How to check AD/CVD exposure by HTS code

TL;DR

• HTS codes in an AD/CVD order are advisory. The scope paragraph in the Federal Register notice is what controls. A product can be in scope despite an HTS mismatch and out of scope despite an HTS match.
• The full check needs five inputs: HTS code (at multiple granularities), country of origin (not export), manufacturer and exporter names, entry date, and a careful read of the order's scope text and any scope rulings. Anything less is a guess.
• Cash deposit at entry is provisional. Final liquidation happens 12 to 18+ months later through Commerce's administrative review, and the assessment rate can be higher or lower than the deposit. Plan working capital accordingly.
• The Tandom AD/CVD catalog at compliance.tandom.ai/adcvd-catalog indexes an active list of about 736 unique cases (951 order records when AD and CVD count separately). Search by HTS code, country, manufacturer, or entry date; every applicable order surfaces with confidence levels and citations.

Why HTS-only checks fail

The HTSUS subheadings listed in an AD/CVD order are advisory. The narrative scope description in the Federal Register notice is dispositive. CBP states this directly in its AD/CVD FAQ: "the written description of the scope of the Order is dispositive." Commerce repeats the same boilerplate in nearly every order: HTSUS codes are provided "for convenience and customs purposes," but the written description controls.

That means a product can be:

• In scope despite an HTS mismatch. The aluminum extrusions order (A-570-967 / C-570-968) is the canonical example. Commerce has issued dozens of scope rulings over the years finding fabricated downstream extrusions in scope even where the importer entered them under different headings, because the order's language captured "fabricated" and "downstream" forms.
• Out of scope despite an HTS match. Same order, opposite direction: Commerce has excluded "finished goods kits" and "finished merchandise" entered fully assembled, even where the parts inside would otherwise be subject. An entry under the listed HTSUS heading is not automatically subject merchandise.

The legal framework for resolving these questions lives in 19 CFR 351.225 (scope rulings), 19 USC 1675 (administrative and sunset reviews), and 19 USC 1677j (anti-circumvention).

The check workflow

Ten steps, in the order a broker actually works through them.

1. HTS lookup at multiple granularities

Look up the importer's 10-digit code, then check the 8-digit, 6-digit, and 4-digit parents. Many AD/CVD orders cite at the 6-digit subheading. A scope paragraph saying "merchandise classifiable under subheading 7318.15" sweeps in every 10-digit code under it. A search at access.trade.gov by HTSUS subheading pulls every active order whose HTSUS list mentions the code at any granularity.

2. Confirm country of origin

AD/CVD applies by country of origin, not country of export. A Vietnamese intermediary does not change China-origin merchandise into Vietnam-origin merchandise unless substantial transformation occurred there. And Commerce is not bound by CBP's substantial-transformation analysis: Commerce applies its own analysis and can declare a product China-origin for AD/CVD even if CBP would call it Vietnamese for marking. Watch for active circumvention orders that extend AD/CVD to specifically named third-country processing scenarios.

3. Identify the manufacturer and exporter

The cash deposit rate cascade in 19 CFR 351.107 is unforgiving. The hierarchy:

• If the order specifies an exporter/producer combination rate, the entry must match the named combination on file or it does not qualify.
• If the exporter has its own rate, use that.
• If no exporter rate, look for a manufacturer/producer rate.
• If neither, fall back to the all-others rate (market economy) or the country-wide rate (non-market-economy cases like China and Vietnam).

You need both the manufacturer name (the actual factory) and the exporter name (the seller of record) on the commercial invoice and the entry summary. "Sold by [trader] in Hong Kong, made by [unknown factory]" is a recipe for getting the country-wide rate, which in non-market-economy cases is routinely 100%+ ad valorem.

4. Read the scope paragraph

Pull the order from the Federal Register. Read the scope paragraph for inclusions (what is covered, by physical or chemical characteristic), the HTSUS list (advisory), express exclusions (often surprising: specific ASTM grades, dimensional cutoffs, downstream-product carve-outs), country, and effective date.

