Commodity Classification Under The Harmonized System

This international goods nomenclature is being used by more than 200 countries and Customs or Economic Unions across the globe and currently regulates almost 98% of world trade. With the new version of the Harmonized System coming into force on 1 January 2007, this Customs Compendium is the perfect guide for those who have a stake in international business affairs today.

"The Australian Harmonized Export Commodity Classification (AHECC) is designed for use by exporters and agents to classify goods when providing export declarations to Australian Customs Service (Customs); and to assist users in the interpretation of export statistics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)."--Introd.

Non-tariff measures are generally defined as policy measures other than ordinary customs tariffs that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices or both. Since this definition is broad, a detailed classification is of critical importance so as to better identify and distinguish among the various forms of non-tariff measures. The classification of non-tariff measures presented here is a taxonomy of all those measures considered relevant in international trade today. It builds on an old UNCTAD classification known as the Coding System of Trade Control Measures and was developed by several international organizations forming what is called the MAST group (Multi-Agency Support Team) set up to support the Group of Eminent Persons on Non-tariff Barriers established by the Secretary General of UNCTAD in 2006. The MAST team discussed and proposed this classification, and is composed of: FAO, IMF, ITC, OECD, UNCTAD, UNIDO, World Bank and WTO. The classification is seen as evolving and should adapt to the reality of international trade and data collection needs.