42 Articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silk-worm gut)
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 VIII, Hides, Skins & Leather — raw hides, leather, furskins, saddlery, handbags and travel goods.
- 42 Chapter Articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silk-worm gut)
- —— Heading Pick one of the 5 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 42 covers articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silk-worm gut): the finished-goods chapter downstream of the raw and tanned leather in chapter 41. Classification tip: A handbag or travel good made mostly of leather but trimmed with textile or plastic is classified by whichever material gives the item its essential character, usually the outer surface area, not by weight.
5 headings in chapter 42
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 42.01 Saddlery and harness for any animal (including traces, leads, knee pads, muzzles, saddle cloths, saddle bags, dog coats and the like) of any material 1 code
- 42.02 Trunks; suit, camera, jewellery, cutlery cases; travel, tool, similar bags; wholly or mainly covered by leather, composition leather, plastic sheeting, textile materials, vulcanised fibre, paperboard 12 codes
- 42.03 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, of leather or of composition leather 5 codes
- 42.05 Leather or composition leather articles n.e.c. in chapter 42 1 code
- 42.06 Articles of gut (other than silk-worm gut), of goldbeater's skin, of bladders or of tendons 1 code
Other chapters in Section VIII
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 42? 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 42 FAQ
Chapter 42 covers articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut (other than silk-worm gut): the finished-goods chapter downstream of the raw and tanned leather in chapter 41. Classification tip: A handbag or travel good made mostly of leather but trimmed with textile or plastic is classified by whichever material gives the item its essential character, usually the outer surface area, not by weight.
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 VIII and to chapter 42. 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.