HS code

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO), groups goods into sections, chapters (two digits), headings (four digits) and subheadings (six digits). Countries add their own digits for national tariff lines and statistics, so an import code is often eight or ten digits long. The full code sets the duty rate, any licensing, restriction or anti-dumping measures, and the trade statistics the shipment counts toward.

An HS code is not a product's internal SKU or a carrier's commodity description, and beyond the first six digits the export code in one country can differ from the import code in another. Classification follows the system's legal notes and interpretation rules, not the product's name or marketing description, so two similar-looking items can fall under different headings with different duty rates.

The importer of record usually carries legal responsibility for the code declared, even when a broker files the entry. Put the code on the commercial invoice, keep it consistent from shipment to shipment, and recheck it whenever the nomenclature is revised, as it was in the HS 2022 edition. When a classification is uncertain, many customs authorities issue advance binding rulings that give certainty before the goods ship.