SOURCE: IATA
The WCO Asia/Pacific Regional Workshop on Harmonized System 2022 was held virtually from 9 to 11 November 2021 with a goal of assisting the WCO Members of the Asia/Pacific region with the uniform interpretation and application of the HS 2022 edition. This Workshop was funded by Japan Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/Japan) and organized by the WCO Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate in collaboration with the Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P). 82 Customs officers representing 26 Customs Administrations* of the WCO Asia/Pacific region participated and shared critical information on the HS amendments at this workshop.
During the opening session, Mr. Hamaguchi, the Director for International Technical Cooperation of Customs and Tariff Bureau of the Ministry of Finance of Japan, stated that this Workshop would bring all members a deeper understanding of the HS 2022 amendments and would contribute to more proper and appropriate application of the HS on the ground.
Mr. Kaiopoulos, the Director for Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate of the WCO, in his opening remarks, indicated that despite the challenges posed by the pandemic the WCO has completed all necessary work and follow-up actions consequential to the HS 2022 amendments. He noted that the WCO considers training and information exchange as critically important activities for the successful interpretation and application of the new HS edition and underlined that the international community can draw the full advantages of the HS, only if it is applied uniformly and consistently by all users.
During the Workshop, comprehensive explanations on the scope of the HS 2022 amendments were presented by the WCO Secretariat experts. Two speakers from China and Thailand Customs shared their experience and lessons learnt in implementing the HS 2022 amendment to the national or regional nomenclatures. In addition, the WCO Publication Service presented the WCO Trade Tools, which is a new WCO database providing a single point of access to the information on the HS, Origin and Valuation, making it easy to compare HS 2017 and HS 2022.
The participants expressed their satisfaction and appreciation for the information shared at the Workshop, and stated that the Workshop has improved their understanding of the amendments of the HS and would help their administrations to implement the HS 2022 edition in a timely manner.