Chapter notes
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Revision 29 (2025)
Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes
CHAPTER 34
SOAP, ORGANIC SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENTS,
WASHING PREPARATIONS, LUBRICATING PREPARATIONS,
ARTIFICIAL WAXES, PREPARED WAXES, POLISHING
OR SCOURING PREPARATIONS, CANDLES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES,
MODELING PASTES, "DENTAL WAXES" AND
DENTAL PREPARATIONS WITH A BASIS OF PLASTER
VI
34-1
Notes
1. This chapter does not cover:
(a) Edible mixtures or preparations of animal, vegetable or microbial fats or oils of a kind used as mold release preparations
(heading 1517);
(b) Separate chemically defined compounds; or
(c) Shampoos, dentifrices, shaving creams and foams or bath preparations, containing soap or other organic surface-active
agents (heading 3305, 3306 or 3307).
2. For the purposes of heading 3401, the expression "soap" applies only to soap soluble in water. Soap and the other products of
heading 3401 may contain added substances (for example, disinfectants, abrasive powders, fillers or medicaments). Products
containing abrasive powders remain classified in heading 3401 only if in the form of bars, cakes or molded pieces or shapes. In
other forms they are to be classified in heading 3405 as "scouring powders and similar preparations".
3. For the purposes of heading 3402, "organic surface-active agents" are products which when mixed with water at a concentration
of 0.5 percent at 20°C and left to stand for one hour at the same temperature:
(a) Give a transparent or translucent liquid or stable emulsion without separation of insoluble matter; and
(b) Reduce the surface tension of water to 4.5 x 10 -2 N/m (45 dyne/cm) or less.
4. In heading 3403 the expression "petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals" applies to the products defined in
note 2 to chapter 27.
5. In heading 3404, subject to the exclusions provided below, the expression "artificial waxes and prepared waxes" applies only
to:
(a) Chemically produced organic products of a waxy character, whether or not water-soluble;
(b) Products obtained by mixing different waxes;
(c) Products of a waxy character with a basis of one or more waxes and containing fats, resins, mineral substances or other
materials.
The heading does not apply to:
(a) Goods of heading 1516, 3402 or 3823 even if having a waxy character;
(b) Unmixed animal waxes or unmixed vegetable waxes, whether or not refined or colored, of heading 1521;
(c) Mineral waxes or similar products of heading 2712, whether or not intermixed or merely colored; or
(d) Waxes mixed with, dispersed in or dissolved in a liquid medium (headings 3405, 3809, etc.).
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Revision 29 (2025)
Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes
VI
34-2
Section notes
SECTION VI
PRODUCTS OF THE CHEMICAL OR ALLIED INDUSTRIES
VI-1
Notes
1. (a) Goods (other than radioactive ores) answering to a description in heading 2844 or 2845 are to be classified in those headings
and in no other heading of the tariff schedule.
(b) Subject to paragraph (a) above, goods answering to a description in heading 2843, 2846 or 2852 are to be classified in those
headings and in no other heading of this section.
2. Subject to note 1 above, goods classifiable in heading 3004, 3005, 3006, 3212, 3303, 3304, 3305, 3306, 3307, 3506, 3707 or
3808 by reason of being put up in measured doses or for retail sale are to be classified in those headings and in no other heading
of the tariff schedule.
3. Goods put up in sets consisting of two or more separate constituents, some or all of which fall in this section and are intended
to be mixed together to obtain a product of section VI or VII, are to be classified in the heading appropriate to that product,
provided that the constituents are:
(a) Having regard to the manner in which they are put up, clearly identifiable as being intended to be used together without first
being repacked;
(b) Entered together; and
(c) Identifiable, whether by their nature or by the relative proportions in which they are present, as being complementary one
to another.
4. Where a product answers to a description in one or more of the headings in section VI by virtue of being described by name or
function and also to heading 3827, then it is classifiable in a heading that references the product by name or function and not
under heading 3827.
Additional U.S. Notes
1. In determining the amount of duty applicable to a solution of a single compound in water subject to duty in this section at a specific
rate, an allowance in weight or volume, as the case may be, shall be made for the water in excess of any water of crystallization
which may be present in the undissolved compound.
2. For the purposes of the tariff schedule:
(a) The term "aromatic" as applied to any chemical compound refers to such compound containing one or more fused or unfused
benzene rings;
(b) The term "modified aromatic" describes a molecular structure having at least one six-membered heterocyclic ring which
contains at least four carbon atoms and having an arrangement of molecular bonds as in the benzene ring or in the quinone
ring, but does not include any such molecular structure in which one or more pyrimidine rings are the only modified aromatic
rings present;
(c) For the purposes of headings 2902, 2907 and 3817, the term "alkyl" describes any saturated acyclic hydrocarbon group
having six or more carbon atoms or, subject to note 1 to
