A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

S

SAD: Single Administrative Document
An eight-part set, used either in whole or parts, to facilitate easy movement of goods within the EU.

Sensitive Products
Domestically produced goods considered economically and politically important in a country whose competitive position would be threatened if protection against the imports of similar goods were reduced. The steel and textiles industries in many developed countries, for example, employ large numbers of workers, often in communities that cannot in the short term offer alternative employment. For these reasons, there has been strong opposition to the reduction of tariff and other trade-restricting measures affecting sensitive products.

Shipping Conference
An alliance made up of a number of carriers that provide service from point to point for a defined route, which is distributed based upon market share.

Sight Draft
A Bill of Exchange payable at sight, ie “on demand”

Single-Column Tariff
A tariff schedule listing only one duty rate for each imported product. The United States maintained a single-column tariff schedule until 1909, when special preferences were instituted for products imported from Cuba and the Philippines.

SITC (Standard International Trade Classification)
An international foreign data scheme that permits international comparisons of foreign trade data. It was developed by the United Nations in 1950 and is used solely by international organizations for reporting international trade.

SITPRO (Simplification of International Trade Procedures)
A UK organisation who frequently become involved in improving documentation etc on a worldwide basis.

Standards
Technical specifications that lay down characteristics of a product such as size, quality, performance, or safety. Standards may also cover terminology, testing methods, packaging, labelling, or marking requirements.

SWIFT (Society For World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications)
Major banks have set up a computer system for interbank transfers called the Society For World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).

Specific Limitations On Trade
Government measures that restrict imports or exports of a product during a given period to an explicitly stated volume or value, usually by requiring a license or other government authorization for each export or import transaction.

Specific Tariff
A customs duty assessed as a stated monetary amount per unit of physical quantity, such as so many cents a pound, a bushel, or a yard, regardless of the value of the imported item.

Spot Market
A market in which goods or securities are traded for immediate delivery. The spot price is, therefore, the price for immediate delivery.

SPS (Sanitary And Phytosanitary Measures)
Any measures applied to protect human or animal life from risks arising from additives, contaminants, toxins, or disease-causing organisms in their food; to protect human life from plant- or animal-carried diseases; to protect animal or plant life from pests, diseases, or disease-causing organisms; and to prevent or limit other damage to a country from the entry, establishment, or spread of pests. These include measures taken to protect the health of fish and wild fauna, as well as of forests and wild flora.

Strategic Stockpiles
Accumulated stocks of raw materials or other commodities deemed essential to national defence and maintained so that a country's actual or potential supply of the goods stocked will not fall below the quantity likely to be required for a given period of national emergency.

Supply Access
Assurance that importing countries have fair and equitable access at reasonable prices to supplies of raw materials and other essential imports. Such assurance might include explicit constraints against the use of the export embargo as an instrument of foreign policy. Requests for such assurance reflect the desire of countries to have a consistent supply of important raw materials at stable prices.