Most items being imported to the US need to be classified to determine what duty rate must be paid, whether the item is subject to import quotas, and even whether or not the item can even enter the country. The classification system used is known as the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States - usually referred to as simply HTS(US).
The HTS is divided into over 90 chapters broken down by material, item type and primary usage which assign a 6-10 digit number to everything. In general a lower chapter number corresponds to items closer to a raw material state. Determining the correct classification for something can be as much an art as a science. With this in mind, let's first take a look at some of the General Rules of Interpretation.
General Rule 2(a) states:
"Any reference in a heading to an article shall be taken to include a reference to that article incomplete or unfinished, provided that, as entered, the incomplete or unfinished article has the essential character of the complete or finished article. It shall also include a reference to that article complete or finished (or falling to be classified as complete or finished by virtue of this rule), entered unassembled or disassembled."
This particular rule is not applicable in my case, but does mean that you cannot reduce the duty on an import by shipping it in pieces unless the parts are sent in separate shipments. In the eyes of customs a pile of bicycle parts that can be assembled into a bicycle are equivalent to one already assembled.
Rules 3 and 5 largely deal with the order of operations in trying to classify items, including how to handle mixtures or things that are only partially described by the applicable headings. Rule 3 also provides a tie breaker for determining the HTS code of an article that is equally described by multiple headings with the same level of specificity: use the one with the highest number.
The fourth rule is the shortest and in my opinion most straight forward. "Goods which cannot be classified in accordance with the above rules shall be classified under the heading appropriate to the goods to which they are most akin." In short, if your item simply isn't listed anywhere, classify it as the most closely related item that is.
I highly recommend reading the General Rules of Interpretation for yourself. There are 6 as of the writing of this article, though the PDF version also contains over 600 pages of General Notes - additional rules, updates, and exceptions.
Some items are very straightforward to locate in the HTS. Take glass beads for example. The entirety of Chapter 70 is dedicated to glass products, so that is a logical starting point. Heading 7018 covers "Glass beads, imitation pearls, imitation precious or semiprecious stones and similar glass smallwares and articles thereof other than imitation jewelry; glass eyes other than prosthetic articles; statuettes and other ornaments of lamp-worked glass, other than imitation jewelry; glass microspheres not exceeding 1 mm in diameter." Given that the first two words are 'glass beads', 7018 should be the correct heading. Determining the proper subheadings is similarly trivial in this case. 7018.10 covers "Glass beads, imitation pearls, imitation precious or semiprecious stones and similar glass smallwares." 7018.10 has three subheadings underneath it, neither of the first two apply, so we default to the last one, "other" giving a final HTS code of 7018.10.50 for glass beads.
A more difficult example is beads made of camel bone. Chapter 5 is for "Products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included," but does not contain any headings for finished bone products. It does however note that for the purposes of the HTS, 'ivory' means not only ivory in the traditional sense but teeth as well. To find an appropriate heading I searched prior customs rulings for the term "bone bead" and came up with heading 9601 - "Worked ivory, bone, tortoise-shell, horn, antlers, coral, mother-of-pearl and other animal carving material, and articles of these materials (including articles obtained by molding)." Reading through the few available subheadings leads to a final answer of 9601.90.60.
For truly unique items, it's safest to request that customs rule on the correct classification for your item. Information on how to request a ruling can be found at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/legal/rulings/
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