Chapter 19 — Preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk; pastrycooks' products 4-digit heading

19.03 Tapioca and substitutes therefor prepared from starch; in the form of flakes, grains, pearls, siftings or similar forms

One level above the number you declare. Pick one of the six-digit codes below.

Section IV, Foodstuffs, Beverages & Tobacco — prepared food and drink — sugar, cocoa, beverages, spirits, vinegar and tobacco.

  1. 19 Chapter Preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk; pastrycooks' products
  2. 03 Heading Tapioca and substitutes therefor prepared from starch; in the form of flakes, grains, pearls, siftings or similar forms
  3. —— Subheading Pick one of the 1 six-digit codes below

Chapter 19 covers preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk: bread, pastry, biscuits, pasta and similar bakers' products. It's the finished-goods counterpart to the raw grain in chapter 10 and the milled flour in chapter 11. Classification tip: Stuffed pasta (like ravioli) is classified differently from plain pasta, and whether a bakery product contains egg, dairy or a filling can shift its subheading, so read the recipe, not just the product name.

All of chapter 19

The 1 six-digit code under 19.03

One of these is the number you declare.

Other headings in chapter 19

19.01 Malt extract; flour/groats/meal/starch/malt extract products, no cocoa (or less than 40% by weight) and food preparations of goods of headings 04.01 to 04.04, no cocoa (or less than 5% by weight), weights calculated on a totally defatted basis, n.e.c. 19.02 Pasta; whether or not cooked or stuffed with meat or other substance, or otherwise prepared, egg spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, lasagne, gnocchi, ravioli, cannelloni; couscous, whether or not prepared 19.04 Prepared foods obtained by swelling or roasting cereals or cereal products (e.g. corn flakes); cereals (other than maize (corn)) in grain form or in the form of flakes or other worked grains (not flour and meal), pre-cooked or otherwise prepared, n.e.c. 19.05 Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits, other bakers' wares, whether or not containing cocoa; communion wafers, empty cachets suitable for pharmaceutical use, sealing wafers, rice paper and similar products

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 under 19.03? A customs hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving — follow the container or the air waybill from departure to delivery.

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19.03 FAQ

Heading 19.03 covers tapioca and substitutes therefor prepared from starch; in the form of flakes, grains, pearls, siftings or similar forms. It is part of chapter 19 (preparations of cereals, flour, starch or milk; pastrycooks' products), and it is subdivided into 1 six-digit subheadings — the level you actually declare.

Pick one of the 1 subheadings below. Those six digits are what customs recognises internationally; the importing country may extend them to eight or ten in its own tariff schedule.

The General Rules of Interpretation, read together with the notes to Section IV and to chapter 19. 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.

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