HTS chapter · section VI
Chapter 38
Products of the chemical or allied industries
Chapter 38 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule sits in section VI (products of the chemical or allied industries). It has 27 headings and 182 eight-digit tariff lines.
The spread of 6.5 percentage points between the cheapest and dearest lines makes misclassification expensive here.
44 of its 179 lines with a percentage rate are duty-free at the general rate (25%) and 135 are dutiable, from duty-free up to 6.5%. The median line pays 4.9%.
3 of the lines carry specific or compound rates (per kilogram, per dozen and so on) rather than a percentage, so their burden depends on the unit value of the goods.
The most finely divided heading is 3824 (prepared binders for foundry molds or cores; chemical products and preparations…), with 39 lines; fine division usually means the rates or the trade statistics differ enough to be worth separating.
4 of its 27 headings are entirely duty-free at the general rate, including 3803 (tall oil, whether or not refined), 3818 (chemical elements doped for use in…) and 3822 (diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a…).
Headings
| Heading | Description | Lines | Free | Median rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3801 | Artificial graphite; colloidal or semi-colloidal graphite; preparations based on graphite or other carbon in the form of pastes, blocks, plates or other… | 5 | 2 | 3.7% |
| 3802 | Activated carbon; activated natural mineral products; animal black, including spent animal black | 4 | 0 | 4.8% |
| 3803 | Tall oil, whether or not refined | 1 | 1 | duty-free |
| 3804 | Residual lyes from the manufacture of wood pulp, whether or not concentrated, desugared or chemically treated, including lignin sulfonates, but excluding tall… | 2 | 1 | 1.85% |
| 3805 | Gum, wood or sulfate turpentine and other terpenic oils produced by the distillation or other treatment of coniferous woods; crude dipentene; sulfite… | 3 | 1 | 3.7% |
| 3806 | Rosin and resin acids, and derivatives thereof; rosin spirit and rosin oils; run gums | 4 | 0 | 4.6% |
| 3807 | Wood tar; wood tar oils; wood creosote; wood naphtha; vegetable pitch; brewers' pitch and similar preparations based on rosin, resin acids or on vegetable pitch | 1 | 0 | 0.1% |
| 3808 | Insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, antisprouting products and plant-growth regulators, disinfectants and similar products, put up in forms or… | 32 | 6 | 5% |
| 3809 | Finishing agents, dye carriers to accelerate the dyeing or fixing of dyestuffs and other products and preparations (for example, dressings and mordants), of a… | 6 | 0 | 6% |
| 3810 | Pickling preparations for metal surfaces; fluxes and other auxiliary preparations for soldering, brazing or welding; soldering, brazing or welding powders and… | 4 | 1 | 5% |
| 3811 | Antiknock preparations, oxidation inhibitors, gum inhibitors, viscosity improvers, anti-corrosive preparations and other prepared additives, for mineral oils… | 6 | 2 | 6.5% |
| 3812 | Prepared rubber accelerators; compound plasticizers for rubber or plastics, not elsewhere specified or included; antioxidizing preparations and other compound… | 10 | 2 | 5.75% |
| 3813 | Preparations and charges for fire extinguishers; charged fire-extinguishing grenades | 2 | 1 | 1.85% |
| 3814 | Organic composite solvents and thinners, not elsewhere specified or included; prepared paint or varnish removers | 3 | 0 | 6.5% |
| 3815 | Reaction initiators, reaction accelerators and catalytic preparations, not elsewhere specified or included | 7 | 4 | duty-free |
| 3816 | Refractory cements, mortars, concretes and similar compositions, including dolomite ramming mix, other than products of heading 3801 | 2 | 1 | 1.5% |
| 3817 | Mixed alkylbenzenes and mixed alkylnaphthalenes, other than those of heading 2707 or 2902 | 3 | 0 | 6.5% |
| 3818 | Chemical elements doped for use in electronics, in the form of discs, wafers or similar forms; chemical compounds doped for use in electronics | 1 | 1 | duty-free |
| 3819 | Hydraulic brake fluids and other prepared liquids for hydraulic transmission, not containing or containing less than 70 percent by weight of petroleum oils or… | 1 | 0 | 6.5% |
| 3820 | Antifreezing preparations and prepared deicing fluids | 1 | 0 | 6.5% |
| 3821 | Prepared culture media for development or maintenance of micro-organisms (including viruses and the like) or of plant, human or animal cells | 1 | 0 | 5% |
| 3822 | Diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a backing, prepared diagnostic or laboratory reagents whether or not on a backing, whether or not put up in the form of… | 5 | 5 | duty-free |
| 3823 | Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining; industrial fatty alcohols | 8 | 0 | 2.8% |
| 3824 | Prepared binders for foundry molds or cores; chemical products and preparations of the chemical or allied industries (including those consisting of mixtures of… | 39 | 7 | 5% |
| 3825 | Residual products of the chemical or allied industries, not elsewhere specified or included; municipal waste; sewage sludge; other wastes specified in note 6… | 9 | 9 | duty-free |
| 3826 | Biodiesel and mixtures thereof, not containing or containing less than 70 percent by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous materials | 2 | 0 | 5.55% |
| 3827 | Mixtures containing halogenated derivatives of methane, ethane or propane, not elsewhere specified or included | 20 | 0 | 3.7% |