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Customs Declaration / Clearance

vr.wm-pol-026 · wm-pol-026-customs-declaration-clearance

Represent one customs declaration and its attributed processing, assessment and release evidence across revisions.

World Models Society, people and institutions SOC.POL.CUS2
Bundle → Layer → Finding → QuestionsClassifiersWhat it isWhy it existsDistinguishing featuresWhat robots and AI may and may not doMoral aspectsOwnersLinks to other meta-modelsIdentity and identifiersDirect propertiesRecognitionCapabilities and actionsHazards and failure modesStandards and interfacesContext of useSources

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

3 bundles · 3 layers · 5 findings · 12 questions

Declaration content What was declared and by whom.

Declarant and procedure

Who declares, in whose name, and under which procedure.

Declaring parties

Declarant, representative and the parties to the movement.

  1. Who is the declarant, and is a representative acting in their name?
  2. Which customs procedure and office does the declaration request?

Goods declaration

Classification, origin, value and quantity of the declared goods.

  1. Which commodity codes, descriptions and quantities are declared per item?
  2. Which declared origin and customs value, with which valuation method, apply?
  3. Which licences, permits or certificates are cited for restricted goods?
Assessment and control What the authority did with it.

Assessment

Duties, taxes and risk handling.

Duty assessment

The amounts assessed and the basis used.

  1. Which duties and taxes were assessed, and on which basis?
  2. Which preference or relief was claimed, and was it granted?

Control outcome

Documentary or physical control and its findings.

  1. Was the declaration selected for documentary or physical control, and with what finding?
  2. Were amendments or corrections made after acceptance, and by whom?
Status and release How the declaration ended.

Clearance status

Acceptance, release, rejection and discharge.

Lifecycle status

The current status of the declaration and the acts that set it.

  1. What is the declaration's current status, and which act set it?
  2. Were the goods released, detained or refused, and when?
  3. Has the procedure been discharged, and which obligations remain open?

Classifiers Filled

Family
World Models
Category
Society, people and institutions
Entry kind
entity
Navigation path
NAV.SOC.POL.CUS2
Domain
SOC.POL.CUS2
Industry
Cross-industry
Tags
customsdeclarationclearancesoc.pol.cus2

What it is Filled

A customs declaration is the formal statement by which a declarant places goods under a customs procedure, and clearance is the authority's handling of it through acceptance, assessment, control and release. The class covers the declaration record and its lifecycle; the goods, the consignment and the transport are separate records it refers to.

In scope

  • Declaration-specific identity, parties, procedure profile and line assertions
  • Supporting evidence, assessed amounts and financial conditions as references
  • Lodgement, authority responses, release scopes, amendment continuity and post-clearance links

Out of scope

  • Goods, consignments, transport movements, parties, customs offices and tariff or legal-rule masters
  • Security summary filings, migration cases and border management policy as independent domains
  • Risk scoring, operational control tactics, enforcement, detention operations or controlled-item handling
  • Binding classification, origin or valuation decisions; tax calculation, payment, filing, legal advice and authorisation to release goods

Why it exists Filled

Represent one customs declaration and its attributed processing, assessment and release evidence across revisions.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • The declaration is a legal statement with liability attached to the declarant, not just a transport document.
  • Its lifecycle runs through acceptance, assessment, control, release and discharge, each with its own record.
  • Amendments after acceptance are recorded as corrections rather than edits, because liability already attached.
  • Distinct from the commercial invoice and the transport documents it draws on.

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Submit a declaration with a classification, origin or value that the evidence does not support.
  • Split or restructure consignments to obtain a lower duty or avoid a control.
  • Omit required licences, permits or restrictions from a declaration.
  • Alter an accepted declaration instead of filing a correction.
  • Facilitate movement of goods subject to prohibitions or sanctions.

Only with a human decision

  • Signing or authorising submission of a declaration and accepting its liability.
  • Deciding how to respond to a control finding or a detention.
  • Settling a disputed classification, origin or valuation.

May

  • Prepare and submit declarations with data traceable to the underlying commercial and transport records.
  • Report declaration status, assessed amounts and control outcomes to the declarant.
  • Propose a commodity classification with the reasoning and sources used.
  • Flag missing licences or inconsistencies before submission.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Declarations carry legal liability, and errors expose the declarant to penalties.
  • Customs revenue funds public budgets, so misdeclaration shifts cost onto everyone.
  • Risk profiling can single out traders and travellers by origin rather than by behaviour.
  • Prohibitions at the border protect people, animals and heritage from real harm.

Who is affected

  • Declarants, importers and exporters
  • Customs administrations and inspectors
  • Consumers receiving the goods
  • Honest competitors in the same market

Owners Filled

Steward

The customs compliance lead of the declarant, with the customs administration as authority of record.

Roles

Declarant
Provide supported assertions and evidence of capacity; review local proposals.
Authorised representative
Act only within a current evidenced mandate and keep principal attribution.
Competent customs authority
Own official acceptance, assessment, control and release assertions under the applicable profile.
Declaration data custodian
Maintain local identity, evidence provenance and revision reconciliation without exercising public powers.
Records and access steward
Apply recipient access, minimisation, retention and lawful hold policy.
Independent reviewer
Review legal/profile applicability and conformance before operational adoption.

