The review of steel tariffs planned by the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) may take longer than trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau expects.
The minister said in a recent written reply to a parliamentary question that it was envisaged that the first set of recommendations arising from Itac’s review of the tariff structure for certain steel products would be ready by June 2025.
The review of the tariff structure covers upstream and downstream steel products dealt with in chapters 72, 73, 82 and 83 of the tariff book.
XA Global Trade Advisers CEO Donald Mackay says the minister’s proposed timeline may be too ambitious. The review, he said would encompass tariffs for primary steel products, fabricated steel products such as pipes and fasteners, items such as spades and cutlery and other steel products such as padlocks.
Mackay said Itac had previously undertaken two tariff reviews of the steel sector in 2015/16. “In those reviews, which were still large, they only covered a modest subset of what they are proposing to do now and those were enormous reviews.
“Typically Itac will publish a gazette giving notice of the review and companies will have several weeks to respond. A very large number of companies will be impacted and will respond, each taking different stances. The sheer volume of information to work through will be huge,” said Mackay.
“It is not uncommon for a single product review, like aluminium a few years ago, to take over a year to complete. Itac’s policy document says it should take them six months to complete an investigation (single product), but they take on average 28 months, and that is not hundreds of different products like they are proposing in this review.
“If they do wrap this up in six months, I’d be suspicious about how thorough the investigation was, which could open those decisions to legal review. I’d also like someone to explain how they could do all this in six months, but then take 63 months to complete the review on solar panels.”
Itac spokesperson Pfano Sikhipha said that the first part of the review process involved identification and preliminary engagements with known key stakeholders to assist Itac in determining the scope of the review and the specific tariff classifications.
“The next step is to send requests to known interested parties to submit their written representation. Once the consultations are done a preliminary submission will be prepared and tabled before the commission for publication in the Government Gazette for interested parties to comment for a period four weeks.
“The publication in the Government Gazette is the actual initiation of the review. During the publication period, interested parties will submit their comments in response to the publication notice.”
Mackay said that further engagements with interested parties would then take place. Then the final submission with the recommendations would be presented before the commission for final evaluation. “The commission’s recommendations will be forwarded to the minister of trade, industry and competition for final decision.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.