8523.41.00

Analysis

HTS 8523.41.00 covers optical media: unrecorded under heading 8523 (discs, tapes, solid-state non-volatile storage devices, "smart cards" and other media for…).

Goods from countries without normal trade relations pay the column 2 rate of 80% instead of nothing, so origin decides between free entry and a 80% 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 33461 (Manufacturing and Reproducing Magnetic and Optical Media), an industry of 292 US establishments employing 4,540 people, the industry a domestic producer of these goods reports under.

All 19 neighbouring lines carry the same duty-free rate, so a borderline choice between them changes the statistics reported, not the duty paid.

The general rate of Free has not changed in any edition of the schedule since Jan 2023.