Enterprise Shipping Question: What is a Harmonized Code?
Posted by Rachel Rodenborg on Wed, Apr 13, 2011 @ 03:04 AM
Here's an enterprise shipping question for you:
Ever wondered what a harmonized code is?
The first time I was responsible for the shipping function, I sure did.
The company where I worked at the time wasn't a big operation--so we didn't have a dedicated shipping staff (I actually worked in marketing)--but we periodically shipped boxes of our product literature all over the world and I was responsible for getting the shipments out.
The first time I was prompted for the harmonized shipping code by the shipping computer, I drew a blank and couldn't help but stifle a giggle--harmonized as in singing? (I immediately had the mental picture of a quartet of shippers singing the appropriate code to the computer terminal I was working on.)
In some ways, my immediate reaction was way off--generally, there's no singing in shipping unless you happen to work with a very happy coworker--but in other ways my instincts were right on.
The word harmonized refers to the ability to work together, much like a barber shop quartet does with their melodies. In the same way, harmonized codes are a consistent way for shippers everywhere to classify shipments within a series of catagories, ensuring that each shipment is categorized properly, gets the specific tariffs associated with the shipment, and is recorded correctly.
Officially called the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, Wikipedia defines the system as follows,
"The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (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 (WCO) (formerly the Customs Co-operation Council), an independent intergovernmental organization with over 170 member countries based in Brussels, Belgium." (Source:Wikipedia)
For more detailed information on harmonized codes and how to use them, check out the WCO website.
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