Chapter 38 — Chemical products n.e.c. 4-digit heading

38.02 Activated carbon; activated natural mineral products; animal black, including spent animal black

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

Section VI, Chemical Products — inorganic and organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, paints and cosmetics.

  1. 38 Chapter Chemical products n.e.c.
  2. 02 Heading Activated carbon; activated natural mineral products; animal black, including spent animal black
  3. —— Subheading Pick one of the 2 six-digit codes below

Chapter 38 covers chemical products n.e.c. (not elsewhere classified): everything from insecticides and disinfectants to prepared culture media, anti-freeze and industrial additives that don't fit the more specific chemical chapters (28-37). It's a broad, catch-all classification for specialty chemical formulations. Classification tip: Pesticides and disinfectants in this chapter almost always require separate environmental or agricultural-agency registration in the destination country, in addition to the customs classification.

All of chapter 38

The 2 six-digit codes under 38.02

One of these is the number you declare.

Other headings in chapter 38

38.01 Artificial graphite; colloidal or semi-colloidal graphite; preparations based on graphite or other carbon in the form of pastes, blocks, plates or other semi-manufactures 38.03 Tall oil, whether or not refined 38.04 Residual lyes from the manufacture of wood pulp, whether or not concentrated, desugared or chemically treated, including lignin sulphonates, but excluding tall oil of heading no. 3803 38.05 Gum, wood or sulphate turpentine, other terpenic oils; crude dipentene; sulphite turpentine, other crude para-cymene; pine oil containing alpha-terpineol as the main constituent 38.06 Rosin and resin acids and derivatives thereof; rosin spirit and rosin oils; run gums 38.07 Wood tar; wood tar oils; wood creosote; wood naphtha; vegetable pitch; brewers' pitch and similar preparations based on rosin, resin acids or on vegetable pitch 38.08 Insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, anti-sprouting products, plant growth regulators, disinfectants and the like, put up in forms or packings for retail sale or as preparations or articles 38.09 Finishing agents, dye carriers to accelerate the dyeing, fixing of dyestuffs, other products and preparations, of a kind used in the textile, paper, leather or like industries, n.e.c. or included 38.10 Metal-pickling preparations; fluxes etc for soldering, brazing; welding powders, pastes of metal and other materials; preparations used as cores or coatings for welding electrodes or rods 38.11 Anti-knock preparations, oxidation and gum inhibitors, viscosity improvers, anti-corrosive preparations and the like, for mineral oils (including gasoline) or other liquids used for the same purposes 38.12 Prepared rubber accelerators; compound plasticisers for rubber or plastics, n.e.c. or included; anti-oxidising preparations and other compound stabilisers for rubber or plastics 38.13 Preparations and charges for fire extinguishers; charged fire-extinguishing grenades 38.14 Organic composite solvents and thinners, not elsewhere specified or included; prepared paint or varnish removers 38.15 Reaction initiators, reaction accelerators and catalytic preparations n.e.c. or included 38.16 Refractory cements, mortars, concretes and similar compositions, including dolomite ramming mix, other than products of heading 38.01 38.17 Mixed alkylbenzenes and mixed alkylnaphthalenes, other than those of heading no. 2707 or 2902 38.18 Chemical elements doped for use in electronics, in the form of discs, wafers or similar forms; chemical compounds doped for use in electronics 38.19 Hydraulic brake fluids and other prepared liquids for hydraulic transmission, not containing or containing less than 70% by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals 38.20 Anti-freezing preparations and prepared de-icing fluids 38.21 Prepared culture media for the development or maintenance of micro-organisms (including viruses and the like) or of plant, human or animal cells 38.22 Reagents; diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a backing, prepared diagnostic or laboratory reagents whether or not on a backing, whether or not put up in the form of kits, other than those of heading 30.06; certified reference materials 38.23 Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining; industrial fatty alcohols 38.24 Prepared binders for foundry moulds or cores; chemical products and preparations of the chemical or allied industries (including those consisting of mixtures of natural products), not elsewhere specified or included 38.25 Residual products of the chemical or allied industries, not elsewhere specified or included; municipal waste; sewage sludge; other residual products. 38.26 Biodiesel and mixtures thereof; not containing or containing less than 70% by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals 38.27 Mixtures containing halogenated derivatives of methane, ethane or propane, not elsewhere specified or included

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

Track a shipment

38.02 FAQ

Heading 38.02 covers activated carbon; activated natural mineral products; animal black, including spent animal black. It is part of chapter 38 (chemical products n.e.c), and it is subdivided into 2 six-digit subheadings — the level you actually declare.

Pick one of the 2 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 VI and to chapter 38. 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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