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The World Customs Organization (WCO) will host the first Continental Conference on the Harmonized System (HS) for Africa, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), on 23 and 24 November 2021, in a virtual format. The Conference is funded by the European Union (EU) within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme).

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, commonly known as the Harmonized System (HS), is an international trade nomenclature that classifies all goods based on a set of rules that is the same for all countries. The intent of the HS is to facilitate international trade, to streamline the collection of data and statistics, as well as to standardize trade documentation and information exchange. Customs tariffs of more than 200 economies world-wide are based on the HS.

The success of the Harmonized System owes much to its built-in review mechanism whereby the HS Nomenclature is regularly updated. This allows to adapt the HS to changes in technology and constantly evolving patterns of international trade. So far six editions of the HS have been implemented.