Time Release Studies (TRS) are a trade facilitation tool utilized by Customs to quantify the average times taken for the clearance of goods at the various entry locations in a territory (e.g. ports, airports and land borders). Their adoption dates back to the beginning of ninetiees of 20^th century, on initiative of the American and Japanese customs. At international level, their adoption is recommendend since 1994 by the World Customs Organization (WCO), that on 2002 issued also guidelines to guide their members in the correct use of such a tool.

TRS allow in particular to customs administrations to measure and break down into separate phases, time required from the arrival of goods in the importing Country to their release, in order to identify bottlenecks, delays and constraints in the customs clearance process and implement adequate corrective actions.

Read more...

In the international trade, the proper customs classification of exchanged goods is an extremely important operation, being the basis for the application of both tariff and non-tariff measures, as well as of the commercial policy measures established by the customs legislation. Such operation in the practice is executed by coupling a numerical code to each good, that apart from the tariff function (as it permits the determination of custom duties on the importation or, in some cases, on the exportation of goods to which they relate), has also a statistical purpose, as it allows an easier collection of the data concerning the interchanges of such goods that, in turn, facilitates the comparison with the statistics elaborated by other Countries.

(Continues ... in Italian)

Read more...