The HTS is not a list of all products in trade, but a system of categories that classifies imported products, including new or “concept” products. To help ensure consistent duty treatment, there are legal rules and notes that help define these categories, as well as CBP rulings based on importer questions and past entries.

Sometimes products are named in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) using common terms and can be found if you search for the name, such as “toaster” (8516.72.0000) or “electric toothbrush” (8509.80.5045). But, other times, a search for a seemingly common item such as “phone charger” results in “No matching results found.” This happens when the product you’re searching for is not described the way that you searched for it (for instance, phone chargers are listed as “static converters for telecommunication devices”). In other cases, searching for a common word such as “shirt” returns too many results to be useful. 

Sometimes the HTS search can return a small number of results, none of which may be correct. Consider searching for a kitchen paring knife with a ceramic blade. Using the word “knives” produces more than 20 results, many of which are in heading 8211 (“Knives with cutting blades, serrated or not, …”). That result seems reasonable, but the beginning of Chapter 82 explicitly excludes articles with ceramic blades and says the proper classification for ceramic knives is Chapter 69 as an article of ceramics. That is why it’s important to read the notes for each section – so you can properly identify your products. 

Remember, the HTS is organized as a hierarchy (beginning with headings at the broadest descriptive level, each of which can be divided into subheadings with more specific coverage). There are currently more than 1,220 four-digit headings in the HTS. Most categories cover a range of products described in more general terms, and based on the predominant material from which they are made. In these cases, specific products may not be described by name and are not found by a keyword search alone (as with “phone charger” above). And, in most cases, the last subheading in a heading merely says “Other” to refer to things which fall in this heading but are not named in other subheadings. 

To avoid these kinds of pitfalls, it is best practice to avoid relying on the HTS search tool alone and consult the legal text of the HTS itself after you do a search.  For an example of how to classify a product in the HTS, see the following question.