5. Check past scope rulings

Past scope rulings on the same order are precedent. Search by case number in the Tandom AD/CVD catalog. If your product is similar to one Commerce has already ruled in or out, that ruling tells you a lot. See the scope determination guide for filing your own scope request. Scope rulings since August 2011 are in ACCESS; older rulings live at legacy.trade.gov.

6. Find the correct cash deposit rate

With the order plus the manufacturer and exporter identified, look up the rate currently in effect for that combination. Two authoritative sources:

• CBP's AD/CVD page at cbp.gov/trade/priority-issues/adcvd. This is what CBP's entry filer is reading at the moment of liquidation.
• The most recent administrative review final results in the Federal Register for that case.

For non-market-economy cases (China, Vietnam, Belarus), if your exporter has not established a separate rate, the country-wide rate applies.

7. Understand liquidation timing

The deposit at entry is provisional. Final liquidation usually happens 12 to 18 months after entry, often longer. After Commerce completes the next administrative review covering your entry's period, CBP issues liquidation instructions and the difference between deposit and assessment becomes a refund or a bill. Under 19 USC 1504(d), if CBP fails to liquidate within six months of Commerce removing the suspension, the entry is deemed liquidated at the rate asserted at entry. That protects you when the deposit was high and the final rate dropped, but it also locks in errors where the deposit was low.

8. Decide on administrative-review participation

Each year, Commerce publishes an "Opportunity to Request Administrative Review" notice for orders whose anniversary falls in that month. Importers and exporters can request a review of specific exporters during a roughly 30-day window. If your exporter is not reviewed, the deposit rate stays in effect through that period and is what gets assessed at liquidation. If your exporter is reviewed, a new rate is calculated and replaces it. High-volume importers should calendar these annual windows and brief counsel before each deadline.

9. Self-assess or file a scope inquiry

Importers are allowed to self-classify as out of scope. The risk is on the importer if the self-assessment turns out to be wrong: CBP can issue a Notice of Action, demand back deposits, and reopen prior unliquidated entries via 19 USC 1592. CBP's Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) program at 19 CFR Part 165 specifically targets AD/CVD evasion; CBP recovered more than $400 million in unpaid duties through EAPA cases in 2025 alone. For high-volume or close-call situations, a formal scope ruling is the prudent path.

10. Cross-check stacking with other layers

AD/CVD layers on top of MFN, Section 232, and Section 301. It is not waived by USMCA, not suppressed by Section 232 carve-outs, not excluded by Section 301 product exclusions. See the stacking section below.

What an AD/CVD order actually contains

A Commerce AD or CVD order Federal Register notice follows a consistent structure. Reading one for the first time is straightforward once you know where each piece lives.

• Header. Case number (A-XXX-XXX for AD; C-XXX-XXX for CVD), country, product short name.
• Background. Petitioner, investigation timeline, key prior FR citations.
• Scope of the Order. The legally controlling paragraph. Describes subject merchandise by physical and chemical characteristics. Lists HTSUS subheadings as advisory. Lists express exclusions.
• Antidumping margins or countervailable subsidy rates. Table of company-specific rates plus an "all others" rate (or "PRC-wide" / "Vietnam-wide entity rate" for non-market-economy cases).
• Cash deposit instructions. When CBP starts collecting, what bond or cash arrangement applies, what happens to suspended entries.
• Effective date and suspension of liquidation. When collection begins. Entries before that date are not subject.
• Notice to interested parties. Administrative protective order, service list, litigation rights.

After the order, the operationally relevant documents are the annual administrative-review final results (sets new assessment rates), scope rulings, circumvention determinations under 19 USC 1677j, sunset-review final determinations every five years, and CBP CSMS messages (the operational instructions that tell brokers what to actually deposit at entry).

Manufacturer and exporter rates

This is where most brokers get hurt. The rate hierarchy in 19 CFR 351.107 is non-obvious and the consequences for getting it wrong are large.

