by the negotiators of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

“ Each Party shall issue, prior to the importation of a good of a Party into its territory, a written advance ruling at the written request of an importer in its territory, or an exporter or producer in the territory of another Party, [1] with regard to: [2]
(a) tariff classification; (b) the application of customs valuation criteria for a particular case in accordance with the Customs Valuation Agreement; (c) whether a good is originating in accordance with Chapter 3 (Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures) ; and (d) such other matters as the Parties may decide. 2. ”

“ For greater certainty, a Party may decline to issue an advance ruling if the facts and circumstances forming the basis of the advance ruling are the subject of administrative or judicial review. A Party that declines to issue an advance ruling shall promptly notify the requester in writing, setting out the relevant facts and circumstances and the basis for its decision to decline to issue the advance ruling. ”

“ Each Party shall designate or maintain one or more enquiry points to address enquiries from interested persons concerning customs matters and shall make information concerning the procedures for making such enquiries publicly available online.
3. To the extent possible, each Party shall publish in advance regulations of general application governing customs matters that it proposes to adopt and shall provide interested persons the opportunity to comment before the Party adopts the regulation. ”

“ If a Party has a reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity related to its laws or regulations governing importations, it may request that another Party provide specific confidential information that is normally collected in connection with the importation of goods. ”

“ Each Party shall endeavour to provide another Party with any other information that would assist that Party to determine whether imports from, or exports to, that Party are in compliance with the receiving Party’s laws or regulations that govern importations, in particular those related to unlawful activities, including smuggling and similar infractions. ”

“ A Party may apply a modification or revocation in accordance with paragraph 4 after it provides notice of the modification or revocation and the reasons for it.
6. No Party shall apply a revocation or modification retroactively to the detriment of the requester unless the ruling was based on inaccurate or false information provided by the requester. ”

“ Data Model; (e) take into account, as appropriate, WCO standards, recommendations, models and methods developed through the WCO or APEC; and (f) work toward developing a set of common data elements that are drawn from the WCO Data Model and related WCO recommendations as well as guidelines to facilitate government to government electronic sharing of data for purposes of analysing trade flows. ”