June 25, 2009

the light of HS code


Have you sometimes ever wondered how multinational businesses coordinate their offices or how certain products are delivered across the world? I do and for someone like me who has no background knowledge on business, I think there should be a book on "Business for Dummies" like me. But looking it up on the internet, one thing about this big businesses come up and that is the harmonized codes.

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System or HS of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization. Individual countries may extend a Harmonized System number to eight or ten digits for customs purposes, and eight or ten digits for export purposes.

For importers and exporters, a commodity code classification engine is of utmost value in hs tariff classifications to manage risks and costs associated with customs compliance. If you are an exporter or an importer and you need an instant accurate classification tool for hts code lookup, the technology is available that intelligently interprets products descriptions and drives the HS classification process to completion, while other technology available lets you perform large-scale post-entry audits of commodity classifications.

Knowing about this HS codes makes me look at my favorite chocolate bar in a different perspective, and sheds light to the business aspect of a simple everyday commodity.



2 comments:

Genefaith said...

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Unknown said...

the tariff book is about 3 inches thick. usually, it's the importer who provides the HS code since they're the ones paying for duties & taxes. it seems unimportant but small nuggets of information are worth knowing.