About HTS Index

HTS Index publishes the US import tariff schedule as browsable pages, and records what changes in it. It exists because the schedule is revised fifteen to eighteen times a year and nobody tells an importer when the line they buy against moves.

Where the data comes from

Every rate on this site comes from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, published by the U.S. International Trade Commission at hts.usitc.gov. It is a work of the US Government and in the public domain. We read USITC's own JSON export, once a day, and republish it unchanged apart from the layout.

How a duty rate gets onto a page

The schedule is a tree. Many lines state no rate of their own and take the rate of the nearest line above them — that is how it is meant to be read, and it is how a customs broker reads it. About 45% of ordinary lines are in that position, so every page says whether its rate is stated for that code or inherited, and from which line. A line that states no rate and inherits none says that too, in words, because a blank where a duty belongs reads as “free”.

What we deliberately do not do

We do not calculate what a shipment will owe. Section 301, Section 232 and IEEPA duties are in Chapter 99, their coverage is written as prose in the subchapter notes, and getting a stack wrong costs real money. We publish the Chapter 99 provisions and flag the lines that reference them; the arithmetic for an actual entry belongs to a licensed customs broker.

Who runs it

HTS Index is an independent publication operated by Ospan (Nevada, USA). It is not affiliated with USITC, CBP, USTR or any other agency, and nothing here is an official publication. Carrier and freight records are on our companion site USDOT Index.

Corrections

If a page disagrees with USITC, that is a bug and we want to know: tell us with the code and what you expected. Errors in the schedule itself have to be raised with USITC.