Market-economy cases

Most countries are market economies (Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Germany). Commerce calculates company-specific rates for the "mandatory respondents" it examines, typically the largest two or three exporters. Other named, cooperative respondents get an "all-others" rate (typically a weighted average of examined-respondent rates, excluding zero, de minimis, and adverse-facts-available rates). Anyone not named gets the all-others rate by default.

Some orders use producer/exporter combination rates. Both the producer and the exporter on the entry must match the named combination, or the rate does not apply and the entry falls to all-others. This is in 19 CFR 351.107(b).

Non-market-economy cases (China, Vietnam, Belarus)

Commerce begins from the rebuttable presumption that all firms in the non-market economy are subject to government control and assigns a single country-wide rate (often called the "China-wide" or "Vietnam-wide" rate). To get a separate rate, an exporter files a Separate Rate Application or, if previously granted, a Separate Rate Certification in each annual segment. Without it, the country-wide rate applies, and these are routinely 100%+ ad valorem.

Application and certification deadlines are short and tied to the FR notice initiating each segment: applications typically due within 30 days of initiation, certifications within 14 days. Miss the deadline and your exporter loses its separate rate for the period.

What this means at entry time

You need three things on the invoice and entry: the manufacturer name, the exporter name, and confirmation that the manufacturer/exporter combination matches a rate named in the order or the most recent administrative review. If any of the three is missing or does not match, you default to all-others (market economy) or country-wide (non-market economy). For NME cases, the difference is often 200%+ of declared value.

Recent regulatory change

Commerce's December 16, 2024 final rule (89 FR 101694), effective January 15, 2025, revised cash-deposit collection methods, NME-rate methodology, all-others-rate calculation, and respondent-selection rules. Brokers handling AD/CVD entries since January 2025 should re-verify their procedures against the rule text.

Scope rulings: when to file

A formal scope ruling under 19 CFR 351.225 is worth filing when the scope language is genuinely ambiguous AND your interpretation hangs on a specific exclusion, dimensional limit, or product feature, AND volume justifies the cost. Plainly out-of-scope products do not need rulings, and very low-volume entries often are not worth the legal work.

The process:

• Who can file: any "interested party," including importers, foreign producers and exporters, US producers, and trade associations.
• Filing fee: none. Commerce charges no fee. Counsel fees are the cost.
• Where to file: electronically through the ACCESS portal.
• Initiation decision: within 30 days. If Commerce takes no action by day 31, the application is deemed accepted and the inquiry deemed initiated.
• Comment opportunity: other interested parties may submit comments within 10 days of the application.
• Final ruling: within 120 days of initiation, extendable up to a total of 300 days for "good cause."

Affirmative scope rulings are retroactive. Commerce treats the product as having always been covered. That is why filing a scope ruling yourself, when there is genuine ambiguity, is often safer than waiting: a competitor or domestic petitioner can file first and the ruling becomes binding on you with retroactive effect on prior unliquidated entries.

The analytic framework Commerce applies comes from 19 CFR 351.225(k):

• (k)(1) primary sources. The petition, investigation history, prior scope rulings, prior Commerce determinations, ITC determinations. Customs rulings, industry usage, and dictionaries are secondary.
• (k)(2) Diversified Products factors. When (k)(1) does not resolve the question, Commerce applies the factors from Diversified Products Corp. v. United States: physical characteristics of the product (most weight), expectations of ultimate purchasers, ultimate use, channels of trade, manner of advertising and display.

AD/CVD vs other tariff layers

AD/CVD stacks on top of every other duty layer:

• USMCA reduces or eliminates the MFN duty, but does not waive AD/CVD.
• Section 232 applies on metal content; AD/CVD applies to the same line on top.
• Section 301 exclusions eliminate the 301 layer only; AD/CVD remains.
• Section 122 (the IEEPA replacement, in effect through July 24, 2026) does not stack on Section 232, but always stacks on AD/CVD when 232 is absent.
• Chapter 99 product exclusions of any kind never offset AD/CVD.

