BRONWYN NORTJE: Delay in signing import tariff changes may hurt wheat millers
Treasury has still not released outcome of review and is dragging its feet on revised duty
Uncertainty is a terrible thing. If you are a wheat farmer or miller, it is something you have probably come to live with. Not because of the unpredictability of the weather or the volatile rand, or even the ever-present land or labour issues, but because the finance minister is too busy to sign and gazette the changes to the variable wheat import tariff. I’ve written before that the review of the variable tariff formula by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and International Trade Administration Commission of SA (Itac) was a positive sign. The formulae used to calculate the tariff have been little changed since 1999, when they were first implemented. When the proposed review was announced, the variable tariff had increased by a whopping 34% to R1,224.31 per tonne.In light of rising food prices and worryingly high food-price inflation, then finance minister Pravin Gordhan sensibly requested that the DTI conduct an "urgent and accelerated" review of the wheat import tariff. H...
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