8523.29.70

Analysis

HTS 8523.29.70 covers video tape recordings under heading 8523 (discs, tapes, solid-state non-volatile storage devices, "smart cards" and other media for…). US Customs collects import statistics for it under 2 ten-digit suffixes, reported in lin. m and number of items.

For statistics it divides in two: 8523.29.70.10 for of a width not exceeding 16 mm, in cassettes and 8523.29.70.20 for other. Both pay the same duty; the suffix records which kind was imported.

The normal trade relations rate here is zero, shared by about 58% of the 624 tariff lines in chapter 85, 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.

Census statistics map these goods to NAICS 33461 (Manufacturing and Reproducing Magnetic and Optical Media), an industry of 292 US establishments employing 4,540 people. That concordance is how imports of this line are compared with US output.

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