Foreign Trade (SD-FT)

Code from the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (usually known as the HS or Harmonized System). These codes provide a standard way to identify materials for a country's export and import reporting systems.

The first six digits of a material's code number are standard internationally, but each country adds extra digits to the codes to further assign materials in its own classification system. In the USA and Japan, commodity codes are 10 digits in length. In Europe, the length of these codes vary from 8 to 12 digits. Codes used for importing goods tend to be longer in length than those used for export.

Additional information for USA:

In the US, codes from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the USA (HTSUSA) are used to classify import goods. With a few exceptions that are outlined in a notice to exporters, it may also be used to classify export goods. Schedule B is the official listing of commodity classifications used by shippers to report export shipments from the United States and in compiling the official statistics on exports of merchandise from the U.S.