Easyship Introduces 10-Digit HS Codes and Accurate Duty Calculation for US, EU, and UK Shipments

Whether you're doing a quick HS code lookup for a new SKU or shipping at scale, US and EU customs authorities are now enforcing stricter HS code compliance. An incorrect or generic code can cause customs clearance delays, penalties, and returned shipments. The problem: the standard 6-digit global HS code is limited, and may lead to custom delays when shipping to major commerce hubs like the US and EU. 

Easyship closes that gap. For shipments to the US, EU, or UK, you can select the full 10-digit,  country-specific HS code instead of the generic 6-digit one. Easyship calculates duty from that localized code and your country of origin (the country where the product was manufactured or produced) together, not the code alone.

What Has Changed?

Here's exactly what shipped:

• Select the exact 10-digit HS code required by US, EU, and UK customs, right at the point of shipment creation, on both the shipment table and the product panel. 
• Country of Origin now lives directly in the shipment flow, not just the product listing. Set it once per SKU instead of leaving the flow to update each product separately.
• Duty comes back itemized per SKU: base duty, any origin-linked charges, and local tax, instead of one blended estimate.(This feature is only available for API users at the moment)
• Code search suggests the most likely 10-digit match for each product, based on your product description, which you can accept or refine by searching a more specific term. 
• Both 6-digit and 10-digit codes stay available during the transition. Nothing breaks if you haven't switched over yet, and you're gradually nudged toward the 10-digit code rather than forced into it.
• Update codes and origin in bulk, not SKU by SKU. Select multiple shipments and broadcast a single Category/HS Code or Country of Origin value to all of them at once, or open the bulk editor on Product Listing to review and adjust each product's code and COO side by side in one table.

Who Is the HS Codes Lookup Upgrade For?

This launch is built for:

• eCommerce merchants shipping cross-border into the US, any EU country, or the UK.
• Mid-to-high volume shippers, especially on Plus or Premier plans, who ship internationally at scale.
• Merchants in categories with complex duty structures: apparel, electronics, cosmetics, home goods, and food & supplements.
• API users, including developers, 3PLs, and enterprise accounts on the Rates, Shipments, or Tax & Duty APIs.
• Anyone already hitting customs delays or duty discrepancies on US, EU, or UK shipments.

How Is It Helpful to the Merchants?

Three concrete outcomes, starting now:

• Customs compliance, simplified. Selecting the exact 10-digit code customs expect, at the point of shipment creation, cuts the risk of clearance delays, fines, or returned goods.
• A landed cost estimate you can trust. Duty is now calculated from the localized code and country of origin together, with fewer post-delivery billing surprises.
• Faster, cleaner shipment creation. Country of Origin is now inline in the shipment flow, so there's no more jumping to the Product Listing page to update it per product, and bulk editing means a catalog-wide update takes one action instead of hundreds.

How Do You Look Up and Set Your HS Code in Easyship?

Four steps, once per product:

1. Open the product (or a SKU inside an active shipment) and go to Shipping & Customs.
2. Set the Category/HS Code first.  The list will show the US, EU, and UK specific codes as well as 6 digits code. Select one as per your requirement.
3. If you're shipping to the US, EU, or UK, click through to see the localized 10-digit code for that product, with the most likely match listed first. Search by keyword or code to pick a different one, and revert back to the suggested match any time.
4. Set the Country of Origin in the field right beside it.

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That's it. From then on, duty is calculated from both fields together, automatically, every time you check rates or create a shipment for that product.

Are HS Codes the Same in Every Country?

Only partly. The first 6 digits are standardized worldwide under the WCO Harmonized System. Everything after that is country-specific.

This is the most common misunderstanding shippers run into: assuming one global code works everywhere. In practice, the same product can carry a different final code, depending on where it is headed and a different duty rate based on where the product originated/was manufactured. The 6-digit code identifies the product. It doesn't tell you what you'll pay.

For example, take a plain cotton, knitted men's T-shirt. It starts from the same global heading everywhere, then splits by destination:

Same shirt, same first 6 digits, and duty rates varying, depending purely on where it's headed, the country of origin and the exact final digits used. That's the entire reason the extra digits, not the 6-digit heading, are worth getting right.

What's the Difference Between an HS Code, an HTS Code, and a Commodity Code?

They're the same idea with different names and different lengths, depending on where the shipment is going.

The first 6 digits are identical everywhere in the world. Everything after digit 6 is set by the destination country's own tariff schedule, and that's the part that actually determines the duty rate. 

Easyship currently supports localized 10-digit code selection for US, EU, and UK shipments specifically, with more countries expected to follow.

What Happens If You Use the Wrong HS Code?

Using the wrong HS code either makes you underpay duty, which risks a retrospective demand and penalties once customs corrects it, or overpay, which means your customer gets charged more than they should. Neither outcome is good:

• Understate it, and you risk a retrospective demand for back duty, plus interest, if customs later correct the classification.
• Overstate it, and your customer pays more duty than they should, which shows up as a bad surprise at checkout or on delivery.

There's also less room to get this wrong than there used to be. Since August 29, 2025, every commercial shipment entering the US, regardless of value, requires formal customs entry with a full 10-digit HTS classification and duty payment. The old $800 duty-free threshold no longer applies (Source: Shopify). A vague or missing code isn't a minor detail anymore. It's the difference between a shipment that clears and one that doesn't.

Why Does Your Country of Origin Change Your Duty Rate?

Two shipments with the exact same 10-digit code can still owe different duty if they were made in different countries. Governments set base rates by product code, then layer country-specific measures on top, including trade-agreement discounts and origin-linked surtaxes. The code tells customs what the product is. The country of origin (COO) tells customs which rate table to apply to it.

This is also where small classification differences add up fast: two similarly worded product descriptions can sit under codes with duty rates more than 15 percentage points apart 

For international shipments, Easyship's shipment screen now includes a Country of Origin field right next to the HS code itself, on both the product panel and the shipment table. Its duty engine reads the localized code and the COO together and calculates the applicable base rate and any origin-linked charges as one number, per SKU, before you buy a label.

Get both right before you ship, whether you look them up manually or let your shipping platform handle it, and clearance stops being a guessing game for you and your customers.

Add your product's HS code and country of origin once in Easyship, and every quote, label, and duty estimate uses the exact number from then on. 

Try Easyship free and see your landed cost before you book a courier.

FAQs

Can I use the HS code my supplier gave me? 

Treat it as a starting point, not a final answer. The first 6 digits are shared worldwide, but a supplier in another country may be working from a code with different final digits for their own market. Confirm the local extension for your destination before you ship.

Do I need an HS code to ship internationally? 

Yes. Any commercial shipment crossing a border needs a classification for customs to assess duty. Since August 2025, the US requires the full 10-digit code on every formal entry, regardless of the shipment's value.

Is an HS code the same as a tariff code? 

Not quite. The HS code identifies what the product is. It is the 6 digits code. The tariff code (the longer, country-specific number added at the end of the 6-digits hs code) is what customs uses to look up the actual duty rate that applies to it.

How often do HS codes change? 

The global 6-digit system is revised by the World Customs Organization roughly every 5 years; the current edition dates to 2022. Country-specific duty rates and tariff measures on top of that code can change far more often, sometimes multiple times a year.

Can I look up an HS code for free? 

Yes. Every country publishes its own tariff database free to search, including the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule and the UK's Trade Tariff tool, with similar tools for the EU.

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