9903.05 and 9903.06: which reciprocal-tariff heading applies to your origin.

The order the headings have to be read in

This band is not a rate table with one answer per country. It is a precedence chain, and reading it in the wrong order produces a heading that is defensible on its face and wrong at entry. Every one of the 65country lines opens with an “Except for products described in headings” clause, which means the carve-outs are not exceptions applied after the country rate — they displace it before it ever attaches.

1. Settle the ordinary classification and the origin first.Every heading here is reported alongside a Chapter 1–97 code, never instead of one, and origin is the axis the whole band is keyed on.
2. Check the entry date against 9903.05.85. It is a window with two conditions, not a general relief for cargo already afloat.
3. Rule out the 8 universal carve-outsat 9903.05.85–9903.05.92. These reach every covered origin, and 9903.05.86 in particular is decided by a list in the legal notes rather than by anything in the heading text.
4. Rule out the economy-specific carve-outsat 9903.05.93–9903.06.21 keyed to your origin. Twelve economies have one; most do not.
5. Only then read your origin’s country line from the table below, and check whether it is one of the five capped economies that carry two lines rather than one.

Brazil is the exception to the whole sequence. Headings 9903.05.01–9903.05.09 are a separate action under a separate legal note, decided independently of everything above, and a Brazil-origin entry can be reached by both.

Why 9903.05.86 is a note lookup and not a heading lookup

The single most common way to get this band wrong is to read the country heading and stop. A country line says what an origin owes; it does not say whether the product is reached at all. That question is settled by heading 9903.05.86, whose entire article description is “Articles provided for in subdivision (b) of U.S. note 52 to this subchapter” — a pointer into a list that runs to 856 eight-digit provisions in the Chapter 99 notes for 2026 HTS Revision 18, spanning meat, minerals, chemicals, base metals, machinery and precision instruments. Nothing about the product, the rate, or the origin predicts membership. The only way to answer “is my code exempt” is to find the code in that list.

The practical consequence for a duty model is that a per-origin rate lookup cannot be right. Two entries of the same origin, filed the same day, can differ by the full country rate purely because one subheading is on the 52(b) list and the neighbouring one is not.

9903.05.90 is not “anything containing metal”

The second common error is reading 9903.05.90 as a material test. It is not. U.S. note 52(f) defines it by reference to other Chapter 99 headings: articles of aluminum, steel or copper and derivative articles provided for inheadings 9903.82.02 and 9903.82.04–9903.82.26; passenger vehicles and light trucks in the 9903.94 headings; parts of those vehicles in a further 9903.94 list; wood products in the 9903.76 headings; medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and their parts in the 9903.74 headings; semiconductor articles in 9903.79.01; and patented pharmaceutical articles in 9903.04.60–9903.04.66.

So the test is whether the article is already being reported under one of those provisions, not whether it contains a covered metal. A steel article that fails the conditions of its 9903.82 heading is not carved out here either — it simply owes the country rate on top. The Section 232 side of that test has a page per heading on this site: 9903.82.02, 9903.82.04 and 9903.82.26 are the endpoints of the range the note names, and the Chapter 99 heading index lists all of them with their conditions.

9903.05.85 is an entry-filing deadline, not a grandfather clause

The in-transit heading reads, verbatim: “Articles that (1) were loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit prior to entry into the United States before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on July 24, 2026; and (2) are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on July 28, 2026”

Both conditions have to hold. Cargo that was properly afloat before 12:01 a.m. eastern time on July 24, 2026 but is entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, at or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on July 28, 2026 loses the exception entirely and falls back to its origin’s country line. That makes the second condition an operational deadline for the entry team rather than a fact about the shipment, and it is the one condition in this band that expires rather than being amended.

The five economies with two lines, and why the second one replaces rather than adds

Most country lines read “The duty provided in the applicable subheading + 10%” or “+ 12.5%” — an additional duty. Five do not. The European Union and Taiwan split across a 10 percent threshold, and Japan, South Korea and Switzerland across a 12.5 percent one. For each, the higher-numbered line covers goods whose Column 1 ad valorem (or ad valorem equivalent) rate is belowthe threshold and reads simply “10%” or “12.5%” with no “+”, which replaces the ordinary Column 1 rate instead of stacking on it. The lower-numbered line covers goods already at or above the threshold and adds nothing at all.

This is a total-rate cap expressed as two headings, and it has two consequences a rate table hides. The correct heading depends on the entry’s own ad valorem equivalent, so it is value-dependent for specific and compound rates rather than a fixed attribute of the product. And for goods below the threshold the ordinary rate is displaced — a model that adds the Chapter 99 figure to the Column 1 rate will overstate the duty on exactly those entries.

