HS Nomenclature (HS Codes) for HCFCs and Certain Other Ozone Depleting Substances: Post-Kigali Update

To better facilitate monitoring of trade in ODS, the Parties to the Montreal Protocol requested the World Customs Organization (WCO) to revise the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, also known as the Harmonized System (HS codes) for HCFCs. This resulted in amending heading 29.03 of Chapter 29 with the objective of assigning specific 6-digit HS codes to the five most commonly used HCFCs, and at the same time deleting individual HS codes previously assigned to CFCs. This amendment entered into force on 1 January 2012. Given the anticipated amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs, it is expected that a future amendment of the HS will assign separate HS codes for the most commonly traded HFCs (including unsaturated HFCs, or ‘HFOs’.