04 Dairy produce; birds' eggs; natural honey; edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included
The broadest level of the Harmonized System. Pick the heading below that fits your goods, then the six-digit code under it — that last one is what you declare.
Section I, Live Animals & Animal Products — live animals, meat, fish, dairy and other products of animal origin.
- 04 Chapter Dairy produce; birds' eggs; natural honey; edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included
- —— Heading Pick one of the 10 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 4 covers dairy produce, birds' eggs, natural honey and other edible animal-origin products not covered elsewhere: milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt and whole eggs in shell or otherwise. Many countries apply tariff-rate quotas to dairy imports, so the six-digit code alone will not tell you the duty rate without checking the applicable quota. Classification tip: Fat content and whether milk is in powder, liquid or concentrated form each drive a different subheading, and dairy is one of the product groups most likely to sit inside a country's tariff-rate quota rather than its standard duty schedule.
10 headings in chapter 04
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 04.01 Milk and cream; not concentrated, not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter 4 codes
- 04.02 Milk and cream; concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweetening matter 5 codes
- 04.03 Yogurt; buttermilk, curdled milk and cream, kephir and other fermented or acidified milk and cream, whether or not concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or flavoured or containing added fruit, nuts or cocoa. 2 codes
- 04.04 Whey and products consisting of natural milk constituents; whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter, not elsewhere specified or included 2 codes
- 04.05 Butter and other fats and oils derived from milk; dairy spreads 3 codes
- 04.06 Cheese and curd 5 codes
- 04.07 Birds' eggs, in shell; fresh, preserved or cooked 5 codes
- 04.08 Birds' eggs, not in shell; egg yolks, fresh, dried, cooked by steaming or boiling in water, moulded, frozen or otherwise preserved, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter 4 codes
- 04.09 Honey; natural 1 code
- 04.10 Animal products; insects and other edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included 2 codes
Other chapters in Section I
The wording above is the Harmonized System nomenclature as published by the World Customs Organization, HS 2022 edition. It is a classification reference, not a tariff: it carries no duty rates, and it stops at six digits — the importing country adds its own beyond that.
Classification is decided by the General Rules of Interpretation and the section and chapter notes, and it is the importing country’s customs authority that makes it binding.
Shipping goods from chapter 04? A customs hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving — follow the container or the air waybill from departure to delivery.
Track a shipmentChapter 04 FAQ
Chapter 4 covers dairy produce, birds' eggs, natural honey and other edible animal-origin products not covered elsewhere: milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt and whole eggs in shell or otherwise. Many countries apply tariff-rate quotas to dairy imports, so the six-digit code alone will not tell you the duty rate without checking the applicable quota. Classification tip: Fat content and whether milk is in powder, liquid or concentrated form each drive a different subheading, and dairy is one of the product groups most likely to sit inside a country's tariff-rate quota rather than its standard duty schedule.
Pick the heading below that describes the goods, then the six-digit subheading under it. Six digits is the level the Harmonized System defines and the level customs everywhere recognises; anything beyond that is added by the importing country.
The General Rules of Interpretation, read together with the notes to Section I and to chapter 04. A description that reads right is not enough on its own — the notes routinely pull goods out of the chapter they obviously belong to and put them somewhere else. Where duty or licensing turns on the answer, ask the importing country’s customs authority for a binding ruling.
A wrong or missing code is one of the common reasons customs holds a container, and a hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving. Watch for it in the container tracking app, on the air waybill in the air cargo tracker, or through the tracking API.