The classification of goods – It’s what you don’t know that brings you in trouble

Customs Compliance & Risk Management, Issue 19, February / March 2023
Christopher Matt
Christopher Matt
Managing director, Head of the classification and export controls unit, MA-TAX Consulting GmbH, Germany
Published 26 Mar 2023
The classification of goods – It’s what you don’t know that brings you in trouble
Photo by Yevgen Tarasov on Unsplash
Topic spotlight
Classification
This is not a scientific paper claiming to be absolutely complete - it is rather a short examination (born out of the practitioner’s view) of the complexity of classification based on a simple article (with minor variations) and a pointing out of the (often, usually) missing information to classify an article completely (automated?) based on existing (tabular?) data. Let us now consider the complexity of classification in the EU nomenclature using a simple example. Let's take as an example a screw, more precisely a hexagon head screw.

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