{ "model": { "rank": 3398, "code": "thing-q182290", "model_id": "vr.tr.customs-agency", "name": "customs agency", "purpose": "Let an agent identify the customs agency of a country and its powers, relay procedures, duty rules, traveller allowances and contact channels from official sources in general terms, and route specific declarations, disputes and valuations to the agency or licensed brokers.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q182290/", "tier": 2, "score": 86, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Collida del general", "Japan Customs", "sobrecollida", "Customs and Excise Supervision and Service Office", "taula", "Taula de canvi", "customs in Ukraine", "Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera" ], "aliasCount": 8, "merged": 8, "knownIn": 86, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q182290", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q182290", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T20:06:18Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q182290", "registryId": "vr.tr.customs-agency", "name": "customs agency", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q182290/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.customs-agency", "name": "customs agency", "purpose": "Let an agent identify the customs agency of a country and its powers, relay procedures, duty rules, traveller allowances and contact channels from official sources in general terms, and route specific declarations, disputes and valuations to the agency or licensed brokers.", "definition": "A government agency that controls the movement of goods, people and means of transport across a border, collects customs duties and taxes on imports, enforces prohibitions and restrictions, and compiles trade statistics; customs agencies operate at ports, airports and land crossings and cooperate through the World Customs Organization.", "what_it_is_for": "Controlling and taxing cross-border trade and travel.", "affordances": [ "identify the agency and its legal basis", "explain declaration, duty and inspection procedures in general terms", "relay traveller allowances and prohibited goods lists", "route specific cases to the agency or a broker" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Border control of goods and duties", "Statutory powers of inspection and seizure", "Member of the World Customs Organization system", "Often merged with tax or border agencies" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; seen as officers, checkpoints, offices and online declaration systems at borders.", "visual_identification": [ "State agency controlling goods at borders", "Collects duties and enforces import and export rules", "Border police, tax authorities and port operators are separate bodies" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "national customs agencies", "customs unions such as the EU customs framework", "combined customs and border protection agencies", "combined revenue and customs agencies", "historical customs offices and toll houses" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "revenue authority", "why": "collects duties" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "law enforcement agency", "why": "enforces border rules" }, { "relation": "applies", "target": "customs duty", "why": "the tax it collects" }, { "relation": "cooperates through", "target": "World Customs Organization", "why": "international body" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "Harmonized System code", "value_or_pattern": "six digits and national extensions", "note": "classifies goods" }, { "scheme": "EORI or importer number", "value_or_pattern": "per jurisdiction", "note": "identifies traders" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National customs codes and tariffs", "WCO Harmonized System and Revised Kyoto Convention", "WTO agreements on valuation and trade facilitation", "Union customs codes such as the EU Union Customs Code" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Smuggling and fraud", "Delays and disputes over classification and valuation", "Corruption at borders", "Agents giving specific duty or legal advice" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identify", "name": "Identify", "description": "Which agency and what powers.", "rationale": "Identity.", "layers": [ { "id": "which", "name": "Which", "description": "Agency and law.", "findings": [ { "id": "which-finding", "name": "Which", "description": "Which.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which customs agency is responsible in this country, and what laws give it its powers?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about customs, immigration or another border body?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "powers", "name": "Powers", "description": "Powers.", "findings": [ { "id": "powers-finding", "name": "Powers", "description": "Powers.", "questions": [ { "text": "What powers of inspection, seizure and penalty does the agency hold?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits border control generally?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "procedures", "name": "Procedures", "description": "Declarations and duties.", "rationale": "Procedure.", "layers": [ { "id": "declare", "name": "Declare", "description": "Declarations.", "findings": [ { "id": "declare-finding", "name": "Declare", "description": "Declare.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are goods declared, classified and valued, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking about a specific shipment, which needs the agency or a broker?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "duties", "name": "Duties", "description": "Duties and allowances.", "findings": [ { "id": "duties-finding", "name": "Duties", "description": "Duties.", "questions": [ { "text": "What duties, taxes and traveller allowances apply, from official sources?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits customs duty?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "enforce", "name": "Enforce", "description": "Prohibitions and disputes.", "rationale": "Enforcement.", "layers": [ { "id": "prohibitions", "name": "Prohibitions", "description": "Prohibited and restricted goods.", "findings": [ { "id": "prohibitions-finding", "name": "Prohibitions", "description": "Prohibitions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which goods are prohibited or restricted, and where are the lists published?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific restriction?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "disputes", "name": "Disputes", "description": "Appeals.", "findings": [ { "id": "disputes-finding", "name": "Disputes", "description": "Disputes.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a decision be appealed or a complaint made?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for legal advice, which needs a professional?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "International system and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "international", "name": "International", "description": "WCO and unions.", "findings": [ { "id": "international-finding", "name": "International", "description": "International.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do the WCO, WTO and customs unions shape national customs?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a customs union?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did customs agencies develop from toll houses to modern agencies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each national agency be a separate entry?", "How should tariff databases be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases for medieval Catalan and Japanese institutions; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a customs agency, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent identify the customs agency of a country and its powers, relay procedures, duty rules, traveller allowances and contact channels from official sources in general terms, and route specific declarations, disputes and valuations to the agency or licensed brokers.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Collida del general, Japan Customs, sobrecollida, Customs and Excise Supervision and Service Office, taula, Taula de canvi, customs in Ukraine, Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera.", "8 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 86 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a customs agency, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Collida del general", "Japan Customs", "sobrecollida", "Customs and Excise Supervision and Service Office", "taula", "Taula de canvi", "customs in Ukraine", "Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 86 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 8 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one customs agency from another, and a customs agency from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a customs agency sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a customs agency from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a customs agency passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a customs agency between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a customs agency, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a customs agency is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a customs agency.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a customs agency and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a customs agency, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a customs agency and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a customs agency sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What customs agency is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does customs agency take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of customs agency, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in customs agency and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of customs agency may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does customs agency have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a customs agency came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a customs agency and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a customs agency is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a customs agency, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a customs agency, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a customs agency is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }