ESTUDIOS Y ANÁLISIS: DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO
The harmonized system — Amendments and their impact on WTO Members’ schedules
As an internationally standardized product nomenclature, the Harmonized System (HS) is used by WTO Members in their schedules of concessions and in the definitions of product coverage for a number of WTO agreements.
The Harmonized System is normally amended by the World Customs Organization
every four to six years. These amendments pose considerable challenges for
the WTO and its Members. On the one hand, Members need to periodically
update their historical schedules of concessions into the latest
nomenclature. On the other hand, these amendments may have implications for
the definition and thus also the implementation of some WTO agreements where
the product coverage is defined in terms of the HS. In either case, the
product codes and/or descriptions in the old HS version need to be
transposed precisely into those in the new version of HS nomenclature in
order to retain the historical concessions or the product coverage
unchanged. Given the complexity of HS amendments, this process could be very
technical and sometimes tricky.
This paper starts by providing an overview of the HS amendments and
proposing a categorization of those HS changes in the context of
transposition. It then looks back at the history of the introduction of the
HS and its subsequent amendments into the WTO schedules and assesses the
difficulties and problems which have been faced by WTO Members. On the basis
of such analysis, it introduces the successful procedures and methodologies
used by WTO Members and the WTO Secretariat to deal with the recent HS2002
transposition. The paper also discusses the implications of the HS
amendments to three WTO agreements and the possible approaches to transpose
their product lists into a new HS nomenclature.
Nº: ERSD-2008-02
Autores:
Dayong Yu — OMC
Fecha de redacción: febrero de 2008
Palabras clave:
WTO, Schedule of Concessions, Harmonized System, Transposition
Código JEL:
F10, F13
Declinación de responsabilidad
Este es un documento de trabajo y se refiere, por consiguiente, a un estudio en curso. Refleja las opiniones personales de funcionarios o especialistas invitados y es el resultado de trabajos de investigación profesionales. No pretende reflejar la posición o las opiniones de la OMC o de sus Miembros ni la posición oficial de ningún funcionario. Los errores que puedan existir son responsabilidad de los autores. Pueden obtenerse ejemplares de este documento de trabajo en la Secretaría de la División, en la dirección siguiente: División de Desarrollo y Estudios Económicos, Organización Mundial del Comercio, rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Ginebra 21, Suiza. Sírvanse indicar en su solicitud el título y el número del documento.
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