Reference
HS / CN / TARIC Classification
How the Harmonized System, Combined Nomenclature and TARIC nest inside one another, and why the platform works with all three levels, not just TARIC.
1. What HS, CN And TARIC Actually Are
A single TARIC code already encodes three classification levels in one. The platform works with the full HS → CN → TARIC hierarchy, not "just TARIC" — plus the measures, duties, footnotes and legal acts layered on top of it.
| Level | Digits | Maintained by | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| HS (Harmonized System) | 6 | World Customs Organization | The international language of traded goods, used by roughly 200 countries |
| CN (Combined Nomenclature) | 8 | European Union | HS plus two digits for EU statistics and the Common Customs Tariff |
| TARIC | 10 | European Union | CN plus two digits for specific measures — duties, anti-dumping, sanctions, quotas |
The key structural fact: TARIC is an extension of CN, and CN is an extension of HS. A 10-digit TARIC code already contains the CN (its first 8 digits) and the HS (its first 6 digits) inside it — nothing needs to be looked up separately or derived by hand.
2. Anatomy Of A Code, On A Real Example
CN 1806101500 — cocoa powder with added sugar, at the lowest sucrose-content tier. Each level reads the same digits, just further to the right:
| Level | Digits | Code so far | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| HS chapter | 1–2 | 18 | commodity group |
| HS heading | 1–4 | 1806 | commodity heading |
| HS subheading | 1–6 | 180610 | cocoa powder, containing added sugar or other sweetening matter |
| CN subdivision | 1–8 | 18061015 | a specific subdivision of that heading (EU statistics) |
| TARIC subdivision | 1–10 | 1806101500 | + the sucrose-content tier that decides the applicable measure |
Querying the TARIC code returns the full chain — chapter, heading, subheading and the selected code — with the applicable footnotes, in one call.
3. Why Customers Need All Three Levels, Not Just One
Most tools stop at TARIC — hand back ten digits and a list of measures. Different scenarios genuinely need different levels:
| Customer scenario | Level needed |
|---|---|
| Import declaration into the EU | TARIC (10 digits) |
| Export declaration from the EU | CN (8 digits) |
| Trade outside the EU (US, UK, China, Japan) | HS (6 digits) |
| Cross-country tariff comparison | HS (6 digits) |
| Looking up a specific measure — duty, sanction, quota | TARIC |
| Searching a product by description | Any — the platform returns all three |
| Classification audit in an ERP system | All three at once |
One query, three answers. Nobody has to derive a CN code from a TARIC code by hand, or guess which HS heading a foreign invoice is quoting.
4. What's Underneath
- Full EU CN/TARIC nomenclature, with current measures, duties, footnotes and links to the underlying Commission Regulations and EUR-Lex legal acts.
- Description search that returns candidates at all three levels, with reasoning for the match.
- Chemical-identifier lookup — CAS RN, CUS, EC number, InChIKey — mapped to CN codes, useful for REACH and dual-use precursor screening (see Export-Control Coverage §4 for how this feeds export-control candidate search).
- Measures: anti-dumping, safeguards, quotas, licences, dual-use, sanctions (RU/BY), prohibitions.
- Sanctions, at two independent layers: the goods layer (CN/TARIC based) and the entity layer (people, companies, vessels, banks and aircraft across dozens of official sources — see Entity Screening Algorithms).
- Explainability: every code carries its sources, freshness date, and links to the underlying regulation — audit-ready by default.
5. What The Result Looks Like
A single query surfaces all three levels together:
| Level | Code |
|---|---|
| HS | 180610 |
| CN | 18061015 |
| TARIC | 1806101500 |
That comes alongside the full HTML report with duties, measures, footnotes and legal references, ready to attach to a declaration or an audit file.
6. The Next Layer: Export Controls
A CN/TARIC code gives duties, measures and the RU/BY goods-sanctions signal — but a CN code alone is not a final export-control classification. The same heading can cover items with completely different control status depending on technical specification, encryption, military design, end-use and destination. See Export-Control Coverage for what's live today across EU, UK, US, Japan and Taiwan sources, and why product description or a chemical identifier finds far more than the code alone.
7. Sources
- World Customs Organization — the Harmonized System
- European Commission — the Combined Nomenclature (Council Regulation 2658/87, updated annually)
- European Commission — TARIC, the Integrated Tariff of the European Union
- EUR-Lex — the underlying legal acts, anti-dumping measures and sanctions regulations