All goods that cross a border of the European Union are subject to a tariff classification that determines their nature. Depending on the imported or exported goods, various regulations and customs duties will be applied. Finding the right tariff classification is not always easy…
With CERL, you don’t have to worry about managing your declarations and customs codes. We act as your logistics facilitator and offer you complete customs services to facilitate the management of your supply chain!
However, it can be useful to have a first indication of the customs code of the goods in order to have an estimate of the customs charges or to know the existence of obligatory formalities. This is why we inform you of the publication of a new tool from the WCO that can help you in this approach.
The Band of Customs Data Analysts (BACUDA) project, in partnership with the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) and the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), proposes to put artificial intelligence at the service of transport operators! The tool is intended to help any operator to automate the classification in the Harmonized System.
CERL teams have tested this new feature for you!
Tariff classification of goods
As a reminder, the tariff type of a good allows to determine the essential elements for the transport: the rate of customs duties, the existence of prohibitions and/or restrictions, the EU trade measures (application of anti-dumping duties, existence of quotas, agricultural policies, etc.) and the existence of sanitary or phytosanitary formalities.
The Combined Nomenclature is used to classify goods in order to be able to declare them to the customs authorities in the European Union.
The position indicated in the declaration allows to know the treatment of the goods and the customs rate.
The tariff classification assigns a customs nomenclature code that uniquely identifies the goods. The customs nomenclature code can have 6, 8 or 10 digits:
- Six digist Harmonized System
- Two digits of the Combined Nomenclature
- Two digits of the TARIC
How to find the customs code of a good?
The WCO proposes to use Artificial Intelligence to make your searches easier!
The BACUDA system is a collaborative project between customs experts and data scientists. The data is based on the customs transactions that have already taken place. This information is collected from various customs administrations that wish to participate in the project (datasets are also collected from the public domain, some websites, social networks, means of transport tracking platforms, etc.).
The interface is easy to use, you just have to indicate a short description of your goods in the search bar: “Commercial Description of Goods”. The corresponding Harmonized System codes with their probabilities are then indicated.
It is also possible to consult recommendations, descriptions of the corresponding goods in the nomenclature and statistics on importers, customs agents and exporting countries.
Two tabs (2D and 3D visualization) allow the view to be modeled, facilitating the highlighting of Harmonized System chapters. A summary of the recommendations is also provided in a separate tab.
The results are sometimes surprising but give some good indications. The additional statistics are very informative and help to guide choices. But in the end, the tool is not perfect, you have to enter the right designation of your goods to stay on the right track (or enter many designations to make a match with keywords). BACUDA can help you with your first customs code searches or take you further away from the result…
CERL your preferred partner
CERL offers you peace of mind and saves you time!
Our teams manage all customs formalities in all ports and airports, both for imports and exports, whatever your goods.
CERL is an Authorized Air Agent and also has IATA approval and AEO certification for all its activities. Our teams are regularly trained to master the latest customs, tax and regulatory issues.
