45 Cork and articles of cork
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 IX, Wood & Wood Products — wood, charcoal, cork and articles of straw or basketware.
- 45 Chapter Cork and articles of cork
- —— Heading Pick one of the 4 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 45 covers cork and articles of cork: natural cork, agglomerated cork, and finished cork products like stoppers and flooring tiles. Classification tip: Natural cork stoppers and agglomerated (composite) cork stoppers sit on different subheadings, so check whether the product is solid natural cork or a manufactured cork composite before classifying.
4 headings in chapter 45
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 45.01 Natural cork, raw or simply prepared; waste cork; crushed, granulated or ground cork 2 codes
- 45.02 Natural cork, debacked or roughly squared, or in rectangular (including square) blocks, plates, sheets or strip, (including sharp-edged blanks for corks or stoppers) 1 code
- 45.03 Cork; articles of natural cork 2 codes
- 45.04 Agglomerated cork (with or without a binding substance) and articles of agglomerated cork 2 codes
Other chapters in Section IX
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 45? 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 45 FAQ
Chapter 45 covers cork and articles of cork: natural cork, agglomerated cork, and finished cork products like stoppers and flooring tiles. Classification tip: Natural cork stoppers and agglomerated (composite) cork stoppers sit on different subheadings, so check whether the product is solid natural cork or a manufactured cork composite before classifying.
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 IX and to chapter 45. 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.