Customs and Excise Introduction to Harmonised System Customs Officers

Abstract

This manual is intended to give customs officers a handbook on tariff classification and is based on the World Customs Organization's (WCO) HS Convention, the Malawi Customs Tariff and associated literature. It provides customs officers with an understanding of maintaining uniformity in the classification of goods in international trade.

The topics covered in this manual include historical background of the harmonised system, the role of WCO in relation to the HS, publications, commodity description users, structure and arrangement of the HS, interpretation of the section and chapter notes, application of the general interpretive rules (GIRs) of classification, logical arrangement of goods in the HS nomenclature, and solving classification problems.

It is hoped that this manual will be a solution to the numerous problems encountered by the customs officers when classifying imported goods for customs purposes.