US Tariff Schedule,
read and applied live.
Enthron helps trade compliance teams automate product classification against the United States' Harmonized Tariff Schedule and continuously resolve the full range of tariff measures and regulatory requirements associated with every HTS code.
Legal structure of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States extends the World Customs Organization's 6-digit international HS code to 8 digits for legal classification, with a further 2-digit statistical suffix bringing the full code to 10 digits. The US International Trade Commission publishes and maintains the schedule. US Customs and Border Protection administers and enforces it at the port of entry.
Classification is governed by the General Rules of Interpretation, six sequential rules that determine which heading a product falls under when more than one appears to apply. Chapters 1 through 97 cover substantive goods, organized broadly by material and degree of processing. Two chapters sit outside that logic and affect nearly every determination:
- Chapter 98 holds special classification provisions, including US goods returned, personal effects, articles for the disabled, and temporary importations, which can reduce or eliminate duty regardless of what Chapters 1 through 97 would otherwise assess.
- Chapter 99 is how temporary duty modifications, including trade remedies, quota overages, and retaliatory tariffs, are layered on top of a Chapter 1 through 97 code without renumbering the base schedule. A Chapter 99 line is never declared alone; it is always reported alongside the underlying classification.
Each 8-digit line carries up to three rate columns: the general rate (Column 1, for normal trade relations countries), special rates (preferential rates available under free trade agreements and other programs), and Column 2 (the non-normal-trade-relations rate, which today applies to Cuba, North Korea, Russia, and Belarus).
One distinction matters for companies that both import and export. The HTSUS is not the list US exporters file against. Schedule B, maintained separately by the Census Bureau, concords to the HTS only at the 6-digit international level; the last four digits, and often the classification logic itself, diverge. A correct import code does not guarantee a correct export filing for the same product.
Duty rates and preferential trade programs
The general (Column 1) rate applies by default. A lower special rate is available only when a shipment qualifies under a specific preferential program and the claim is properly documented and declared at entry.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is the largest such program by trade volume. Qualification depends on product-specific rules of origin, typically a regional value content threshold, a tariff classification shift, or, for passenger vehicles and light trucks, a labor value content requirement tied to wages paid in the production region. Separate bilateral and regional agreements extend preferential rates to trade with a number of other partners, including Australia, Bahrain, Central America and the Dominican Republic, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Jordan, South Korea, Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru, and Singapore, each with its own rules of origin.
Nonreciprocal preference programs operate differently and are subject to periodic lapse. The Generalized System of Preferences has been unauthorized since December 31, 2020, pending congressional reauthorization; importers are generally advised to continue flagging eligible entries so that duties can be refunded automatically if the program is renewed on a retroactive basis. The African Growth and Opportunity Act has lapsed on a similar basis. Neither program can be assumed active without checking current status.
Trade remedy and national security tariff authorities
Beyond the base schedule, four principal statutory authorities allow the government to impose additional, product- or country-specific duties:
Trade Act unfair practice duties
Product- and country-specific duties imposed after a USTR investigation finds a trading partner's acts, policies, or practices unreasonable, discriminatory, or otherwise burdensome to US commerce. The long-running duties on Chinese-origin goods remain in force, with rates commonly ranging from 25 to 100 percent depending on the specific product list. Section 301 carries no statutory rate cap and no built-in expiration, making it the most durable of the available tariff tools.
National security tariffs
Imposed by the Commerce Department on a finding that imports of a specific input threaten national security. Current coverage includes steel and aluminum, passenger vehicles and light trucks, copper, semiconductors, and softwood lumber, each at its own published rate, generally with a separate, lower tier for derivative products containing the covered material. Where a Section 232 duty applies, it typically displaces other ad valorem surcharges on the same covered content rather than stacking on top of them.
Global safeguard actions
Applied broadly to a product regardless of country of origin, following an International Trade Commission determination that increased imports are a substantial cause of serious injury to a domestic industry. Safeguard measures are typically structured as a tariff-rate quota or a declining tariff schedule over a fixed multi-year period, with developing countries frequently exempted below defined import thresholds.
