A WCO National Seminar on the Harmonized System was held in the headquarters of ADAU (Asociación de Despachantes de Aduana de Uruguay) in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 20 to 22 July 2016. The Seminar was a joint initiative of the WCO, the Uruguay Customs (Dirección Nacional de Aduanas) and ADAU. It was attended by 130 participants from both Uruguay Customs and ADAU.

The Seminar was facilitated by a WCO Senior Technical Officer and Mr. Daniel Cardozo, a WCO Accredited Trainer in HS matters, from Uruguay Customs.

The Director of Trade Affairs in Uruguay Customs, Mr. Jaime Borgiani, highlighted the ongoing support of the WCO to meet the demands of Uruguay in its capacity building initiatives and thanked the representative from the WCO for facilitating the high level discussions on tariff classification issues.

Mr. Borgiani stressed the importance of the HS as the most widely used instrument of the WCO, responsible for the correct and uniform classification of goods – a key issue for Customs administrations and other relevant international trade stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.

Also present at the opening of the seminar was the Vice-President of ADAU, Mr. Gabriele Gambaro, who thanked the WCO for its continuous support on the matter and stressed the relevance of the Seminar and its contribution to the effectiveness of the work carried out by ADAU.

During the Seminar the group discussed the use and future prospects of the Harmonized System (HS), in particular the HS 2017 edition, and some practical cases of tariff classification in relevant areas. The HS classification model in Uruguay was also discussed by participants. The implementation and impact of the Spanish version of the HS 2017 edition (VUESA) at the Regional Level (Mercosur) and at the National Level (Uruguay National Tariff) was discussed in detail.