The largest obstacle to developing a language for trade is words: what do they mean? This was apparent from the earliest meetings of the Harmonized System Committee as they confronted the problems of multiple languages and, even more frequently, the divisive disagreements over a shared language. Did you know that in English “rayon” is a manufactured fibre made of cellulose, but in French can mean a ray of sunshine (rayon du soleil) or on the shelf/ in stock (en rayon? Would you struggle to define exactly what a pullover was and how it might differ from other knitted garments like jerseys, t-shirts, sweatshirts and the like? Did you know that different countries, using the same language, often use the same words to mean different garments from each other or have different words for the same garment? These are some of the problems that the delegates at the first year’s meetings grappled with and have been doing so since whenever we see the expression ‘misalignment of text’ on an agenda item.

When we work and trade across borders, communicating meaning is a major challenge. The HS is required to work across all borders, so developing and sustaining a common understanding requires an ability to jump language barriers too.

One of the problems to exercise the minds of the HS Review Sub-Committee was the tricky question of how to define the term “pocket-size” as applied to apparatus such as cassette players. The Chairman, Mr. Reintjes (Netherlands), has provided the above pictorial comment on the various conflicting national views expressed.