Harmonized System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO) (formerly the Customs Co-operation Council), an independent intergovernmental organization with over 160 member countries based in Brussels, Belgium.

The HS is a six-digit nomenclature. Individual countries have extended it to ten digits for customs purposes, and to 8 digits for export purposes. Almost 200 countries, representing about 98% of world trade, use the HS as a basis for:

Customs tariffs
Collection of international trade statistics
Rules of origin
Collection of internal taxes
Trade negotiations (e.g., the World Trade Organization schedules of tariff concessions)
Transport tariffs and statistics
Monitoring of controlled goods (e.g., wastes, narcotics, chemical weapons, ozone layer depleting substances, endangered species)
Areas of Customs controls and procedures, including risk assessment, information technology and compliance.

Codes have been revised through the years. So if you need to reference a code related to a trade issue from even a few years ago, make sure the definition set that you're using matches the code.