commodity code (SD-FT)

Foreign Trade (SD-FT)

A code (from the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System) that provides 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. Each country adds digits to assign materials in its own classification system:

• In the USA and Japan, commodity codes contain 10 digits
• In Europe, the codes contain 8 to 12 digits.

Codes used for importing goods are longer than codes used for export.

Additional information for USA:

In the United States, codes from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the USA (HTSUSA) are used to classify import goods. With a few exceptions, it can 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.