Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS): A commodity classification system in which articles are grouped according to the nature of the materials of which they are made. The HS was developed and is maintained by the World Customs Organisation, an independent inter-governmental organisation of over 160 countries.

Hong Kong Ministerial: Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the WTO held in Hong Kong on December 13-18, 2005.

Horizontal and sector-specific commitments: For each specific sector scheduled by it, a member makes commitments on Market Access (MA) and National Treatment (NT), for each mode of services trade, under what are known as sectoral schedules of commitments. Members also make MA and NT commitments for all the sectors included in its schedule, with respect to each mode of services, in what are known as ‘horizontal commitments'. These commitments could complement, override, or qualify the ‘sector-specific commitments'. Hence, both sectoral and horizontal schedules have to be read together to understand the extent and the nature of commitments undertaken in a particular sector.