A National Workshop on the Harmonized System (HS) was held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, from 10 to 14 February 2025. The Workshop was organized jointly by the WCO and the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan, with the sponsorship of the Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF) of China. It was facilitated by a Senior WCO officer and an expert on HS from Spain and attended in-person by 18 officials and managers from Turkmenistan Customs.

During the opening ceremony, Mr. Guvanch MYRADOV, Head of the Training Centre of the State Customs Service thanked the WCO and CCF China for working together with Turkmenistan Customs Administration to strengthen this important technical area. He highlighted the importance of HS classification as one of the pillars of Customs not only for revenue collection but also for the protection of society and environment as well as for trade facilitation and for the implementation of trade regulations. He encouraged the participants to take the opportunity to improve the technical works focusing on the modernisation of the current classification work model in the country, which have direct linkage on revenue collection.

The presentations included an overview of the HS and its related tools as well as information on some specific topics such as chemicals, medicaments, agricultural products and machinery. One participant presented the structure of the National Tariff in Turkmenistan and referred to the future challenges for its update.

Furthermore, the Workshop offered an opportunity to discuss the WCO Guidelines on Advance Rulings and to assist users of the HS to modernize their tariff classification work and related infrastructure.

In his closing remarks, Mr. MYRADOV thanked again the WCO and CCF China for their ongoing capacity building support and expressed his confidence on the practical benefits for the participants of the State Customs Service of Turkmenistan after the discussions on a wide range of topics on tariff classification and advanced rulings held during the workshop.