How to Find Importers by HS Code: Which Digits to Search

Your own customs set the digits after the sixth, and foreign tools do not read them. A full 8-digit or 10-digit home code in a foreign tool can miss importers or return none.

1. 1

   Cut the code to six digits and read the official description

   Take the first six digits from your shipping bill. Look the code up in the Customs Info Database, which is linked from the International Trade Administration's HS codes page. If your product is hard to classify, search CROSS, the database of legally binding United States rulings. The first six digits of a ruled HTS number are the HS subheading, and the full number shows the United States extra digits. Check: the description names your product. Then read every subheading under the same four-digit heading (for tiles, 6907; for dresses, 6204). List each one your product range could fall under. If the description says "n.e.c.", read the codes section below before you search.

2. 2

   Use a free government tool if the market has one

   United Kingdom: HMRC's "Find UK traders" search is on uktradeinfo.com, and the help page is at uktradeinfo.com/find-uk-traders/help. Search by commodity code (partial codes work, for example "08") or by a product description such as "apples". Then refine the results by trader type, year, postcode or county. For each trader you get the registered name and address, when it traded in the goods, a goods description and a CSV trade history. HMRC does not publish values, quantities, the trader's customers or the countries the goods came from. See Find importers in the United Kingdom. Canada: in the Canadian Importers Database, open "Generate reports by product", then "Importers by product". It lists companies with city, province and postal code. The product search finds "major importers": the businesses that together account for up to 80% of imports of that product. Smaller importers outside that group may not appear. Check: you have company names with addresses, not only totals.

3. 3

   For other markets, use a tool that searches by HS or HTS code

   Panjiva supports searches by commodity name, HS or HTS code, and location. ImportGenius lists HS code search on United States import data in its Pro plan (from $449 a month on monthly billing, cancel anytime) and its Enterprise plan, but not in Essentials. Some ImportGenius countries are sold only on annual billing. Volza, ImportGenius and Panjiva alternatives compares the paid tools. Know what kind of record you are buying. In the provider data behind the importer pages below, the EU countries, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Gulf states have no records filed in the market itself. A German company appears only because an exporter in a country such as India or Vietnam declared a shipment to it, and no records from China are included. Check: ask the vendor whether it holds records filed in your market or only exporting countries' records, and treat the second kind as a partial list. In the demo, confirm that the goods descriptions for your code look like your product.

4. 4

   Narrow with the market's own code if the tool allows it

   In the United States, that means the 10-digit HTS number. The CROSS rulings from step 1 show full numbers. In the European Union, it is the 8-digit CN code. The EU's Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature, linked from Access2Markets, explain each product category, but they are not legally binding. Take the extra digits from that country's tariff, not from your own. Check: the narrowed list still contains names from the six-digit search. If it drops to almost nothing, the narrow code is probably wrong for your product.

5. 5

   Sort the names by how recently and how often they import

   HMRC shows when a trader traded in the goods. Trade-data tools show shipment dates. Check: the name shows trade in the most recent year the tool covers and in at least one earlier year, or, where a tool shows shipment dates, in more than one month.

The counts below are from Reevi's importer pages, which use the official HS 2022 subheading texts.

A catch-all code: auto parts, 870899. The importer page labels this subheading "Vehicle parts and accessories; n.e.c. in heading no. 8708". These are parts that have no subheading of their own in heading 8708. The 4,893 companies on record import something in that residual group. The count does not show which of them buy your specific part. Read each company's goods descriptions before you treat it as a prospect.

One product, three codes: ceramic tiles. The importer page counts tiles under 690721, 690722 and 690723. The split is by water absorption by weight: not over 0.5%, over 0.5% but not over 10%, and over 10%. A search on one code misses importers filing under the other two. Search all three in HMRC's tool. Each result shows the trader's registered name and address. Put the three result lists in one sheet and sort by postcode. Where two rows share a postcode, check whether they are the same registered business, and count it once.

One product, three codes: women's dresses. The importer page counts dresses under 620442, 620443 and 620444, all not knitted or crocheted. The split is by fibre: cotton, synthetic fibres and artificial fibres. A maker of cotton dresses who searches only the cotton code misses companies that import synthetic or artificial-fibre dresses today and could add a cotton line.

Too wide and too narrow at once: essential oils, 330129. The importer page prints this subheading as "Oils, essential; n.e.c. in heading no. 3301 (terpeneless or not), including concretes and absolutes". Oils that have their own subheading are not in this count, so their buyers are missing. If your oil has no subheading of its own, the count mixes buyers of many different oils. The tariff or a binding ruling (step 1) tells you which case is yours.

The International Trade Administration says the HS is updated every five years. The EU updates its Combined Nomenclature every year, and the Census Bureau publishes lists of obsolete Schedule B codes. The importer pages used for the examples above use HS 2022 codes. Older records, tools and shipping bills may use an earlier version. If a code returns nothing in older data, or a tool rejects it, check whether the code existed in that version. Do this before you conclude that the market has no importers.

• Who the real buyer is. The name on the record can be a customs broker or a forwarder. The Canadian Importers Database says it lists both customs brokers and their clients, and also non-resident importers with addresses outside Canada. Open each company's website. If the business offers customs clearance or freight services, drop it from your list. In the Canadian list the broker's clients are usually listed too, so look for the client name under the same product.
• Whether a United States name was withheld. A code search cannot show a buyer whose name is not in the record. The rule that allows this is explained in customs and bill of lading data explained.
• Who to contact. The record gives a registered company name and address, not a person to write to.

If your six-digit code is precise, the code search above is enough to start. A catch-all code such as 870899 or 330129 cannot tell you what each importer actually buys. For those codes, add a search by product description that names the material, the use and the specification. Reevi's buyer search takes the product in words. Paste your official six-digit description and add your own specification. It returns named companies in the countries you choose, matched by what they sell, use or source, from trade records and the public web, with a short reason why each one fits. Reevi's importer pages, such as ceramic tiles in the United Kingdom, show counts by 6-digit HS 2022 code but no company names. For other buyer sources, see how to find buyers for export.