Armenia hosts National Multipurpose Workshop on the Harmonized System

Tariff classification of commodities has traditionally been one of the core areas of Customs work and has been high on the agenda of national administrations as well as the WCO. One of the recent major developments in this area was the adoption by the Council in 2012 of new instruments to support Members in their efforts to modernise tariff classification work and related infrastructure. This initiative is part of a bigger programme known as "Revenue Package".

Determined to align its work on best practice approaches and international standards recommended by the WCO, the Armenian Administration hosted a national multipurpose workshop on the Harmonized System to address all of the most essential aspects of this work in a comprehensive manner. The workshop was held in Yerevan, from 5 to 9 November 2012, and was funded by the CCF Eurocustoms. It gathered officers from several units concerned with commodity classification matters. Owing to the fact that the event was conducted entirely in Russian – a language widely spoken in Armenia – the flow of communication was smooth and the participation of the audience was very active.

The workshop offered an excellent opportunity to deliberate on a multitude of aspects related to the HS Convention, having both international and national dimensions : rights and obligations of Contracting Parties, dispute settlement mechanisms, functioning of WCO working bodies, implementation of HS 2012 amendments and HS-related Council Recommendations, theoretical and practical aspects of tariff classification, General Rules of Interpretation, and much more. It was a landmark in the overall endeavour of the Armenian Customs to modernise its tariff classification work model.