Customs Tariff - Amendments to HSN –effective 01.01.2012
The Harmonized System Committee of the World Customs Organization (WCO) has been working for almost five years on a draft Article 16 Council Recommendation concerning the amendment of the Harmonized System.
The WCO Council adopted the Recommendation at its annual sessions in June 2009 and the Recommendation is now being promulgated under the provisions of Article 16 of the Harmonized System Convention. This implies that HS Contracting Parties have 6 months during which they can object to a recommended amendment.
The Recommendation contains 221 sets of amendments. Environmental and social issues are a major feature of these amendments, particularly the use of the HS as the standard for classifying and coding goods of specific importance to food security and early warning data falling within the ambit of the Food Security Information for Action Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In the same vein, certain amendments would create additional subheadings for the identification of chemicals and pesticides controlled under the Rotterdam Convention and ozone depleting substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol.
Other amendments to the HS resulted from changes in international trade patterns. In this regard, the HS would be simplified by the deletion of more than 40 subheadings in the nomenclature due to their low volume of trade.
In addition, for purposes of adapting the HS to current trade practices, certain important products will be separately identified in either existing or new headings. Where possible, advances in technology are also reflected in the amendments.
One of the new headings is 9619.00: Sanitary towels (pads) and tampons, napkins and napkin liners for babies and similar articles, of any material..