The Special and Column 2 columns: an FTA claim does not escape this band, and one origin is reached in Column 2

Every table above shows the Column 1 General cell, because that is the number a duty model wants. The schedule publishes three rate columns per heading, and the other two settle two questions that a General-only reading gets wrong in opposite directions. Read across all 110 headings in the band for 2026 HTS Revision 18 on Sep 5, 2026: the Special column is identical to the General column on all 110 of them, and Column 2 is left untouched on 109 of 110 — the single exception being 9903.05.66, the line for products of Russia.

The Special column matters because it is where preferential programs live. Here it carries the same text as General on every heading — there is not one row in the band where the two differ. An entry claiming USMCA, a GSP-style program or any other special rate still reports its origin’s heading from this band and still owes the additional duty. The preference reduces the ordinary Chapter 1–97 rate that the heading is added to; it does not reduce the addition. A duty model that applies the Chapter 99 overlay only to non-preferential entries understates the duty on exactly the entries an importer is most confident about.

Column 2 runs the other way. It is the rate column for the handful of origins that do not receive normal trade relations treatment, and on 109 of the 110 headings it carries no addition at all — written two different ways in the export, which is worth knowing before comparing cells: 99 rows read “The duty provided in the applicable subheading”, and 10 rows read “No change”. Both mean the same thing. 9903.05.66 is the one heading in the band that repeats its General text in Column 2, so its 12.5% addition reaches Russia-origin goods on top of the Column 2 rate rather than on top of a Column 1 rate. That is not an anomaly in the drafting: it is the one covered origin whose goods are themselves dutiable at Column 2, so a heading written only against Column 1 would not have reached it.

What this band cannot settle

It cannot settle the ordinary classification, and it cannot settle whether other Chapter 99 measures also apply. U.S. note 52 is explicit that goods reached by these headings remain subject to the general rates in Chapters 1–97 and, except where the note supplies an exemption, to any additional duty elsewhere in this subchapter or in subchapter IV. It also preserves antidumping, countervailing and other duties, taxes, fees and charges. A China-origin entry can therefore carry a country line from this band and a technology-transfer Section 301 heading from the 9903.88 range at the same time; the two are separate actions and neither substitutes for the other.

Chapter 98 treatment is mostly preserved, with a named exception: goods entered under 9802.00.40, 9802.00.50, 9802.00.60 or 9802.00.80 pay the additional duty on the value of the repairs, alterations, processing or foreign assembly, rather than escaping it.

Frequently asked questions

Where this fits

The action behind the 65-economy band is USTR imposes new Section 301 tariffs on 60 economies over forced-labor import bans, which carries the rate matrix and the effective dates. The separate Brazil action is USTR imposes an additional 25% Section 301 tariff on imports from Brazil. For the Chapter 99 headings that do have a page each — the Section 232 and Section 301 index — start at the index. To be told when this band changes, see China Section 301 alerts. For how a Chapter 99 overlay sits on top of the ordinary duty columns, see What should importers know about Section 301 tariffs?.

Sources verified for this band

• USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule — live export for the whole band, 9903.05.01–9903.06.21 (retrieved Sep 5, 2026)
• USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule — completeness probe 9903.05.01–9903.06.99, returning exactly 110 rows (retrieved Sep 5, 2026)
• USITC Chapter 99 for 2026 HTS Revision 18 — U.S. notes 50 and 52, including the 52(b) exemption list and the 52(f) Section 232 carve-out (retrieved Sep 5, 2026)
• USITC current-release endpoint — 2026 HTS Revision 18 (retrieved Sep 5, 2026)
• Federal Register 91 FR 47318 — Notice of Actions in the forced-labor Section 301 investigations (July 28, 2026) (retrieved Aug 8, 2026)
• Federal Register 91 FR 45516 — Notice of Action on products of Brazil (July 20, 2026) (retrieved Aug 8, 2026)

Last verified: Sep 5, 2026. All 110 article descriptions and all three Rates of Duty columns were re-read row by row from the live USITC export for 2026 HTS Revision 18 on that date. The U.S. note 50 and 52 subdivisions, including the 856-provision 52(b) list, come from the Chapter 99 schedule file for the same revision, read on Sep 5, 2026 — the two are separate fetches and carry separate dates. USITC published four revisions in fourteen days during 2026, so confirm the controlling heading text, the cited subdivision, and your entry date in the official source before filing. Informational estimates only. Verify with a licensed customs broker, trade counsel, or CBP ruling before filing.