News

SADC Rules of Origin:
These are the cornerstone of the SADC intra regional trade and serve to
prevent non-SADC goods from benefiting from the preferential tariff treatment offered
under the trade regime. It is therefore important for traders to fully understand the
provisions of the rules if they are to benefit from trading under SADC.
Customs Clearing agent role
Ensuring that you are dealing with a clearing agent who understands the rules of origin is key for your competitive advantage. As MM Cargo Services, we will explain below and in the subsequent posts, the requirements for suppliers,customers, manufacturers exporters, importers and the traders to understand to help them whenever they are trading within the SADC region
Member states
The following countries are members of the Southern African Development
Community:
Angola,Botswana,Congo,DR,Lesotho,Madagascar,Malawi,Mauritius,Mozambique,Namibia,
South Africa,Swaziland,Tanzania,Zambia,Zimbabwe.
All goods that meet the requirements of the SADC Rules of Origin qualify for
preferential tariff treatment when they are traded within SADC.
SADC Rules of Origin are a set of criteria that is used to distinguish between
goods that are produced within the SADC Member States and are entitled to
preferential tariff treatment and those that are considered to have been
produced outside the SADC region that attract full import duties when traded
Origin criterion
For a product to be considered as originating in a Member State, it must meet
one of the criteria prescribed in the SADC rules of origin
For goods to be accepted as originating they should be consigned directly from
a Member state to a consignee in another Member State and:
a) They have been wholly produced/obtained. The product is considered
as wholly obtained or produced in SADC Member State if the product is
entirely grown, mined, fished, born and raised there, products
produced exclusively from materials/components that qualify in their
own right as originating in a SADC Member Sate etc
This does not include products of the same kind purchased in a SADC
Member State that were imported from a Non-SADC country; or
b) Have been produced in a Member State using non-originating
materials, provided that such material have undergone sufficient
working or process in one or more Member States; or
c) There has been a change in the tariff heading of a product arising
from processing carried out on the non- origination materials
Documentary evidence (Proof of Origin and transport
documentation)
The following documentary evidence to support the fulfillment of the above
conditions should be produced to the Customs authorities of the importing
Member State:
(a) Certificate of Origin duly signed by the exporter and authenticated with a
seal and signature by the designated authorities of the country of export:
(i) giving an exact description of the products;
(ii) Origin criteria
(iii) Consignee and consignor
Where the producer is not the exporter such producer must furnish the exporter
with a declaration (Producer declaration) as stipulated in Appendix III of the
Trade Protocol, declaring that the goods qualify as originating.
Cumulative principle
For purposes of determining origin of goods SADC Member States are considered
as one territory (country). Therefore cumulation occurs when a product is
manufactured from originating materials in one or more Member State e.g. Sugar
cane harvested in Swaziland, crushed in South Africa and refined in Zimbabwe.
or Zimbabwe may import sugar cane form Swaziland, crush and refine it, sugar
the end product, will be regarded as originating in Zimbabwe
De minimis rule/ Value tolerance
The SADC Trade Protocol provides relief when a product does not qualify as
originating only because some non-originating material of little value fails to
meet the minimum percentage in terms of value criteria. If the value of the nonoriginating
material in question is no more than 10% of ex-works price1 of item,
resulting deemed originating regardless of other requirements mandating use of
specific SADC sources input(s) of working/processing requirements(albeit not if it
causes the item to exceed the mandatory maximum value percentages for not
originating materials).