Master systems

  • National customs declaration processing system
  • Customs broker or trade compliance system
  • Economic operator registration register

Links to other meta-models Filled

aligned

  • WM-POL-006 - Candidate registry parent retained as domain context; no inherited executable border or migration semantics.
  • WCO Data Model - Version and information-package mapping must be pinned and tested before exchange.
  • EU Customs Data Model - Regional mapping only; overview version conflict and national implementation remain open.

references

  • WM-REC-010 - Optional external authority acts, assessments and amendment/release decisions with identity and scope.
  • WM-POL-017 - Optional administrative review or audit case master; this model stores declaration-specific links only.
  • Goods and consignment master - External master binding to be pinned by adopter; local lines carry allocations and assertions only.
  • Party and customs-office masters - External actor and location identities with declaration-specific roles and mandate evidence.

neighbor

  • WM-POL-006 Border / Customs / Migration - Registry parent is a candidate domain alignment. This model specialises a declaration instance; border policy, migration and institutional operations remain external.
  • Goods, consignment and transport records - Declaration lines reference these masters. A tariff code is a class, not line identity; release does not establish physical departure.
  • WM-REC-010 Decision / Approval Record - Authority acts retain external identity and scope. A declaration can exist before any decision, and local receipt does not issue an approval.
  • WM-POL-017 Administrative Procedure / Case - An audit, appeal or other administrative case is linked when present; the declaration is neither the complete case nor the procedure definition.
  • WCO Data Model and EUCDM - Alignment targets only. No mapping, runtime dependency or exact schema conformance is implemented; conflicting EUCDM overview version labels remain unresolved.

parent

  • WM-POL-006

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • A declaration is identified by the movement reference number the customs system assigns on acceptance.
  • Parties are identified by economic operator registration numbers, such as EORI in the EU.
  • Declared items cite Harmonized System and national tariff codes rather than their own identifiers.

Direct properties required Filled

  • Net and gross mass per item in kilogrammes, as declared and as verified.
  • Quantity in the supplementary unit the tariff requires, such as litres, pieces or square metres.
  • Customs value as a monetary amount with its currency and valuation method.
  • Number and identifiers of packages and containers covered.
  • Verified figures from a physical control are recorded separately from declared ones.

Recognition optional Filled

  • A declaration record is marked by a movement reference number, a customs office and a procedure code.
  • Often confused with the transport document, the commercial invoice or the entry summary declaration.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • A declaration can be accepted, assessed, controlled, released and discharged.
  • Amounts and data can be corrected after acceptance through recorded amendments.
  • Status and release can be queried by the declarant and by entitled parties.

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Misclassification or undervaluation leading to penalties and recovery of duty.
  • Goods detained at the border because a required licence was not declared.
  • Prohibited or sanctioned goods moving on an incomplete declaration.
  • Risk profiling that discriminates rather than targets behaviour.

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • WCO Data Model for declaration data exchange with customs systems.
  • Harmonized System nomenclature of the World Customs Organization for classification.
  • UN/CEFACT and the WCO SAFE Framework for single window and supply chain data.

Context of use required Filled

  • Used in import, export and transit, by traders, brokers, carriers and customs administrations.
  • The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Revised Kyoto Convention frame national customs law.

Sources Filled

  1. Revised Kyoto Convention - General Annex, Chapter 3 - World Customs Organization
  2. Agreement on Trade Facilitation - World Trade Organization
  3. Customs declaration - European Commission
  4. WCO Data Model - World Customs Organization
  5. What is the Harmonized System (HS)? - World Customs Organization
  6. Calculation of customs duties - European Commission
  7. Rules of origin for goods - European Commission
  8. EU Customs Data Model (EUCDM) - European Commission
  9. WCO Data Model, World Customs Organization
  10. International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, World Customs Organization
  11. International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (Revised Kyoto Convention), WCO

Open questions

  • Verify current legal instruments, amendments and transitional application for each adopting customs territory; resolve the EUCDM version conflict against released schemas and legal data requirements.
  • Create profile-specific nested schemas and conformance fixtures covering provisional IDs, multiple lines with one tariff code, partial or conditional release, late responses, denied amendments and lawful disposal.
  • Restore independent external review before any canonical or publishable-draft promotion; investigate procedure-specific export, transit, low-value and other exceptions separately.
  • Independent external review is absent; the separate local Codex self-audit cannot replace it.
  • Direct HTTP verification is blocked by the sandbox and has not been attempted; coordinator-run check_sources.py is required. Browser text access does not establish HTTP status, licensing or current legal applicability.
  • EUCDM overview cites both 7.0.11 and 7.0.1. Exact released schemas, national profiles and applicable code lists must be reconciled.
  • Full consolidated legal texts, treaty membership/implementation, national exceptions, retention rules and jurisdiction-specific deadlines require qualified review.
  • Nested schemas, data-element mappings, classifier edition pins and adversarial instance conformance fixtures remain incomplete.
  • Transit discharge, export exit, warehousing, reliefs, refunds, low-value, postal and traveller procedures require separate profiles; no operational controls are provided.

Machine files

Card as JSON Specification AGENTS.md Source Card backlog vercy.card/1

Provenance

world-models research · reviewable-draft

Built from: models/wm-pol-026-customs-declaration-clearance/spec.yaml, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-pol-026-customs-declaration-clearance.json