Overview
The Commodity List serves several purposes. Its primary purpose is to facilitate entry of Commodity / International section of the Rate and Ship page which must be completed for shipments with a foreign destination. The Commodity / International section expresses the shipment in the terms needed for export, which is based on the Harmonized System.
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, also known as the Harmonized System (HS) is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers to classify traded products. It came into effect in 1988 and has since been developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization. It is used by customs authorities around the world to identify products when assessing duties and taxes and for gathering statistics.
Pacejet uses the terms Harmonization Code and HTS Code interchangeably. The term HTS Code appears in the Commodity / International section, whereas Harmonization Code appears in the List setup. Outside of the United States, it may be referred to as the Schedule B code.
The Commodity List contains other export data elements beyond the Harmonized System, such as Country of Manufacture, Export License and Expiration, Date, and ECCN Code. The Commodity List also contains an LTL freight Classification.
Consider the Commodity List to contain a set of data elements for a product. In many ERPs, the Commodity Name can be attached to the product and passed into Pacejet as part of the shipment in order to automate the Commodity / International section on the Rate and Ship page.
Usage
The Commodity list populates the Commodity Profile dropdown on the Rate and Ship page in the Commodity / International section:
This section can also be automated if the item record in the ERP contains a matching entry from the Commodity list. See below image for example from an ERP system:
If Commodity information is linked to the ERP system it can also be used to auto-select the NMFC Classification. To see the setup of this please refer to the article on Commodities - How to set up.
The Commodity / International section information sent to the carriers when rating and shipping and also printed onto the paperwork required for international shipping. Below is an example of the packaging section on the Pacejet Commercial Invoice: