SA to impose anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese windscreens

22 January 2024
Sunday World
by Bongani Mdakane

South African authorities have moved swiftly to protect the local glass industry, with the country set to slap cheap windscreen imports coming from China with tariffs in a move meant to protect domestic jobs and industry. This follows a recommendation from the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) to Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel that the department impose definitive anti-dumping duties on the subject product originating in or imported from China.

“The minister has approved the commission’s recommendation and has requested the minister of finance, in terms of section 56 of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964, to amend Schedule No 2 to the act in order to give effect to the recommendation,” reads a government gazette published on Friday. “The five-year period that the anti-dumping duties may stay in place before the duties lapse, if a sunset review is not initiated, will be counted from the publication date of the notice in the Government Gazette.”

ITAC launched an investigation into the dumping of vehicle windscreens in the Southern African market by China in 2022 after Shatterprufe, a division of PG Group, alleged that windscreens for vehicles to be used in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) market as aftermarket replacement glass, originating in or imported from China, were being dumped on the Sacu market. Sacu is a customs union between Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. Its headquarters are in the Namibian capital, Windhoek. Shatterprufe is South Africa’s leading windscreen and auto glass manufacturer.

ITAC said its recommendation was after it considered all interested parties’ comments and taking the exporters’ and importers’ information into account. “The commission made a preliminary determination that the subject product, originating in or imported from the subject country, was being dumped on the Sacu market, causing material injury and threat of material injury to the Sacu industry.” The South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference in 2022 also applied for anti-dumping duties on car passenger, truck and bus tyres from China. Tyres worth R5.7-billion were imported into South Africa in the investigation period (August 2020 to July 2021), with 47% coming from China.