Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/26723 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
WTO Staff Working Paper No. ERSD-2008-02
Publisher: 
World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva
Abstract: 
The Harmonized System is normally amended by the World Customs Organization every four to six years. These amendments pose considerable challenges for the WTO and its Members. On the one hand, Members need to periodically update their historical schedules of concessions into the latest nomenclature. On the other hand, these amendments may have implications for the definition and thus also the implementation of some WTO agreements where the product coverage is defined in terms of the HS. In either case, the product codes and/or descriptions in the old HS version need to be transposed precisely into those in the new version of HS nomenclature in order to retain the historical concessions or the product coverage unchanged. Given the complexity of HS amendments, this process could be very technical and sometimes tricky. This paper starts by providing an overview of the HS amendments and proposing a categorization of those HS changes in the context of transposition. It then looks back at the history of the introduction of the HS and its subsequent amendments into the WTO schedules and assesses the difficulties and problems which have been faced by WTO Members. On the basis of such analysis, it introduces the successful procedures and methodologies used by WTO Members and the WTO Secretariat to deal with the recent HS2002 transposition. The paper also discusses the implications of the HS amendments to three WTO agreements and the possible approaches to transpose their product lists into a new HS nomenclature.
Subjects: 
WTO
schedule of concessions
Harmonized System
transposition
JEL: 
F10
F13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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