Annex Q

Breakout Session: Challenges in product classification

a)Difficulties / experiences faced by countries in product classification?

  • Trader companies who are not manufacturers do not know much about product and whether those items are controlled
  • Difficulty in determining which products are to be controlled (control list)
  • Some countries have many small scale industries which have problems making ends meet, and do not care whether their goods are controlled
  • Some countries do not have industries where their goods are in the control regimes, such as a nuclear industry
  • Traders want to depend on the government to make assessment whether their goods are controlled, instead of doing self assessment
  • Strategic goods are controlled by description, not by HS codes – traders have problems understanding the list
  • Lack of resources – financial to set up system; manpower to provide expertise
  • Problems keeping up to date with the regimes list, especially if countries are not members to the regimes
  • May not make sense for countries to adopt the full list when there are no local industries
  • Unpopular job to implement export control system – traders will complain
  • For dual-use items, how to ascertain whether goods are for commercial purpose or for WMD use
  • For organizations with regular staff rotation, retaining technical expertise is a problem
  • Problem with implementing a regime list when enforcer is not familiar with the list
  • There is no international expert panel to provide technical assistance

b)How to improve the process of product classification?

  • Educate the industry to classify items by themselves
  • Industry Outreach to help traders to understand control list (also why goods are controlled)
  • Provide HS code concordance list as a guide
  • Body to come up with a control list with one international coding system
  • Keyword search engine for control list
  • Allow for non-members to seek technical advice from regime technical experts
  • Helpdesk call centre
  • Expert panel may come from industries, rather than a separate body e.g. Japan CISTEC – industries will receive facilitation
  • Equipment to assist in identifying controlled goods
  • A control list catalogue with pictures of items
  • Information sharing by the regimes – advance update on changes to the list, rationale for implementing those items
  • Outreach to top-level officials – easier during implementation

c)Technical training required?

  • Currently, most training are theoretical based, it would be useful to have training where physical items can be sighted
  • Develop a checklist for front-line officers to determine whether goods they see are controlled, so that they are able to refer to technical experts