50 Silk
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 XI, Textiles & Apparel — silk, wool, cotton, man-made fibres, fabrics, carpets and clothing.
- 50 Chapter Silk
- —— Heading Pick one of the 7 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 50 covers silk: raw silk, silk waste, silk yarn and woven silk fabric. It's the first of the fibre-specific textile chapters that make up Section XI (chapters 50-63), organized by fibre type before moving to finished apparel. Classification tip: Raw silk, silk waste (noil) and thrown silk yarn each have separate subheadings, so identify the exact processing stage rather than classifying everything simply as 'silk'.
7 headings in chapter 50
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 50.01 Silk-worm cocoons suitable for reeling 1 code
- 50.02 Raw silk (not thrown) 1 code
- 50.03 Silk waste (including cocoons unsuitable for reeling, yarn waste and garnetted stock) 1 code
- 50.04 Silk; yarn (other than yarn spun from silk waste), not put up for retail sale 1 code
- 50.05 Yarn spun from silk waste, not put up for retail sale 1 code
- 50.06 Silk yarn and yarn spun from silk waste, put up for retail sale; silk-worm gut 1 code
- 50.07 Woven fabrics of silk or of silk waste 3 codes
Other chapters in Section XI
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 50? 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 50 FAQ
Chapter 50 covers silk: raw silk, silk waste, silk yarn and woven silk fabric. It's the first of the fibre-specific textile chapters that make up Section XI (chapters 50-63), organized by fibre type before moving to finished apparel. Classification tip: Raw silk, silk waste (noil) and thrown silk yarn each have separate subheadings, so identify the exact processing stage rather than classifying everything simply as 'silk'.
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 XI and to chapter 50. 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.