Your import flows
Landed cost assumptions
Freight and insurance are percentages of the goods value. The United States and Canada charge duty on the value before international freight; the other markets on the value including it. Import VAT is usually recoverable for a VAT-registered business, so it is shown as cash flow, not cost.
The verdict
Line by line
Duty stack and landed cost for each line. Rates are averages for the product family unless an HS code is attached; check the national code before relying on a figure.
Compare origins
The same goods from every origin into the market you chose, ranked by landed cost. Duty and fees only change; freight is held at your assumption, so check real freight quotes before moving supply.
Trade-agreement opportunities
Lines from countries with a trade agreement into this market. Ticking preference in your flows assumes origin is proven; the checklist shows what proving it takes.
Your customer pays the tariff. Why are you paying for it?
The exporter's view: what your customers pay at the border, how much of it is likely to come back to you in price, and what you control.
Levers worth pulling
Ranked by indicative annual value. Ranges are deliberately cautious; a Diagnostic replaces them with your entry data.
Your next step
- Read your contracts and tell you who owns the refunds
- Check your supplier declarations and proof of origin
- Test the exact national code on your real entry data
- Negotiate with your suppliers and file the claims
A one-week Quick Scan turns these estimates into your numbers and names the three levers to pull first. Fixed fee, priced to the size of your trade.
What working with DBerry costs
Fees follow the size of your cross-border trade, not your headcount. Fixed fees, excluding VAT.
Diagnostic fee credited at 50% against a Sprint signed within 60 days. About 15% more for each market beyond two, or each 100 product lines beyond 100. Sprints can also be a lower fixed fee plus a share of the savings.
Get your exposure report
A PDF of everything on this page: your lines, the duty stack, landed cost, refunds and the levers, ready to share with finance.
Tariff Drift alerts
A short headline when a rule changes in your markets, reviewed by DBerry before it is sent. What it means for your own codes, and what to do about it, comes with Tariff Watch.
Find the HS code for your material
The Harmonized System is the World Customs Organization's six-digit product code. The first six digits mean the same thing at every border that uses it; each country then adds its own digits for duty and statistics. This finder searches all of the more than 5,600 HS 2022 subheadings.
Keyword search finds the right subheading in its top three for about one product name in five in our accuracy test, so treat it as a starting point. HS descriptions are shown in English, the language of the official nomenclature.
Ask AI to suggest a code
Describe the material in your own words: what it is made of, what it does, its form (raw material, part, finished article) and how it is sold. You get up to three subheadings with the rules and notes that decide them.
Optional: add a photo or a specification sheet image.
Browse by section and chapter
Twenty-one sections, ninety-seven chapters. Open a chapter to see its headings and subheadings.
Translate a procurement or product code to HS
Many companies classify what they buy with UNSPSC, ECLASS, ETIM, GS1 GPC or CPV rather than customs codes. None of them maps one-to-one to the Harmonized System, so the translation works from what the item actually is: its material, function and form.
Translate a spend list
Paste up to 50 lines from a spend cube or catalogue: code, description and annual spend, separated by tabs, semicolons or vertical bars. Each line gets a suggested HS code you can change, then the whole list can go into the Exposure check.
Money you may be owed and duty you may not need to pay. The calculators start from your import flows; overwrite any figure with your own entry data. Indicative only: a licensed customs broker or lawyer files the claims.
IEEPA refund estimator (United States)
The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs on 20 February 2026. Duties paid under them since February 2025 are refundable to the importer of record, mainly through CBP's CAPE process. Default rates are approximate averages for each origin over the year; replace them with your entry summaries.
Duty drawback (United States)
99% of eligible duty comes back when imported goods, or goods made from them, are exported or destroyed. Eligibility depends on the tariff: ordinary duty and Section 301 qualify; Section 232 metals and auto parts qualify only through manufacturing drawback; Section 338 is pending CBP guidance.
Inward processing (EU, UK, Switzerland)
Non-domestic goods that are processed and then re-exported can enter without duty under an inward processing authorisation. It needs an authorisation, records of the processing and usually a guarantee.
Foreign-trade zone (United States)
Goods in a US foreign-trade zone pay no duty until they enter the US market, none if they are exported, and weekly entry caps the processing fee. Goods under Section 232 and the forced-labour Section 301 tariff must enter in privileged foreign status, which removes the inverted-tariff benefit for them.
