The World Customs Organisation (WCO) Harmonised System Committee (HSC) held its 56th Session from 16-25 September 2015 at the WCO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The HSC took 27 classification decisions, adopted three sets of amendments to the explanatory notes (EN) and approved 26 new classification opinions. According to the WCO, when deemed approved by the WCO Council at the end of November 2015, these classification decisions (except for those in respect of which requests for re-examination will be entered) and amendments to the EN and the compendium of classification opinions will be made available on the WCO website.
In the framework of the HS Nomenclature 2017 edition (HS 2017) that will enter into force on 01 January 2017, the HSC approved a new draft WCO council recommendation relating to the use of standard units of quantity to facilitate the collection, comparison and analysis of international statistics. In the context of the HS 2017 amendments, the HSC also approved modifications to the WCO council recommendation of 1996 on the insertion of subheadings for substances controlled under the convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction. In addition, the committee adopted 11 sets of amendments to the EN consequential to the HS 2017 amendments.
Then, a special half day session was dedicated to international trade statistics. The objectives of the special session were to explore ways for Customs administrations to support merchandise trade statistics and to promote good cooperation between Customs agencies and their national statistical agencies.
