The World Customs Organisation (WCO) Harmonised System Committee (HSC) held its 58th Session from 28 September to 07 October at the WCO headquarters in Brussels. More than 120 participants representing 65 Contracting Parties to the HS Convention, two WCO Member administrations and four international organisations attended.
The HSC took some 50 decisions on the tariff classification of products covered by the whole range of the HS Nomenclature. Where applicable, the products were classified in the 2012 Edition of the Nomenclature as well as in the 2017 Edition. The HSC adopted 11 sets of amendments to the Explanatory Notes and approved 14 new Classification Opinions. Anticipating the 2017 Edition of the Compendium of Classification Opinions, the HSC revised six existing Classification Opinions and deleted two. When deemed approved by the WCO Council at the end of December 2016, these classification decisions (except for those in respect of which requests for re-examination will be entered) and amendments to the Explanatory Notes and Compendium of Classification Opinions will be made available on the WCO website.
In the framework of the HS Nomenclature 2017 Edition that will enter into force on 01 January 2017, the HSC approved three minor corrigendum amendments of some technical/editorial errors.
The Committee accepted the single Russian language version of the HS 2017 Nomenclature presented by the Customs Administration of the Russian Federation as well as the single Spanish language version of the HS 2017 Nomenclature (VUESA (Versión Única en Español del Sistema. Armonizado) 2017) submitted by COMALEP (the Secretariat of the Multilateral Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between Customs National Directors of Latin America, Spain and Portugal).
As a result of some of the decisions concerning the classification of goods, the HS Review Sub-Committee was requested to examine a possible amendment of the Nomenclature (HS2022) to facilitate the future classification of products, for example the classification of meat preparations of Chapter 16 containing cocoa.
In addition, the HSC examined a series of general questions, including the status and challenges in relation to implementation of the HS Nomenclature 2017 Edition.