Antidumping and countervailing duties
The Commerce Department calculates dumping margins or subsidy rates and the International Trade Commission makes the corresponding injury determination. Once an order is issued, cash deposits are collected at entry at the applicable rate, with final liability determined at annual administrative review, often months or years after the entry was made. These orders are producer- and case-specific; two shipments of the same HTS code from different producers in the same country can carry entirely different rates, and a change in supplier can materially change duty exposure even where the classification does not change.
Temporary and emergency tariff authorities
Separate from the product- and country-specific regimes above, the United States has also relied on broader, largely across-the-board tariff authorities that apply to most imports regardless of product. In February 2026, the Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the imposition of tariffs, terminating the broad tariff program that had operated under that authority since early 2025. The administration subsequently invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a balance-of-payments authority capped at 15 percent and time-limited to 150 days, as a bridge mechanism while longer-duration replacements are pursued under other statutes, principally Section 301.
Separately, the administrative exemption that once allowed shipments valued under $800 to enter duty-free has been suspended for all countries, meaning that every applicable duty layer described on this page can now attach to low-value parcels that previously cleared without a formal entry.
- Section 301 duties on Chinese-origin goods remain active across multiple product lists.
- Section 232 duties remain active on steel, aluminum, autos, copper, semiconductors, and lumber.
- Antidumping and countervailing duty orders remain active on a case-by-case, producer-specific basis.
- A temporary, broadly applied global surcharge remains in effect under Section 122 authority, subject to a statutory time limit and expected to be succeeded by a longer-duration mechanism.
- Duty-free de minimis treatment remains suspended for all countries.
Because this layer of the schedule changes on its own timeline and with limited notice, Enthron tracks the legal basis and rate of every measure continuously and applies whatever is current at the point of classification, rather than relying on a fixed snapshot.
Principal compliance challenges
Classifying the product correctly in the first place
Most compliance problems start upstream of any duty calculation: at the 8-digit and 10-digit level, similar products can fall under different headings depending on material composition, function, or degree of processing, and the General Rules of Interpretation don't always point to a single obvious answer. Getting this starting classification wrong propagates into every duty layer applied afterward.
Coordinating overlapping duty regimes across multiple statutes and agencies
A single entry can draw on the base schedule, Section 301, Section 232, an antidumping order, and a global surcharge simultaneously, each with its own legal basis, its own agency, and its own rules for whether it stacks with the others. Determining the correct combined rate requires more than looking up each component individually.
Tracking a global surcharge layer with limited notice
The broad, largely across-the-board surcharge described above has operated under more than one legal authority in a short span, and its rate and basis can change with little advance warning. Static rate tables cannot keep pace; the determination has to be re-run against current law at the point of entry.
Reconciling import and export classification codes
A company classifying correctly for HTSUS import purposes can still misfile Schedule B export declarations if it assumes the two schedules are interchangeable below the 6-digit level. Businesses with both import and export flows need both maintained and reconciled, not just one.
The Enthron approach
A determination starts with the product itself: a description, spec sheet, or existing code submitted through the API or app, with Enthron asking for whatever attributes are missing before it commits to a classification. From there, it classifies against the full HTSUS, Chapters 1 through 99, and resolves the overlay described on this page within the same determination: active Section 301 lists, Section 232 coverage, antidumping and countervailing orders matched to producer and country, and whatever global surcharge is currently in force. Every determination returns with the 10-digit code, a confidence score, the GRI logic applied, and the specific measures stacked on top, giving a compliance team a defensible record the moment a duty is questioned, not just a number.
Because the legal basis for parts of this schedule changes on its own timeline, Enthron treats the overlay as something to monitor continuously rather than configure once. When a Section 301 list is amended, a Section 232 exclusion is granted, or an antidumping administrative review resets a rate, classifications already on file are flagged against the change automatically, rather than surfacing months later at an audit.
Classify against HTSUS
and everything stacked on it.
Enthron also covers EU TARIC, UK-Tariff, and the Canada, Singapore, and Japan schedules, giving compliance teams one platform for every jurisdiction they trade into.