HTS Code Finder

What an HTS code actually is

Every product imported into the United States enters under a code from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), published by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The code decides the duty rate, whether a trade-agreement rate is available, whether an additional tariff action applies, and which other agencies get to look at the shipment. Get it wrong and you either overpay for years or face a CBP rate-advance and penalties.

The full code is ten digits, and each pair does a different job. The first six digits are the international Harmonized System, identical in every country that uses the HS: the first two are the chapter, the next two the heading, the next two the subheading. Digits seven and eight are the U.S. subheading — that is where the American duty rate is actually set. Digits nine and ten are the statistical suffix, which carries no duty but tells the Census Bureau what moved.

• 6802 — heading: worked monumental or building stone
• 6802.23 — HS subheading: granite
• 6802.23.00 — U.S. subheading: the line the Column 1 duty rate hangs on
• 6802.23.00.00 — statistical suffix: the ten-digit line you file on the entry

How classification is decided: the six General Rules of Interpretation

Classification is not a matter of picking whichever description sounds closest. The HTSUS opens with six General Rules of Interpretation (GRI), applied in order — you only move to the next rule when the one before it does not settle the question.

• GRI 1 — The wording of the headings and the legal section and chapter notes decide the classification. Most goods stop here. The notes are binding text, not commentary, and they routinely exclude goods that the heading wording alone would seem to cover.
• GRI 2 — An unfinished or unassembled article is classified as the finished article if it already has its essential character. A material mixed or combined with another is still classified in its own heading.
• GRI 3 — When two or more headings each describe part of the goods: the more specific heading wins (3a); failing that, the material or component that gives the goods their essential character wins (3b); failing that, the last heading in numerical order among the candidates wins (3c).
• GRI 4 — Goods that fit nothing else go with the goods they most closely resemble. In practice this is almost never needed.
• GRI 5 — Cases and packing presented with the goods generally follow the goods.
• GRI 6 — The same rules are then applied again one level down to choose between subheadings, comparing only subheadings at the same level.

Where importers most often go wrong

Most misclassifications trace back to a handful of habits rather than to genuinely hard goods.

• Trusting the supplier’s code. Your overseas supplier classified the goods for export from their country. The first six digits usually travel; digits seven through ten are U.S.-specific and frequently wrong.
• Reusing a code from an old entry after the product changed. A change of material, a new coating, added electronics or a different presentation can move the goods to a different heading.
• Skipping the chapter and section notes. A note can exclude your product from a heading whose wording fits it perfectly.
• Stopping at six digits. Six digits will not clear an entry; the duty rate lives at eight and the entry needs ten.
• Forgetting Chapter 99. Additional tariff actions — Section 301, Section 232, IEEPA measures — are written as separate Chapter 99 lines that stack on top of the Chapter 1–97 rate. A footnote such as "See 9903.88.03" on your line is the schedule telling you to go look.
• Ignoring the units of quantity. If the schedule asks for kilograms and dozens, the entry has to report both, and specific or compound duties are computed on them.

Classification is the importer’s legal responsibility

Under U.S. law the importer of record must use reasonable care to classify and value the goods and to pay the correct duty. That duty cannot be delegated away. A customs broker, a freight forwarder or a tool like this one can do the research and file the entry, but if the code is wrong it is the importer who owes the money and, where CBP finds negligence, the penalty.

Reasonable care in practice means keeping a written record of how each code was chosen — the heading text and notes you relied on, the GRI you applied, the product specification you classified against — and revisiting it when the product or the schedule changes. That file is what turns a disagreement with CBP into a technical discussion rather than a penalty case.

Binding rulings and CBP CROSS

When a classification is genuinely arguable and the duty difference is material, you do not have to guess. CBP publishes every classification ruling it has issued in a searchable database called CROSS (Customs Rulings Online Search System). Searching CROSS for goods like yours often surfaces a ruling that settles the question, and citing it strengthens your own record.

If nothing on point exists, you can request a binding ruling of your own under 19 CFR Part 177. You describe the product, propose a classification, and CBP responds in writing; the ruling then binds CBP at every port for as long as it stands. Ruling requests are free to file and typically take several weeks — worth it for a product you will import repeatedly, less so for a one-off shipment.

When to bring in a licensed customs broker

Bring in a licensed broker when the goods are composite or multi-function and GRI 3 is in play, when the duty spread between two plausible codes is large, when an additional tariff action or an antidumping order may reach your product, when another agency (FDA, USDA, EPA, FCC) has a say, or when CBP has already questioned an entry.

Airlift USA handles U.S. customs clearance through our licensed broker network, alongside ocean and air freight, ISF filing and drayage. We can review a proposed classification against the product specification, flag the Chapter 99 lines that would stack on it, and file the entry — but the final call, and the record behind it, stays with you as the importer of record.