Under the sponsorship of the Customs Co-operation Fund/Korea, a Regional Workshop on the Harmonized System (HS) 2017 amendments for administrations of the Europe Region was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 25 to 28 April 2016. The Workshop was organized jointly by the WCO, the Regional Office of Capacity Building in Baku and the Customs Administration of Azerbaijan. It was attended by 23 officials from 18 Customs administrations in the Region as well as representatives from the Korean Administration.

The Workshop’s main focus was to secure uniformity in the interpretation and application of the HS Nomenclature 2017 Edition by Customs administrations of the Region. Furthermore, the Workshop offered an opportunity to discuss the tools recently developed by the WCO in the context of Phase II of the Revenue Package to support administrations in their efforts to modernize their tariff classification work and related infrastructure and to ensure fair, efficient and effective revenue collection.

All the participating administrations were given an opportunity to report on the progress with regard to the preparatory work to implement the HS 2017 amendments and to describe their situation as regards the organization of classification work. The most common difficulty faced by the administrations that attended the Workshop was reported to be a shortage in human resources allocated to the tariff classification work.

Like all regional WCO gatherings, the Workshop provided an excellent opportunity for networking and exchange of views on a wide range of practice-oriented topics on tariff classification and management of tariff and statistical nomenclatures, and was highly appreciated by those who attended it.