The Appurtenance of this Agreement is considered an integral part of it, and any reference to the Agreement includes a reference to this Appurtenance.

1. Subject to the exceptions stated in Article Four:

• A. Each contracting party undertakes, except as provided in subparagraph (C) of this paragraph, to amend its customs tariff schedule and its statistical schedule in accordance with the Harmonized System, effective from the date this Agreement enters into force for it. Accordingly, it undertakes, with respect to its customs tariff and statistical schedules, to the following:

  • 1. The obligation to use all headings and subheadings of the Harmonized System without any addition or modification along with their corresponding numerical codes;

  • 2. The obligation to apply the general rules for the interpretation of the Harmonized System and all sections, chapters, and notes of the subheadings and not to modify the scope of the sections, chapters, headings, or subheadings of the Harmonized System;

  • 3. The obligation to follow the numerical sequence of the Harmonized System, as stated in the annex of this Agreement.

• B. Each contracting party also undertakes to publish statistics on its imports and exports in accordance with the six-digit codes of the Harmonized System, or exceeding this number at the initiative of the contracting party, provided that no information is excluded from this publication, or on its own unless there are reasons that necessitate preventing its publication such as commercial confidentiality or national security;

• C. There is no obligation for any contracting party to use the subheadings of the Harmonized System in its customs tariff schedule, provided that it fulfills its obligations stated in paragraphs A (1), A (2), and A (3) above in a unified statistical tariff schedule.

2. In order to fulfill the obligations stated in paragraph 1 (A) of this Article, each contracting party may make textual amendments if necessary to implement the Harmonized System in its domestic law.

3. Nothing prevents any contracting party from introducing in its customs tariff schedule or its statistical schedule subheadings for the classification of goods that exceed the scope of the Harmonized System, provided that any of these subheadings that exceed the six-digit numerical code specified in the annex of this Agreement are added or categorized.

1. Any contracting developing country may postpone the application of some or all of the sub-items of the coordinated system for the period it deems necessary, taking into account the nature of its international trade or its administrative resources.

2. Any contracting developing country that chooses to apply the coordinated system partially under the provisions of this article agrees to make every effort to fully apply the six-digit coordinated system within (5) years from the date this agreement comes into force for it or within any other period it deems necessary, taking into account the provisions of paragraph (1) of this article.

3. The contracting developing country that chooses to apply the coordinated system partially under the provisions of this article is obligated to apply all, or not apply any of the sub-items with two dashes (..) for any of the items with one dash (.) or all, or not apply any of the sub-items with one dash (.) for any item, and in these cases of partial application, the sixth number or the fifth and sixth numbers of that part of the code of the unimplemented system must be replaced with (.) or (..) respectively.

4. Developing countries that choose to apply the coordinated system partially under the provisions of this article must, when they become contracting parties, notify the General Secretary of the sub-items they do not intend to apply on the date this agreement will come into force for them, and they must also inform the General Secretary of the sub-items they will apply later.

5. Any developing country that has chosen to apply the coordinated system partially under the provisions of this article, when it becomes a contracting party, may notify the General Secretary that it officially commits to fully apply the six-digit coordinated system within three years from the date this agreement comes into force for it.

6. Any contracting developing country that applies the coordinated system partially under the provisions of this article has the right to be exempted from its obligations under Article Three concerning the unimplemented sub-items.

The contracting developed countries shall provide developing countries, upon request, with technical assistance in accordance with the terms agreed upon by the parties, related to training their employees and providing assistance to enable them to transition from their existing classification system to the coordinated system and to provide them with advice on the application of the provisions of this agreement.

1. A committee known as the "Coordinated Law Committee" is established under this Agreement, consisting of representatives from each contracting party.

2. The Coordinated Law Committee meets at least twice a year under normal circumstances.

3. The meetings of the Coordinated Law Committee are convened by the General Secretary, unless the contracting parties decide otherwise; its meetings must be held at the Council's headquarters.

4. Each contracting party in the Coordinated Law Committee has the right to one vote; however, for the purposes of this Agreement and without prejudice to any future Agreement, when any customs or economic union, in addition to one or more of its member states, becomes a contracting party to this Agreement, such contracting parties shall have the right to exercise only one vote collectively. Similarly, when all member states of a customs or economic union qualify to become a contracting party under the provisions of Article 11(b), when such states become contracting parties to this Agreement, they shall exercise only one vote collectively.

5. The Coordinated Law Committee elects its Chair and one or more Vice-Chairs.

6. The Committee shall draft its internal regulations by a decision made by a majority of not less than two-thirds of its members. The Council must ratify the regulations drafted by the Committee.

7. The Committee invites governmental or international organizations as it sees fit to participate as observers in the Committee's work.

8. The Committee establishes subcommittees or working groups as needed, taking into account, in particular, the provisions of paragraph (a) of Article Seven, and the membership, voting rights, and procedural rules for those subcommittees and working groups must be specified.

1. The Coordinated System Committee shall undertake the following tasks, taking into account the provisions of Article Eight:

• A. Propose any amendments to this Agreement as it deems appropriate, particularly considering the needs of users and changes in technology or forms of international trade;

• B. Prepare explanations, opinions on classification, or other consultations as a guide for interpreting the Coordinated System;

• C. Formulate recommendations to ensure consistency in the interpretation and application of the Coordinated System;

• D. Balance and disseminate information related to the application of the Coordinated System;

• E. On its own initiative or upon request, provide the contracting parties and other members of the Council and governmental or international organizations with information or advice on any matter related to the classification of goods in the Coordinated System, as deemed appropriate by the Committee;

• F. Submit reports to each session of the Council regarding its activities, including proposed amendments, explanations, classification opinions, and other consultations;

• G. Exercise other powers and duties related to the Coordinated System as deemed necessary by the Council or the contracting parties.

2. The administrative decisions of the Coordinated System Committee related to budget matters must be approved by the Council.

1. The Council shall consider any proposals to amend this Agreement prepared by the Coordinating Law Committee and recommend them to the contracting parties in accordance with the procedures of Article Sixteen, unless any member of the Council who is a contracting party to this Agreement requests that those proposals or part of them be referred to the Committee for reconsideration.

2. The Council shall ratify the explanations and opinions of the drafting advice regarding the amendment of the Coordinating Law and the recommendations in the interpretation and application of the Coordinating Law as determined by the Coordinating Law Committee in one of its sessions in accordance with the provisions of paragraph one of Article Seven, unless any contracting party to this Agreement notifies the General Secretary that it requests the referral of those matters to the Council, provided that this is done before the end of the month of the month in which the Committee concluded that relevant session.

3. When a matter is referred to the Council in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (2) of this Article, the Council may ratify those explanations, opinions of the drafting advice, and other advice or recommendations unless a member state of the Council that is a contracting party to this Agreement requests that it be referred in full or in part to the Committee for reconsideration.

The contracting parties under this Agreement are not subject to any obligation regarding the categories of customs duties.