1605.53.05

Analysis

HTS 1605.53.05 covers products containing fish meat; prepared meals under heading 1605 (crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, prepared or preserved).

Within this group the rate runs from duty-free to 10%. Compared with 1605.56.15 (boiled clams, whether whole, minced or chopped, and whether or not…), which pays 10%, a misclassification either way moves the duty by 10 percentage points.

The normal trade relations rate here is zero, shared by about 46% of the 108 tariff lines in chapter 16, a useful check when a neighbouring dutiable line is a candidate. Free here means free of the base duty only: origin-specific Chapter 99 duties such as Section 301 can still be owed.

Goods from countries without normal trade relations pay the column 2 rate of 20% instead of nothing, so origin decides between free entry and a 20% duty.

Census statistics map these goods to NAICS 311710 (Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging), an industry of 516 US establishments employing 29,132 people. That concordance is how imports of this line are compared with US output.