Harmonized System - Applications

Applications

As of 17 October 2011, there are 206 countries or territories applying the Harmonized System worldwide,

• Customs tariffs
• Collection of international trade statistics
• Rules of origin
• Collection of internal taxes
• Trade negotiations (e.g., the World Trade Organization schedules of tariff concessions)
• Transport tariffs and statistics
• Monitoring of controlled goods (e.g., wastes, narcotics, chemical weapons, ozone layer depleting substances, endangered species)
• Areas of Customs controls and procedures, including risk assessment, information technology and compliance.

Codes have been revised through the years. If it is necessary to reference a code related to a trade issue from the past, one must make sure the definition set being used matches the code.