Commodity Code

The international Harmonised System stops at 6 digits, which is enough to classify a product broadly but not enough to set a precise duty rate. Countries and customs unions therefore add further digits on top of the HS code to capture finer distinctions — material, processing, intended use — and to apply their own tariff and trade-policy measures. The result is the commodity code.

In the European Union the structure is layered. The 6-digit HS code is extended to 8 digits as the Combined Nomenclature (CN), which is used for export declarations and EU trade statistics. For imports, two more digits are added to create the 10-digit TARIC code, which carries EU-specific measures such as suspensions, quotas and anti-dumping duties. The UK runs a similar 10-digit import code post-Brexit.

Two products can share the same 6-digit HS code yet attract different duty rates once the national digits are applied. That is why the commodity code, not the bare HS code, is what actually governs your import costs. Using only the 6-digit HS code on an EU or UK import declaration is incomplete and will not pass.

Because the extra digits encode quotas, preferential rates under trade agreements, and anti-dumping measures, the right commodity code can be the difference between a low and a high duty bill — or between needing a licence and not. Online tariff tools (such as the EU TARIC database or the UK Trade Tariff) let you drill down from the HS code to the correct full commodity code for your goods.