For a steel threaded rod from China at $10,000 declared value, the stack can run: MFN around 5.7% (around $570) plus Section 301 List 3 25% ($2,500) plus Section 232 50% ($5,000) plus AD on threaded rod (often 100%+ depending on exporter, easily $10,000+) plus CVD on carbon and alloy steel threaded rod (added rate). Easily 200%+ ad valorem total. The duty calculator at tariffs.tandom.ai/calculator handles every layer and surfaces the AD/CVD advisories alongside.

Worked example

A real lookup against the live Tandom AD/CVD database.

Facts.

• HTS: 7318.15.50.90 (Studs, Other, of iron or steel)
• Country of origin: China (CN)
• Country of melt and pour: China
• Entry date: May 1, 2026
• Customs value: $10,000

The Tandom AD/CVD catalog (compliance.tandom.ai/adcvd-catalog?hts=7318.15.50.90&country=CN) returns four heading-level advisory matches against the 4-digit heading 7318:

Why all four are "advisory"

The Tandom engine matches at the 4-digit heading because that is the granularity at which the orders cite their HTSUS lists in our DB. A "heading" match is a candidate, not a confirmation. The next step is to read each scope description and decide which orders actually reach the product.

Reading each scope

A-570-932 Steel Threaded Rod. Scope: "steel threaded rod, bar, or studs, of carbon quality steel ... non-headed and threaded along greater than 25 percent of their total length." Studs are explicitly named. Our product is "Studs, Other" (HTS 7318.15.50.90). Match: in scope.

A-570-104 / C-570-105 Alloy and Carbon Steel Threaded Rod. Scope: alloy and certain carbon steel threaded rod, separate from A-570-932's carbon-quality scope. The product description mentions threaded rod, not studs specifically. If your studs are alloy steel, this order may apply too. If they are plain carbon steel, A-570-932 controls. Confirm by reading the order's full scope and checking Commerce's scope rulings on similar products.

A-570-909 Certain Steel Nails. Scope: nails of various sizes and shapes. Studs are not nails. This match is a heading-level false positive that the broker discards after reading the scope.

What the broker does next

For A-570-932, identify the manufacturer and exporter on the entry. If the exporter has a company-specific rate from the most recent administrative review, use that; otherwise the China-wide rate applies. The Tandom lookup's 206% figure is the country-wide rate without manufacturer specificity. Pull the latest CSMS message for A-570-932 to confirm the operational rate at entry.

For A-570-104 / C-570-105, decide based on alloy content. If the studs are plain carbon steel, this order is out of scope and you discard the advisory. If they are alloy steel, this order applies in addition to A-570-932 and you stack the rates.

A-570-909 is discarded.

The Tandom catalog page for A-570-932 surfaces the full FR scope text, current deposit rate, manufacturer-specific rates tracked from administrative reviews, and the case's event timeline. The Commerce ACCESS link is for verification against the primary source.

Common pitfalls

Treating the HTSUS list as dispositive

Already covered, worth repeating: the HTSUS list in an order is advisory. The scope description is dispositive. Both directions hurt. Missed exposure (HTS not listed, product still in scope) and false positives (HTS listed, product expressly excluded).

Country-of-export confusion

Loading from Vietnam or Mexico does not create Vietnamese or Mexican origin. Hardwood plywood from Vietnam (China veneers) and solar cells from Cambodia/Malaysia/Thailand/Vietnam (China wafers) were both found by Commerce to be circumventing original China orders. Importers who built supply chains around third-country relocation got hit retroactively.

Quoting the all-others rate when a company-specific rate exists

Some company-specific rates are LOWER than all-others rates. Importers who do not bother to identify the manufacturer and exporter overpay deposits. Conversely, when a producer/exporter combination does not match what is on file, the entry falls to all-others or country-wide and the importer is stuck with a much higher rate than expected.

