Goodfellas circa 2006: What is happening in South Africa?
In a story strangely mirroring the Lufthansa heist from the movie Goodfellas, armed robbers – possibly with cooperation from the security guard on duty – stole electronic equipment from Lufthansa at the Johannesburg International Airport:
Electronic equipment was stolen from Lufthansa in an armed robbery at the Johannesburg International Airport, the airline said today.
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The Airports Company of SA (ACSA) said the break-in happened shortly after midnight in “a public area where access is not restricted and did not impact on operations at the airport.”A security guard was present during the robbery.
Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said the guard claimed he had been tied up and robbed by three armed men, but that irregularities in his story had surfaced.
This is not the first time that ACSA (Airports Company of SA) employees and security guards have been involved in criminal activity:
Naidoo said there had been similar incidents in the past, and after the arrests of several employees and security guards the robberies had stopped.
The Goodfellas resemblance only gets deeper:
ACSA employees were arrested for involvement in a airport heist involving millions of dollars in foreign currency earlier this year.
And just who is “ACSA�
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) operates South Africa’s ten principal airports, including the three major international airports at Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
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ACSA is the largest airports authority in Africa. Together, its 10 airports handle more than 200 000 aircraft landings and 23 million arriving and departing passengers annually.
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ACSA’s mission is to manage and develop world-class airports successfully, for the benefit of all stakeholders. Its vision: to be a world leading airport business.
Emphasis ours.
Nor sure how you become a world leading airport business, operating the 3 major international airports for South Africa, when your own employees and security personnel have a history of cooperating with organized crime.
South Africa’s crime rate has been rising steadily for years now but has been especially rampant in the near past. The government tries to suppress such news and downplay crime statistics in an effort to market the country to tourists and business, but all one has to do is check with local insurance offices and outraged citizens to see that crime is fast becoming a national epidemic.
Special care should be taken when shipping sensitive or high-value cargo to and from South Africa. Make sure that you have adequate cargo insurance coverage and contingency plans in place in case of a loss. This article should be ample evidence that when it comes to securing your property you can not even rely on official airport authorities in charge of running major international airports.
Export Licensing Requirements for China
August 29, 2006 by SwizStick
Filed under QuickNews, Supply Chain Management
Does your company export to China? Does your product line include technology and/or sophisticated hardware or machinery? If so, make sure you are complying with current export regulations regarding dual use items to China.
China Law Blog has a post on a free webinar put on by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the China Business Information Center:
The webinar will take place on September 14, from 1:15 p.m. through 2:00 p.m., EDT. It will be led by Matthew S. Borman, Acting Assistant Secretary, responsible for implementing the Bureau of Industry and Security’s controls on the export of dual-use items for national security, foreign policy, nonproliferation, and short supply reasons and will focus on the following:
-The Scope of the proposed amendments
-Revision to the China licensing review policy for national security controlled items
-Understanding the proposed military end-use control
-New authorization for Validated End-Users
-New exporter requirements to obtain End-User certificates.
For those of you who don’t know, “dual use” items are:
…..items that have both commercial and military or proliferation applications
You can access the handy “Export Control Basics” from the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security website here. It’s a simple guide to the basics of export license controls.
This is an especially important topic for those companies with overseas locations in addition to the U.S. It is imperative that your overseas offices and employees are aware of U.S. export controls and what can and can not be exported to certain countries without a license. I have seen companies get into very serious trouble with the Bureau of Industry and Security because their overseas office unknowingly – and in some cases very knowingly – exported controlled items to the wrong country.
2007 HTS Updates
August 29, 2006 by SwizStick
Filed under Education, Supply Chain Management
Riskape, always a good read, links to an important white paper from JPMorgan Chase’s Vastera unit on upcoming changes to the HTS (Harmonized Tariff System). Rob @ Riskape:
Although the WCO’s intent is to make the changes “rate neutralâ€, there is significant risk of products being reclassified into higher duty classifications, either simply by chance or by a renewed focus by various customs bodies. Additionally, due to the massive overhaul that the classification system will undergo, “one-for-one†mapping (old classification to new classification) will not always be possible – further complicating the update process.
His full post, with link to the white paper, is here.
Ocean rates for agricultural exports to rise
August 28, 2006 by SwizStick
Filed under QuickNews, Seafreight
Members of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA) recently announced they will increase their rates for shipping agricultural products by $50 per 40-foot container (FEU) and $40 per 20-foot container (TEU), effective October 1.
The WTSA is a voluntary discussion and research forum of 11 major container shipping lines serving the trade from ports and inland points in the United States to destinations throughout Asia.
The organization said the rate increases will apply to non-seasonal shipments of meal, flour, starches, feed grains, corn products, seeds and additives, along with seasonal shipments of grains, soybeans, cotton products, and leguminous vegetables.
Via Logistics Management.
