet compliance goals and minimize trade risk 

• Manage vendor performance, identify bottlenecks, and drive down supply chain costs

• Take advantage of cost reduction opportunities through ongoing assessment of customs brokerage and logistics needs

All of which drive business and, eventually, economic growth for South Africa.

Download our free flyer to learn more about our Customs brokerage services in South Africa.

Should you wish to discuss your Customs Program and how we can support your business growth strategy, please reach out to the following team members:

Lauren Goddard – Country Sales Manager, South Africa (lauren.goddard@expeditors.com)

Eugene Ravindran – District Manager, Johannesburg (eugene.ravindran@expeditors.com)

Candice Du Randt – District Sales Manager, Cape Town & Gqeberha (candice.durandt@expeditors.com)

Nathan Chetty – District Sales Manager, Durban (nathan.chetty@expeditors.com)