A Harmonized System classification and Advance Rulings workshop was recently arranged for the General Administration of China Customs (GACC) under the EU-China Trade Project II (EUCTP II), funded by the European Union. From 2010 to 2015, EUCTP II project activities will support the Chinese government's trade reform and sustainable development agenda across several areas, including Customs and trade facilitation, trade in services, food and product safety, investment and low carbon economy.
A representative of the EU Commission’s Department for Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), a classification expert from the Swedish Customs and a member of the WCO Secretariat’s Nomenclature Sub-Directorate facilitated the workshop, which took place in Shanghai, China, in July 2014.
The sessions covered organizational, technical and practical classification topics of interest to China Customs, including classification infrastructure, provisions of pre-entry determination on tariff classification (Advance Rulings), the ins and outs of the European Binding Tariff Information (EBTI) programme and the recommended amendments to the Harmonized System Nomenclature which will enter into force on 1 January 2017 (HS 2017).