What the digits mean
Example: empty aluminium beverage cans.
| Market | Code used at import | Digits |
|---|---|---|
| World Customs Organization | HS subheading | 6 |
| European Union | Combined Nomenclature, then TARIC | 8, 10 |
| United States | Harmonized Tariff Schedule | 10 |
| United Kingdom | UK Global Tariff commodity code | 10 |
| Switzerland | Tares | 8 |
| Canada | Customs Tariff | 10 |
| Mexico | TIGIE | 10 |
| China | Customs tariff code | 10 |
The current edition is HS 2022. HS 2028 takes effect on 1 January 2028 with 299 sets of amendments, including single-use plastics, plastic waste and health products (WCO).
The six rules, in plain English
Every customs authority classifies with the same General Interpretative Rules, applied in order.
- Rule 1. Section and chapter titles are signposts only. The wording of the headings and the legal notes decides.
- Rule 2. An unfinished or unassembled article goes where the finished article goes, if it already has its essential character. A material includes mixtures of it.
- Rule 3. If two headings fit: the most specific description wins; failing that, the component that gives the essential character; failing that, the heading that comes last in numerical order.
- Rule 4. Goods that fit nowhere go with the goods they most resemble.
- Rule 5. Fitted cases travel with their contents. Normal packing goes with the goods, unless it is clearly reusable.
- Rule 6. The same logic applies again at subheading level, comparing only subheadings at the same level.
Five questions before you choose
- What is it made of, and in what proportions by weight or value?
- What does it do, and is that function named in a heading?
- Is it a finished article, a part, an accessory or a raw material?
- Is it sold as a set or a kit, and which component gives the essential character?
- Do the chapter or section notes exclude it, or send it somewhere else?
Common traps: parts versus accessories, sets put up for retail sale, composite goods, and "other" subheadings that look like a safe default but are not.
Getting certainty
When a lot of duty depends on one code, ask the authority for a binding ruling, and check how it has ruled before.
| Market | Ruling | Search past rulings |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | Binding Tariff Information (BTI), normally valid three years | EBTI |
| United States | CBP binding ruling | CROSS |
| United Kingdom | Advance Tariff Ruling (ATaR), normally valid three years | ATaR search |
DBerry Consulting prepares the product evidence and works with licensed customs representatives who file the requests. Nothing on this page is a ruling or legal advice.
How accurate is the HS finder?
We test the finder against 52 products classified by US Customs in binding rulings issued since 2022, using only the product name from each ruling's subject line. Matching is at the six-digit level that every country shares.
See all 52 test products and their rulings
Which code system is for what
Customs codes, procurement taxonomies, product-data standards and control lists answer different questions. A business usually needs more than one, and needs to know how they connect.
| System | Maintained by | What it classifies | Used for | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HS | World Customs Organization | Goods, by material, function and processing | Customs duty, origin, trade statistics | Free |
| National tariffs | Each customs authority | Goods, with duty rates and measures | Import declarations | Free |
| UNSPSC | UNDP (since January 2025) | Goods and services, by what is bought | Procurement, P2P systems, spend analysis | Free to download; ask UNDP before embedding it in software |
| ECLASS | ECLASS e.V. | Industrial products, with standard properties | Product master data, e-catalogues | Paid licence |
| ETIM | ETIM International | Technical products: electrical, HVAC, plumbing, building | Product data exchange between makers and wholesalers | Free, open data licence with attribution |
| GS1 GPC, GTIN | GS1 | Consumer products (GPC); one specific product (GTIN) | Retail product data, barcodes | Published by GS1; GTIN needs membership |
| CPV | European Union | Goods, works and services bought by public bodies | EU public tenders | Free |
| CPC, SITC, BEC, ISIC, NACE, NAICS | UN, Eurostat, statistics agencies | Products and industries | Statistics, market sizing, supplier profiling | Free |
| Export control lists | European Union, US Department of Commerce | Goods, software and technology needing an export licence | Export compliance | Free; EU list update expected November 2026 |
| CAS, EC and UN numbers | Chemical Abstracts Service, ECHA, UN | Chemical substances; dangerous goods in transport | REACH, safety data sheets, shipping | Look-up widely available |
| ISO 8000, ISO 22745 | ISO | Methods, not codes: master-data quality and technical dictionaries | Data governance | Paid standards |
Official correspondence tables exist only between the UN statistical classifications and HS. There is no official crosswalk from UNSPSC, ECLASS, ETIM, GPC or CPV to HS, so the dependable route is to classify the item itself. Services have no HS code and carry no customs duty.