Missing Separate Rate deadlines

For NME cases, the exporter loses its separate rate for the period if the application or certification window is missed. The deposit rate snaps to the country-wide rate. Calendar the windows annually.

Liquidation surprise

Deposit was 30%, the next administrative review calculates the actual rate at 200% based on cooperation issues or facts available, and CBP bills the importer for the gap on every entry that liquidates. This is one of the largest sources of unexpected AD/CVD bills.

Anti-circumvention orders

Orders that extend to third-country processing change the rules for shipments brokers thought were safe. Hardwood plywood from Vietnam and Cambodia is the most-cited recent example. Solar cells from Southeast Asia is another. Track Commerce's circumvention dockets for any country your supply chain touches.

Re-fighting the same scope question every entry

A scope determination on one shipment does not automatically apply to other shipments unless a formal scope ruling has issued. Self-classifications are entry-by-entry. CBP can challenge any entry; a clean entry yesterday does not immunize a similar entry tomorrow.

Skipping the administrative review

If your exporter would benefit from a calculated rate (because your purchases were not actually dumped, or the subsidy did not help your supplier), you can request a review during the annual window. If you do not, the deposit rate becomes the assessment rate. The window is short.

EAPA exposure

CBP runs Enforce and Protect Act investigations under 19 CFR Part 165 to find AD/CVD evasion. Allegations from competitors or domestic petitioners trigger investigations with 90-day initial decisions on reasonable suspicion. If CBP finds reasonable suspicion, interim measures include cash deposit requirements for ALL future entries during the case. CBP recovered more than $400 million through EAPA in 2025.

Assuming Section 301 exclusions waive AD/CVD

They do not. A Section 301 product exclusion eliminates the 301 layer only. AD, CVD, Section 232, and MFN remain.

Glossary

AD/CVD

Antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duties. AD offsets sales below normal value; CVD offsets foreign government subsidies. Cash deposits at entry, final assessment 12 to 18+ months later.

Scope

The narrative description in an AD/CVD order specifying which merchandise is covered. Legally controlling. The HTSUS list in the order is advisory.

Scope ruling

Commerce determination under 19 CFR 351.225 deciding whether a product is covered by an order. Affirmative rulings are retroactive: the product is treated as having always been covered.

All-others rate

Default rate for cooperating non-examined exporters in market-economy cases. Typically a weighted average of examined respondent rates, excluding zero, de minimis, and adverse-facts-available rates.

Country-wide rate (PRC-wide / Vietnam-wide entity rate)

Default rate in non-market-economy cases for exporters that have not established separate-rate eligibility. Often 100%+ ad valorem.

Separate rate

Individualized rate granted to a non-market-economy exporter that demonstrates absence of de jure and de facto government control over export activities. Applied for or certified in each annual segment.

NME (non-market economy)

Country whose economy is presumed to operate on non-market principles. Currently includes China and Vietnam, among others. Commerce uses different methodology to calculate dumping margins.

Administrative review (19 USC 1675(a))

Annual review at the request of an interested party, recalculating rates for the period of review and producing assessment rates for liquidation.

Sunset review (19 USC 1675(c))

Five-year review by Commerce and USITC determining whether to continue or revoke the order. Both agencies must affirm.

Anti-circumvention

Commerce determination under 19 USC 1677j extending an order to merchandise produced in a third country using inputs from the subject country. Hardwood plywood Vietnam and solar cells Southeast Asia are the canonical recent examples.

Cash deposit

Estimated AD/CVD collected at entry, pending final liquidation. Provisional, not final.

Final liquidation / assessment

CBP's final determination of duty owed. Typically based on Commerce's assessment instructions following the next administrative review. Difference from deposit becomes refund or bill.

EAPA (Enforce and Protect Act)

CBP program at 19 CFR Part 165 targeting AD/CVD evasion. Investigations trigger interim measures including cash deposits for all future entries during the case.

FAQ

High-intent questions brokers and importers ask most often.