96 Miscellaneous manufactured articles
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 XX, Miscellaneous Manufactures — furniture, lighting, toys, games, sports equipment and other manufactured articles.
- 96 Chapter Miscellaneous manufactured articles
- —— Heading Pick one of the 20 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 96 covers miscellaneous manufactured articles that don't fit any other chapter: buttons, pens, lighters, brushes, combs and similar everyday manufactured goods. Classification tip: Lighters and matches-adjacent products sometimes attract child-resistant packaging or fire-safety compliance requirements in destination markets beyond the base HS classification.
20 headings in chapter 96
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 96.01 Ivory, bone, tortoise-shell, horn, antlers, coral, mother-of-pearl and other animal carving material and articles of these materials; worked, (including articles obtained by moulding) 2 codes
- 96.02 Vegetable, mineral carving material and articles of these materials, moulded or carved articles of wax, stearin, natural gums, resins or modelling pastes, worked unhardened gelatin (not heading no. 3503) 1 code
- 96.03 Brooms, brushes (including parts of machines), hand operated floor sweepers, mops and feather dusters; knots and tufts for broom or brush making; paint pads and rollers; squeegees 7 codes
- 96.04 Hand sieves and hand riddles 1 code
- 96.05 Travel sets; for personal toilet, sewing, shoe or clothes cleaning 1 code
- 96.06 Buttons, press-fasteners, snap-fasteners and press-studs, button moulds and other parts of these articles; button blanks 5 codes
- 96.07 Slide fasteners and parts thereof 3 codes
- 96.08 Pens; ball-point, felt tipped, other porous tipped pens; fountain pens, stylograph pens duplicating stylos, propelling or sliding pencils; parts of the foregoing, excluding those of heading no. 9609 8 codes
- 96.09 Pencils (not of heading no. 9608), crayons, pencil leads, pastels, drawing charcoals, writing or drawing chalks and tailors' chalks 3 codes
- 96.10 Slates and boards, with writing or drawing surfaces, whether or not framed 1 code
- 96.11 Stamps; date, numbering, sealing stamps and the like (including devices for printing or embossing labels), designed for operating by hand; hand operated composing sticks and printing sets 1 code
- 96.12 Typewriter, similar ribbons, inked, otherwise prepared for giving impressions, whether or not on spools or in cartridges; ink pads, whether or not inked, with or without boxes 2 codes
- 96.13 Cigarette lighters and other lighters, whether or not mechanical or electrical and parts thereof other than flints and wicks 4 codes
- 96.14 Smoking pipes (including pipe bowls) and cigar or cigarette holders, and parts thereof 1 code
- 96.15 Combs, hair-slides and similar; hairpins, curling pins, curling grips and hair curlers and the like, other than those of heading no. 8516 and parts thereof 3 codes
- 96.16 Scent sprays and similar toilet sprays and mounts and heads therefor; powder-puffs and pads for the application of cosmetics or toilet preparations 2 codes
- 96.17 Vacuum flasks and other vacuum vessels, complete with cases; parts thereof other than glass inners 1 code
- 96.18 Tailors' dummies and other lay figures; automata and other animated displays used for shop window dressing 1 code
- 96.19 Sanitary towels (pads) and tampons, napkins (diapers), napkin liners and similar articles, of any material 1 code
- 96.20 Monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles 1 code
Other chapters in Section XX
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 96? 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 96 FAQ
Chapter 96 covers miscellaneous manufactured articles that don't fit any other chapter: buttons, pens, lighters, brushes, combs and similar everyday manufactured goods. Classification tip: Lighters and matches-adjacent products sometimes attract child-resistant packaging or fire-safety compliance requirements in destination markets beyond the base HS classification.
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 XX and to chapter 96. 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.