On 04 August 2016 the World Customs Organisation (WCO) announced that during its 127th/128th sessions of the Council in July 2016, the delegates of the Russian Federation and Turkey had informed the Council that they had settled their differences over the Harmonised System (HS) classification of certain sodium sulphate products - tariff subheadings 2530.90 and 2833.11. As a consequence, the decisions on the classification of the following two products, taken by the HS Committee at its 56th session in September 2015, are deemed to be approved as from 01 December 2015:
Classification in tariff heading 25.30 (tariff subheading 2530.90) of a white loose powder containing more than 99.2% by weight of anhydrous disodium sulphate, obtained by mechanical collection of thenardite formed in the open air on the surface of mirabilite which gas crystallised from natural lake brine due to low temperature in winter. Prior to packing, the product has been sieved through a sieve with an aperture of 0.65 mm.
Classification in tariff heading 28.33 (tariff subheading 2833.11) of a white loose powder containing more than 98.5% by weight of anhydrous disodium sulphate, obtained from the mixture of mirabilite and thenardite which forms in the open air due to natural dehydration that is assembled and sent to the manufacturing facility where it undergoes a dehydratation process involving heating to a temperature not exceeding 60°C, its subsequent centrifugation and drying.