Welcome: the new harmonized system standards to enter into force on 1 january 2017
WELCOME: THE NEW HARMONIZED SYSTEM STANDARDS TO ENTER INTO FORCE ON 1
JANUARY 2017
The WCO Council, at its 123rd/124th Sessions in
June 2014, adopted a Recommendation that lists recommended amendments to the
Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature which will enter into force on 1 January
2017 (HS 2017).
This Recommendation is being promulgated under the provisions of Article
16 of the HS Convention, which implies that HS Contracting Parties now have six
months to notify the WCO Secretariat of an objection to a recommended
amendment.
Since the entry into force of the current version of the HS (HS 2012),
the HS Committee has been revising this version of the HS nomenclature for
almost five years. HS 2017 will be the sixth version of the HS since the
Convention entered into force in 1983. HS 2017 will enter into force for all HS
Contracting Parties, but will exclude any amendments objected to during the six
month timeframe.
The new version of the HS includes 234 sets of amendments. Environmental
and social issues are a major feature of these amendments, due to the
importance of the HS as a global tool for collecting trade statistics and
monitoring trade. This is borne out by the fact that the HS Convention
currently has 150 Contracting Parties, making it the WCO’s most successful
international instrument to date.
The majority of the recommended amendments were broached by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO):
- Amendments relating to fish and fishery products are aimed at further
enhancing the coverage of species and product forms which need to be monitored
for food security purposes, and the better management of resources.
- Amendments relating to crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates
are motivated by the importance of the trade in and consumption of these
species in their various product forms.
- Amendments relating to cuttlefish and squid enlarge the coverage of
the present HS codes for these species, in order to have all these species
grouped together.
The classification of forestry products has also been modified, in order
to enhance the coverage of wood species and get a better picture of trade
patterns. The modification will enable trade data on tropical wood to be
identified, resulting in better statistics on the trade in tropical wood and
better data on the use of non-tropical hardwoods. In addition, the amendments
include new subheadings for the monitoring and control of certain bamboo and
rattan products.
Furthermore, HS 2017 amendments aim to provide detailed information on
several categories of products that are used as antimalarial commodities. This
will facilitate classification work, and the trade in these life-saving
products.
The amendments also introduce specific subheadings to facilitate the
collection and comparison of data on the international movement of certain
substances controlled under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
New subheadings have also been created for a number of hazardous
chemicals controlled under the Rotterdam Convention and for certain persistent
organic pollutants (POPs) controlled under the Stockholm Convention. In some
cases, there is a confluence of control regimes for chemicals by both the
Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.
In addition, new subheadings have been created for the monitoring and
control of pharmaceutical preparations containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or
norephedrine, and for alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile (APAAN), a
pre-precursor for drugs.
Other amendments resulted from changes in international trade patterns.
Headings 69.07 (unglazed ceramic products) and 69.08 (glazed ceramic products)
were merged to take account of the fact that the main subheadings within these
headings concern products which are essentially no longer manufactured, and the
industry and trade no longer make a distinction between unglazed and glazed
ceramic products, whilst new products with a very high trade volume are
classified under subheadings 6907.90 and 6908.90 ("Other").
Furthermore, for purposes of adapting the HS to current trade practices,
certain important products will be separately identified in either existing or
new subheadings.
Advances in technology are also reflected in the amendments, inter
alia, the size criteria for newsprint, light-emitting diode (LED) lamps,
multi-component integrated circuits (MCOs), and hybrid, plug-in hybrid and
all-electric vehicles.
Finally, the HS 2017 Recommendation includes amendments to clarify texts
to ensure uniform application of the nomenclature. For example, the regrouping
of monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles in a new heading, namely
96.20.
Cesar
Olivier Dalston, www.dalston.com.br
Source: http://www.wcoomd.org, 20/07/2014.
