The World Customs Organization: “It's Hard even for us to be Strict about Uniformity of Application of the Harmonized system”
Gill Nadel, Adv.
The community of importers and customs agents frequently talks, justifiably or not, about the existence of “the state of Ashdod”, “the state of Haifa”, and “the state of Lod”, according to the policies enacted by one customs office or another regarding customs related issues.
A convention organized in September 2007 by the World Customs Organization (WCO), which is responsible for the harmonized system for classification of goods, in which Adv. Nadel participated, touched, inter alia, on the question: Uniform Application- Is it Wishful Thinking? The answer, it seems, is not encouraging. Not only is the World Customs unable, it might not even want to. The questions of the participants about the increase in the amount of meetings dealing with classification, the increased publication of decisions, interference with the decisions of national customs authorities- all received more or less the same answer, along the lines of “there's no budget”, “it's beyond our jurisdiction”, and so forth.
In a behind the scenes conversation between Adv. Nadel and one of the World Customs Organization speakers, the speaker agreed to interfere in the decisions of the national customs authorities, if it became clear that they were unreasonable. We listened closely, we took notes, and we will see in the future.
What arises from all this is that the ball is back in the national court. And anyone who isn't satisfied with the decisions of the national customs authorities is invited to turn to the court. It seems that only they will be able to give the goods in the foreseeable future.
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