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Foreword
1. The Customs Co-operation Council was established under a Convention signed at Brussels on 15 December 1950, which came into force on 4 November 1952. In June 1994, the Council adopted the informal working name "World Customs Organization" for the Customs Co-operation Council. Under the terms of this Convention, the Council is required to "examin the technical aspects, as well as the economic factors related thereto, of Customs systems with a view to proposing to its Members practical means of attaining the highest possible degree of harmony and uniformity".
2. For this purpose, the Council is assisted by four technical Committee. The Valuation Committee and the Nomenclature Committee deal with the implementation and interpretation of the Convention on the Valuation of goods for Customs purposes and the Convention on Nomenclature for the classification of goods in Customs tariffs. The Enforcement Committee helps Members combat all kinds of Customs fraud. The Permanent Technical Committee deals with all aspects of the other Customs technical questions with the object of finding the practical means by which the Council can discharge its obligations under the Convention.
3. To this end the Permanent Technical Committee has recourse to traditional instruments such as Customs Conventions, Recommendations and Resolutions which are submitted for approval by the Council. In addition, however, the Committee has also undertaken a systematic and comparative study of the Customs procedures in force in the various Member countries, the drafting of International Customs Norms, the preparation of a Glossary, which will serve as a first step in the establishment of an international Customs terminology, the preparating of Guidelines and of Model legislation.
4. Customs Conventions are published in special brochures, together with a Commentary. The comparative studies of Customs procedures are also published, as and when approved by the Council.
5. The purpose of this Compendium is to group, in one publication, the Recommendations and Resolutions (now published in the yearly Bulletin dealing with the activities of the Council), the International Customs Norms (which have not so far been published), the Glossary of International Terms, Guidelines and Model legislation.
6. This Compendium is published in loose-leaf to allow for subsequent incorporation of further texts and to facilitate amendment by replacing any amended pages.
7. For ease of reference, each Recommendation, Resolution or Norm is identified by its title and, where appropriate, by the date of its adoption, as well as by a reference number which is repeated on each of the relevant pages. The first two digits in this number indicate whether the text is a Recommendation (T2), a Resolution (T3), or a Norm (T4). The other digits refer to the systematic decimal classification plan adopted for the whole field of Customs technique. A Recommendation and a Norm may, therefore have the same second group, if they deal with the same subject . All texts can thus be classified by reference to their subject-matter.
8. The first page of each Recommendation, Resolution or Norm also indicates the serial number of the original document approved by the Council and, in the case of Norms, of the comparative study on which the Norm was based.
9. The Glossary of International Customs Terms is being systematically revised. The Compendium contains the definition so far approved by the Council. Further terms and their definitions will be added by means of Amending Supplements as and when approved.
