Glossary term
Chapter Notes
Legally binding notes at the head of each HS chapter that govern what the chapter does and does not cover.
Notes published at the start of each section and chapter of the Harmonized System. They are part of the legal text of the nomenclature, not commentary.
They frequently decide classification outright, by excluding goods that would otherwise seem to belong or by defining a term used in the headings. Classifying from heading descriptions alone, without reading the notes, is one of the most common ways to get a classification wrong.
Our HS chapter index lists the chapters; the notes themselves sit in the published nomenclature.