8517.69.00

Analysis

HTS 8517.69.00 covers other apparatus for transmission or reception of voice, images or other data, including apparatus for communication in a wired or wireless network (such as a… under heading 8517 (telephone sets, including smartphones and other telephones for cellular networks or for…).

Goods from countries without normal trade relations pay the column 2 rate of 35% instead of nothing, so origin decides between free entry and a 35% duty.

There is no general-rate duty on this line, which puts it with roughly 58% of the 624 tariff lines in chapter 85 that are also free. Free here means free of the base duty only: origin-specific Chapter 99 duties such as Section 301 can still be owed.

Census statistics map these goods to NAICS 334220 (Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing), an industry of 645 US establishments employing 52,536 people, the industry a domestic producer of these goods reports under.

All 8 neighbouring lines carry the same duty-free rate, so a borderline choice between them changes the statistics reported, not the duty paid.