Analysis
HTS 9614.00.28 covers pipes and pipe bowls: other under heading 9614 (smoking pipes (including pipe bowls) and cigar or cigarette holders, and parts thereof). US Customs collects import statistics for it under 3 ten-digit suffixes, reported in number of items.
The general rate is 0.3¢ each + 3.2%, a specific or compound duty rather than a simple percentage, so the effective burden depends on the unit value of the goods: cheap goods pay proportionally more than expensive ones. Importers usually convert it to an ad valorem equivalent to compare it with other lines.
Goods that qualify under GSP, the Australia FTA, the Bahrain FTA, the Chile FTA, the Colombia TPA, and 12 others can enter duty-free instead of paying 0.3¢ each + 3.2%. 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.
Census statistics map these goods to NAICS 339999 (All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing), an industry of 3,012 US establishments employing 40,510 people, the industry a domestic producer of these goods reports under.
Statistical suffixes
Neighbouring lines
| Line | Description | General rate |
|---|---|---|
| 9614.00.21 | Roughly shaped blocks of wood or root, for the manufacture of pipes | Free |
| 9614.00.25 | Of wood or root: other | 0.4¢ each + 3.2% |
| 9614.00.26 | Pipes and bowls wholly of clay and pipes with bowls wholly of clay | 3% |
| 9614.00.94 | Other: of metal | 7.2% |
| 9614.00.98 | Other: other | 0.5¢ each + 3% |