Before you can legally import any goods into the United States, the goods must arrive at a port of entry and U.S. Customs must authorize the delivery to their final destination based on the documents you file. In addition to identifying the correct Harmonized Schedule (HS) number for your products, which is used to determine how much duty you must pay for the goods, you need to be aware of other various types of import controls for your products including import licenses and permits, various types of certificates, absolute and tariff rate quotas, and anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

Our Online Import Controls Tool helps you determine whether or not any of these additional import controls exist. It also provides information concerning the supporting documents you will need to receive an import license or other control documents as well as contact information for the government authorities issuing the license. And because this information is stored online on our secure web server, you can be sure that you are accessing the most current information available.

How It Works

Online Import Controls - Step 1

Just enter your product’s HS Number as well as the country of import, country of manufacture and country of export into our easy-to-use online screen.

Online Import Controls - Step 2

The results page will display a list of all potentially applicable import controls for your product.  A red “X” indicates that a particular export control applies for your product in all cases, a yellow question mark means that a particular export control might apply, and a green check mark indicates that a particular export control does not apply to your product.

If an import control definitely does or may apply to your product, click on the red arrow to display the details of the export controls for your product.

This information is design to assist you in the import process, but it does not replace the need for an understanding of the import procedures of the United States (or whichever country you may be importing into). If you do not have a good understanding of this process, you should find a licensed U.S. Customs Broker who can help you with this complicated process.

In addition, you can get a basic understanding of the product classification and import control process from the U.S. Customs & Border Protection website and from private training companies like International Business Training.

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