Analysis
HTS 5911.32.00 covers weighing 650 g/m2 or more under heading 5911 (textile products and articles, for technical uses, specified in note 8 to this chapter). US Customs collects import statistics for it under 4 ten-digit suffixes, reported in square metres and kilograms.
Neighbouring lines carry rates from duty-free to 8%, so the exact line matters. The widest gap is with 5911.40.01 (filtering or straining cloth of a kind used in oil presses or the…), at 8%: a product that belongs there but is entered here, or the reverse, changes the duty by 4.2 percentage points.
The general duty rate is 3.8% of the customs value, which is in the middle of the rates in chapter 59 (68th percentile of 59 lines with an ad valorem rate). On a shipment valued at $10,000 that is $380 in duty before any Chapter 99 additions or preference claims.
Goods that qualify under the Australia FTA, the Bahrain FTA, the Chile FTA, the Colombia TPA, the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and 10 others can enter duty-free instead of paying 3.8%. It is also eligible under GSP, the developing-country programme, which Congress has to renew; check whether GSP is in force on the entry date.
The column 2 rate, for countries without normal trade relations, is 68.5%, 18.0 times the general rate.
Statistical suffixes
Neighbouring lines
| Line | Description | General rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5911.10.10 | Printers' rubberized blankets | 2.9% |
| 5911.10.20 | Textile fabrics, felt and felt-lined woven fabrics, coated, covered or laminated with rubber, leather or other material, of a kind used for card clothing, and similar fabrics of a kind used for other technical purposes, including narrow fabrics made of velvet impregnated with rubber, for covering weaving spindles (weaving beams): other | 3.8% |
| 5911.20.10 | Fabrics principally used for stenciling purposes in screen-process printing | 3.3% |
| 5911.20.20 | Other: of silk | Free |
| 5911.20.30 | Other: other (229) | Free |
| 5911.31.00 | Weighing less than 650 g/m2 | 3.8% |
| 5911.40.01 | Filtering or straining cloth of a kind used in oil presses or the like, including that of human hair | 8% |
| 5911.90.00 | Textile products and articles, for technical uses, specified in note 8 to this chapter: other | 3.8% |