A National Workshop on the Harmonized System (HS) and Advance Rulings was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 19 to 23 May 2025. The Workshop was organized jointly by the WCO and the Customs General Administration of Mongolia, with the sponsorship of the Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF) of Korea. It was facilitated by a Senior WCO officer and two WCO accredited HS experts, from Brazil and Korea, and attended in-person by 28 officials and managers from Mongolia Customs.

During the opening ceremony, Mr. Enkhtaivan GELEGJAMTS, Deputy Director General of Customs General Administration of Mongolia, thanked the WCO and CCF Korea for collaborating with the Mongolia Customs Administration to strengthen this important technical area. He noted that as Mongolia's foreign trade grows and new types of goods are added, the role of Customs increases and classifying goods crossing the state border in a uniform and unified manner, collecting and comparing statistical information to facilitate foreign trade, imposing customs tariffs, determining origin, analysing and simplifying information exchange, become even more challenging. He highlighted that strengthening the capacity of Customs officers on tariff classification had become one of the major challenges facing the Mongolian Customs. They are working hard to improve the structure of goods classification and therefore make progress in generating state budget revenue fairly.

The presentations included an overview of the HS and its related tools as well as information on some specific topics such as agricultural and food products, medicaments, textiles, and machinery and electrical equipment. One participant presented the structure of the Customs Administration, including details on the tariff classification and advance rulings in Mongolia. Several case studies based on Harmonized System Committee decisions were used for exercises and discussion between the participants and the facilitators.

Furthermore, the Workshop offered an opportunity to discuss the WCO Guidelines on Advance Rulings, which provides assistance to users of the HS in modernizing their tariff classification work and related infrastructure.
During the workshop, a group of former tariff classification instructors, now retired, was invited to participate in one of the sessions. They were honoured and shared their testimonies on the importance of the HS and tariff classification in improving the work of Mongolia Customs.

In her closing remarks, Ms. Ch. CHIMGEREL, Head of Goods Classification and Valuation Division, thanked again the WCO and CCF Korea for their ongoing capacity building support and expressed her confidence in the practical benefits for the participants of the Customs General Administration of Mongolia after the discussions on a wide range of topics on tariff classification and advanced rulings held during the workshop.