New tools have recently been developed as part of the WCO’s Revenue Package, which collates all material relevant to improving revenue collection and compliance levels.
Diagnostic Tool on Tariff Classification, Valuation and Origin Work and...
Goods classification and origin determination of goods are closely interlinked. Typically, the requirements for determining origin are specified for individual products or product categories identified according to their respective Harmonized System (HS) code. Classification of goods is, therefor...
Brazil is on the cusp of a groundbreaking transformation, with the rollout of an upgraded version 2.0 of its Foreign Trade Single Window, the Portal Único Siscomex. A core innovation within the Portal is the introduction of a catalogue describing products using pr...
In Customs goods nomenclatures, some goods are subsumed within a broader group of goods in the same classification. As they are hidden as an unknown quantity within the broader class of goods with which they share a classification, enforcing regulations on the cross-border movements of these good...
Product Catalogue
Once attributes are identified for each CMN code, exporters and importers are asked to register the products they currently trade or plan to trade, and to provide an accurate description using the attri...
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, generally referred to as “Harmonized System” or simply the “HS”, is seldom mentioned in the pages of this magazine. It is, however, one of the WCO’s flagship instruments. One can even say that it is the backbone of ...
While the Harmonized System, or HS, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, it is, in fact, much older because it was developed over several years starting in the 1970s. Having worked on HS matters for at least 40 years, both within Danish Customs and at the WCO Secretariat, I have ...
As the WCO celebrates the 30th anniversary, in 2018, of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, more popularly known as the Harmonized System or the HS, the question may be asked whether the time has come to contemplate a major overhaul o...
The changing uses of the HS
The HS causes individual goods to be put into classes so that administrations can decide what to do about these goods as a group: charge a particular rate of duty, require an import permit, check for insect con...
How the Harmonized System supports a safer, greener world by specifying goods of environmental concern or interest.
“Here be dragons”
Dragons and other mythological beasts...
Goods posing environmental risks
In every new edition of the HS, there are changes designed to make it simpler for administrations to monitor and control the trade in goods posing an environmental risk. For example, goods...
While many traded goods can be correctly identified and classified by simple visual inspection or documentation review, some require chemical or scientific testing to ascertain their identity and enable their correct classification. Products as diverse as acetaminophen (a pharmaceutical product),...
In January 2018, the Ghanaian government notified the WCO Secretariat that it had accepted seven Harmonized System (HS)-related WCO Council Recommendations, testimony to its strong commitment to implement objective, predictable and transparent classification pr...
At the time of the effective takeover in September 2015, a new facility that would subsequently be known as the Customs Technical Services Bureau was already in place at Customs Headquarters, and, within it, a National Classification Centre. There was also a pool of experienced officers to man th...
At the end of July 1882, a strange package arrived at the Madrid Customs laboratory which was under the direction of Gabriel de la Puerta-Ródenas, a Spanish chemist who lived from 1839-1908. Destined for Spain’s Prime Minister, the Spanish authorities, fearing for the Prime Minister’s life, ...
Appropriate policies and sound legal and regulatory frameworks are necessary conditions to make international trade a virtuous engine to eradicate poverty and hunger, and to promote prosperity and sustainable development.
On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations (U...
On 18 February 2015, the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) of the Dominican Republic officially opened a modern scientific laboratory occupying a site measuring 1,217 square metres in the city of Santo Domingo. The facility has an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), an emergency generator, kit...
The WCO website tells us that tariff classification using the Harmonized System (HS) Nomenclature “allows a world of many languages to speak with one.” As we mark the 30th anniversary of the official adoption of the HS in 1988, few could argue against the value of this universal la...
In one word: Yes! At least, that is the experience of the Danish Customs and Tax Administration (SKAT). There are, of course, issues to be considered and addressed before taking the decision to use a private laboratory as a Customs laboratory, but once the issues have been addressed, it is entire...
As industry continues to innovate, the work on amending the Harmonized System is never complete. This article looks at the origin and evolution of LED products to illustrate how the System can adapt to product developments over time, lighting the way for traders an...
The WCO’s Harmonized System, or HS, is a vital element of Customs. But classification systems are common, so what makes a specialized Customs classification system so important that Customs administrations continue to put much work and time into having their own classification system? The HS do...
It is also the instrument for most trade agreements, ensuring a common understanding of goods among the parties to an agreement. Through its provision of data for statistical analysis, it has an indirect, but essential role in many more policy areas. Some HS updates are specifically made to assis...
In late December 2010, the news broke about a Seattle court case involving counterfeit honey. A 70-year old Bellevue, Washington man, Chung Po Liu, had been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and was ordered to pay 400,000 US dollars (USD) in restitution for importing falsely declared Chines...
Changing strategies
Then the Chinese exporters changed their strategy. This time the shipments were sent from China, but they weren’t declared as honey. The shipping documents labelled the cargo as sugar syrup. “They ...
How does a specific product become the subject of a global classification decision at the WCO? What information is considered when amendments are made to the Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature? And how can a company or industry sector engage at the WCO to supp...
One of the main topics of discussion during the 2019 WCO Conference on the Future Direction of the Harmonized System (HS) was HS complexity. Concern was expressed about the difficulty of HS classification especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that are being granted the opportunity to ...
Keyword search tools
The most ubiquitous of the technologies used to power classification assistance tools use keyword search operators. You’ll find these tools in one form or another in Customs management systems, elec...
How do we discover new fraud? On what basis and on which data do we rely in deciding when to investigate certain commodities or trade flows rather than others? Chance, intuition, experience and intelligence are useful, but can we complement them using a more object...
The Harmonized System (HS) contains many formulas linking goods and their use. Such connection formulas add complexity to the classification of goods as they are not always well defined and the difference between them is not always...
Almost exclusive use
The wording “solely or principally” is also used, implying an almost exclusive use.
Machine learning, i.e. the process of teaching a computer system how to make accurate predictions when fed data, can help Customs administrations to identify revenue fraud or other illegal activities. In this article, TTEK, a technology solutions firm, explains how...
At the time of writing, there are 164 countries that are members of the WTO; the most recent addition being Afghanistan in July 2016. In addition, several other countries have chosen voluntarily to adopt the Agreement as the basis for determining Customs value. To meet the terms of their internat...
There are many discussions about the efficiency of classification assistance tools. In this article, we argue that an AI-based tool, if well-built and properly used, can support classification experts, enabling them to focus their attention on unusual and difficult...
Firms that use AI extensively throughout their operations perform at a higher level than those that do not, and they seem to be aware of it, with 73% of businesses stating that AI is critical to their success.[1] However, even though nearly three out of four o...