The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa has increased the general rate of duty on sewing threads of man-made filaments (HS 5401.10) from free of duty to 15% ad valorem. The rate of duty applicable to the EU, EFTA and SADC remains at free of duty.
 
The duty had originally been 15% ad valorem before its removal in 2008. The increaseis to support the local industry to compete against foreign competition, support full utilization of production capacity and increase its market share. 
 
Affected trading partners
The GTA retrieves its data on affected trading partners from UN Comtrade. However, for the year 2010, the database was not able to provide the affected trading partners for Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho.