Introduction

Now more than ever, scholars from different fields are looking at the issue of language in international trade and commerce as an increasingly important factor. In 2014 the Journal on International Business Studies (JIBS), one of the most influential and best ranked journals in international business, dedicated a whole issue to the topic of language. “Language lies at the heart of international business (IB) activities, yet language as a key construct in the field of IB has not been sufficiently articulated or theorized” (^{Brannen, Piekkari, and Tietze, 2014}). As the authors state, the potential and implications of language in internationalization strategies remain largely unknown to most practitioners.

In recent history, governments around the world have strengthened customs procedures to safeguard the movement of goods and people between countries despite terror attacks. It has forced authorities to not only optimize controls and pay special attention to clearing incoming merchandise but also to emphasize pre-shipment controls for exports and goods subject to inspection.

The revised Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (^{WCO, 2008}) was drafted in 1999, but came into force in 2006. In light of international security challenges, the Convention encourages customs administrations around the world to harmonize and facilitate customs practices while at the same time integrating a global language into customs procedures worldwide. The revised Kyoto Convention, based on the original principles of the Kyoto Convention signed in 1974, defined parameters to facilitate trade according to the increased volume and speed of international commercial transactions by assigning a new facilitator role to customs managers.

The World Customs Organization (WCO) also launched other initiatives in this regard, including the cargo security protocol titled The Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Trade (^{WCO, 2018}). Initiatives like this to secure the international movement of goods were adopted nationally, especially by countries aligned with the WCO. Colombia, for instance, has been making efforts to synchronize its customs regulations with the changing demands of international commerce and global organizations committed to enhance international trade for approximately two decades now.

It is within this context that Colombia has effectively undergone a series of economic policy changes since the Colombian government decided to implement specific efforts to open the domestic market to international trade back in the 1990s. This began a new era for the internationalization of the Colombian economy with a government that was clearly willing to foster such an enterprise.

The Colombian economy’s road to internationalization was set and there would be no return. The government’s efforts were reflected in the former Colombian customs regulations (^{Decree 2685 of 1999, in Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 1999}) and Legal Regulation N.° 4240-2000, which became obsolete within a couple of years after multiple trade agreements were signed and due to the speed of manufacturing and technological advances. Responding to the latest demands of international trade security, Colombia launched the “Decree 390 of 2016” (hereinafter Decree 390) (^{Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 2015}), a new set of Colombian customs regulations, and the core document of this review. Decree 390 can be considered to have the imperative goal of achieving high levels of proficiency in customs procedures and international standards integration. Revising and modernizing the regulations’ content and, most importantly, the definitions of the most significant terms related to customs procedures in Decree 390 is a step in the right direction. It seems the Colombian government understands that the international goods trade is highly complex as geographical distances and technological advances impose greater risks and difficulties. In this race to achieve global competence, in these complex contexts where language must be as precise and concrete as possible, Colombia must also be mindful of the language used in its customs procedures.

In the paragraphs below, we will introduce the parameters and theoretical assumptions regarding terminology on which the definition revision and its analysis are based.

Terminology in International Commercial Activities

Language is an essential factor when international transactions take place, especially the terms used in the process of moving goods across borders. They belong to a specific terminology that every actor involved should manage, or at least be familiar with. Customs procedures are complex contexts in which effective communication is required. As such, careless usage of specialized terms should be avoided as it could lead to misinterpretation in several related areas, including trade agreements, non-tariff barrier policies, and physical distribution logistics. The potential for misinterpretation is significant in the field of customs because there are people working at different levels and with varying degrees of linguistic proficiency. Furthermore, there are many types of regulatory frameworks, national regulations, and regional agreements intended to harmonize local and international customs procedures. These regulatory documents shape the understanding and use of customs terminology.

All areas of international trade value accurate and precise communication. Kara ^{Warburton (2015)} has accurately described some of the most relevant implications of working with terminology in trade environments as being both advantages and needs, simultaneously. She claims that the constant growth of information and the proliferation of language processing has created a need to find consensus on crucial issues such as the definition of terms in highly structured documents. Dealing with terms and definitions connects many interests, from the theoretical to the pragmatic. To name a few, linguistics disciplines such as applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics, language for specific purposes, lexical semantics, and categorization phenomena in natural language are concerned with establishing precision in communication (^{Warburton, 2015}).

Terminology is a transdisciplinary field of study dedicated mainly to developing agreements upon specialized language in specialized communication. Terminology is not restricted solely to lexical related issues when developing communication strategies in organizations; it offers a wide variety of technological tools for developing terminology management strategies and theoretical approaches that address important specialized language issues in a separate sphere from general language issues. For example, terminology plays a crucial role in providing prescriptive documents for determining issues such as term definitions (ISO 1087 in ^{ISO, 2000}), terminological entries in standards (ISO 1024 in ^{ISO, 2011}), terminology principles (^{ISO 704}), all the way down to elemental standards essential for the development of systems as the Internet. International standards are just one segment of the terminology literature published regarding terminology-related issues. There are other publications referencing international terminology standards (see The Terminology Handbook -^{Kockaert and Steurs, 2015}-). Ultimately, all such efforts aim at raising awareness about terminology issues in specialized communication. In this case, the focus is on the specialized communication required for customs procedures.

Definition Quality From the Perspective of Terminology Science

Issues concerning definitions are central to terminology work. Definitions can be defined as the linguistic representation of concepts. There are several ways of describing a concept. Terminology deals primarily with terms (designations), concepts and definitions. There are different types of definitions. Of those, intensional definitions have a long tradition within terminology management as they can be an appropriate tool to portray concepts and concept systems consistently using natural language (Löckinger, ^{Kockaert, and Budin, 2015}). It is important to note that concepts are units of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics, as established in ISO1087-1 (^{International Standardization Organization [ISO], 2000}, p. 41). This unique combination of characteristics is also called conceptualization, and it is vital for the cognitive and terminology sciences. According to the same document, a definition is a “representation of a concept by a descriptive statement which serves to differentiate it from related concepts” (^{ISO, 2000}, p. 41).

By this token, definitions make it possible to set boundaries between close concepts. It is also important to mention that concepts are normally a part of other related concepts, thus building concept systems. In this way, definitions distinguish the similarities and differences between closely related concepts.

Extension and intension are essential ways of making definitions. A concept’s extension is “the totality of objects to which a concept corresponds” and its intension is the “set of characteristics which makes up the concept” (^{ISO, 2000}, p. 41). Intensional definitions have been used since ancient Greece and have survived to this day, being considered the description for a superordinate concept and its delimiting characteristics within a concept system. This can be said for generic relations amongst concepts where the superordinate concept is also known as the generic concept and the subordinate concept as the specific concept. Nevertheless, intensional definitions can also be drawn up in partitive concept relations. In this kind of relation, the superordinate concept is called the comprehensive concept, and its delimiting characteristics can be differentiated as a part of the comprehensive concept.

Part of the success of intensional definitions is that they allow concepts to be described in natural language. Therefore, they have been used in many different domains as an effective tool for describing concepts. But delimiting characteristics must be selected according to the specific needs of terminology management and depending on the perspective the audience intends to apply to a given concept (^{ISO, 2012}).

When writing and assessing intensional definitions, it is vital to consider several of their features, even if there are specific terminology management needs to be considered as well. These features express the level of an intensional definition’s quality from a terminology science perspective (^{Löckinger et al., 2015}), namely: preciseness; conciseness; use of terms designating known or defined concepts; objectivity; suitable for the relevant target group; linguistics correctness; absence of circularity/tautology; affirmativeness (avoidance of negative definitions); avoidance of translated intensional definitions; avoidance of hidden definitions of other concepts; absence of characteristics of superordinate or subordinate concepts.

These features are fundamental for understanding this analysis of the definitions introduced in “Decree 390”.

Analysis Background

In comparison to the former decree some terminology changes can be found in “Decree 390”. For instance, the term nacionalización was changed to desaduanamiento. In this context, both Spanish terms constitute a single English term that means the clearance of goods -referring to the compliance of all customs formalities required to export or import goods. There are also new terms that incorporate multiple old terms along with new elements. For instance, usuario aduanero permanente (UAP) and usuario altamente exportador (ALTEX) have been merged into one term: operador económico autorizado (OEA, as per its initials in Spanish), referred to as the “authorized economic operator” (AEO) in English. The new OEA includes characteristics not previously seen in either of the two older terms due to a rise in the importance of the concept of risk management, which has acquired prominence in secure commerce and produced new implications for the actors that can hold this title.

Another term worth mentioning in the new Colombian regulations refers to the auditing process known as fiscalización, which in Spanish and in the Customs context can involve different procedures. As part of that it is possible to refer to the term reconocimiento de mercancía, which itself has an additional connotation as we can refer the term inspección previa de la mercancía under “^{Decree 390}”. It describes the prior inspection of merchandise before it undergoes customs processing, preventing importers from being unnecessarily penalized.

In the beginning, the “^{Decree 390 of 2016}” introduces a series of expressions (terms) and their meanings (definitions). It is assumed to be obligatory for customs operators and other relevant actors to understand them. The regulation contains 101 terms and definitions, but this analysis filters the list by selecting only those terms and definitions directly related to import and export processes and how they impact cross-border trade facilitation.

It is important to highlight that this analysis will focus on the terms and definitions used in international trade and the correlation between their meanings in both Spanish and English. Thus, we can establish the main obstacles people working in this field might face and the impact language has upon a proper understanding of technical concepts by means of terminological definitions.

Analysis of Term Definitions in Decree 390

The terms in this analysis (see Table 1) were selected as a sample from the new Colombian Customs regulation “Decree 390 of 2016” based on their relevance to international trade processes. This section aims to analyze the pertinence, clarity, or lack of information in each of the definitions selected according to the 11-item list of criteria previously mentioned.

Table 1 An analysis of customs term definitions (Decree 390, Article 3) 

Twelve out of 101 definitions will be analyzed according to the quality criteria for intensional definitions. Public and private sector operators, practitioners, and managers carry out trade activities every day and are directly affected by whether or not they have a proper understanding of the rules designed to facilitate international transactions.

Colombia is facing a transitional period to adapt to upcoming new rules and regulations so it can apply the law effectively. To respond to the different challenges imposed by the entry into force of multiple trade agreements, the Colombian government followed guidelines issued by international authorities such as the World Customs Organization that seek to promote the harmonization of customs procedures around the world.

The structure of the following analysis presents the Spanish term found in Decree 390 followed by its definition, also in Spanish. Then, an analysis is performed in English for each of them. It must be clarified that the definitions contained in this paper are taken verbatim from the document, but due to the length of the legal text, is not possible to extract all paragraphs were the terms are mentioned. Likewise, as the terms due to its legal nature are used in various paragraphs throughout the document, at times the full scope of a term’s definition may come too light; reading several passages throughout the entire decree and seeing them applied in different contexts around Customs procedures might provide a wider and forceful understanding of their meaning.

The definitions chosen here are only a sample of the wide range of definitions to be found throughout Decree 390. Most of those analyzed are defined succinctly at the beginning of the regulation, and others were taken from other sections of the document. The selection was based on prior trade-related knowledge. Experience accumulated over years of close observation of and participation in customs and related activities was of vital importance for defining this specific selection.

Additionally, this analysis intends to highlight the potential effect of terminology as a fundamental tool to meet government goals for integrating Colombia’s customs practices.

Conclusions

Based on fundamental terminology theory, the pertinence of analyzing highly specialized language and the extent of its contribution to reducing ambiguity and pursuing accurate communication can be seen.

Having looked at Colombia’s Decree 390 from the perspective of terminology as a scientific discipline, we found certain characteristics of its concepts and definitions that were modified in the new set of rules to harmonize with international standards for international trade.

Overall, the new customs regulations pose challenges for readers attempting to accurately interpret them. Companies have been struggling to comply with the regulations in the face of various inconsistencies, leading to unprecedented delays in their implementation. This is probably, at least in part, related to difficulty in understanding certain concepts and definitions and their relationships with associated concepts and complex procedures.

Despite the natural language used in intensional definitions, there were common features between the selected concepts and their respective definitions that affected their quality and accuracy within the specialized context of international customs.

For instance, features like precision and conciseness were commonly found in definitions related to straightforward actions or procedures. An example is declaración aduanera, referred to “as the act or document by which the declarante declares the specific Customs procedure applicable to the merchandise and provides the authorities with the information they require”.

However, some of the definitions lacked precision when they referred to concepts with multiple consequences. For instance, the definition of comercio ilícito included references to particular circumstances but, to avoid exceptions, the concept as a whole was broadly described so it could cover multiple scenarios and their resulting sanctions. Achieving a complete understanding of such a text and establishing the full range of its legal effects would require the reader to consult several different sets of rules.

Avoidance of hidden definitions as an expression of quality in intensional definitions can be seen in terms like Importación where its definition makes reference to depósito franco commonly known as “duty free” which shares with Zona Franca the procedure of exemption but are two different things with the same consequence which is to consider an import any merchandise that comes from Zona Franca or depósito franco to the national Customs territory.

Some terms were changed in the new regulations without changing their definitions. This was the case for desaduanamiento, related to customs clearance procedures and previously known as nacionalización, and derechos e impuestos a la importación, which has to do with the taxes paid during import processes and was previously known as tributos aduaneros. The latter, derechos e impuestos a la importación, began its definition with the same word that begins the term itself: derechos, followed by a list of generic taxes and charges that must be paid. This represents a wide range of possible obligations combined with the complexity of being associated with another branch of the country’s tax regulations, meaning that precision does not provide evidence for the quality of this definition in Decree 390.

Another case in which the definition of a concept begins with the concept itself and is consequently difficult to understand is that of allanamiento. Here, tautology renders the concept unclear, depriving its readers of easy understanding and making it difficult to identify when the measure should be applied.

Objectivity is another feature used to analyze the quality of definitions. Some of the concepts analyzed evinced greater transparency than others between themselves and their definitions. For instance, the term levante did not provide a clear idea of its meaning or what specific procedure it is related to, unlike the new concept operador económico autorizado, which is more straightforward; most readers can deduce just from the term that it denotes some kind of faculty or permit to perform a particular task.

In general, as the analysis focused on specialized language, it was evident that the chosen terms were applicable to the target group, and there was no evidence of negative definitions being used. The features most commonly identified in the revised definitions, whether due to their presence or absence, were: precision, conciseness, objectivity, and the use of hidden definitions.

In several instances, multiple features were found in individual definitions, which increased their complexity and that of their relationships to other concepts.

Specialized language in an international context faces additional challenges because the intent of harmonizing international rules involves a common understanding of both legal instructions and the complexities of proper translation to and from multiple languages. Thus, terminology as a scientific discipline plays a vital role in addressing a complex collection of information that needs to be clearly understood not only by a select group of experts but by a wide range of people from different backgrounds who must deal with customs regulations every day, whether in executive or operational roles.