Your trade and customs knowledge
go-to-place

The technological advances we have witnessed in recent times affect all areas of our lives. Customs is no exception. On the one hand, there are a large number of new products equipped with advanced … technologies, including AI, that need to be classified, cleared and taxed upon import. On the other hand, customs authorities and private sector customs professionals are using the latest technologies for their professional purposes, in particular for tariff classification. How does this technology boom affect both sides of the customs industry? Does it make life easier for customs professionals or does it create new headaches? Experts from around the world tried to find answers to these complex questions during the 22nd Authors' Meeting. Below is an overview of the main points provided by experts from some of the EU Member States, the UK, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Israel.

Tariff classification is one of the most complicated things about customs. Not surprisingly, there are many tools available to make the process easier and more automated. This article provides … an overview of the main technologies and solutions available to assist classification, particularly those found online. This article is an abridged version of the full article published in the World Customs Journal, 18(1). The abridged version of the article is published with the permission of the WCJ.

An Israeli court recently ruled in favour of an importer's claim against the Israeli customs authority. The court found that the classification of a protective safe used to prevent the theft … of vehicle computers was in line with the importer's proposal. At the same time, the court dismissed part of the claim due to the statute of limitations.

In 2023, Côte d’Ivoire introduced a new and modern system of advance customs rulings. This development followed two workshops organised in Côte d’Ivoire in May 2023 with the German Alliance for … Trade Facilitation and under the aegis of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa funded by the EU. The workshops were part of a wider capacity-building programme to support Côte d’Ivoire in meeting its WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement obligations - in particular, Article 3 of the TFA which requires signatory parties to provide an option to apply advance rulings on origin and classification.

Binding tariff information is an EU customs decision on the tariff classification of goods. It provides importers and exporters with legal certainty as to the correct classification of their … goods and can be sought before importing or exporting goods.

These are the 6 rules that are applied when setting up a 6-character commodity code. The rules are laid down in the global Harmonized System and transposed into the EU Combined Nomenclature.

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System generally referred to as "Harmonized System" or simply "HS" is a multipurpose international product nomenclature. It is set out in the Annex … to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System.