Editorial policy

1. Where the figures come from

border.bot reads the tariff files customs authorities publish: the Harmonized System from the World Customs Organization, the UK Global Tariff, the EU’s TARIC, the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule with its Chapter 99 additional duties, and the other national tariffs listed on each country page. Each file is imported as a release. A release only goes live after automated checks against known answers pass, or a person accepts it.

Every release is kept. When a rate changes, the old release stays on record with when it was live, so a past answer can always be traced to the data behind it.

2. How product pages are written

A product page (“HS code for air fryers”) lists the codes a product usually falls under and the condition that picks each one, such as what it is made of or what it is for. The legal texts are quoted exactly as published. The conditions and questions are written by border.bot and checked by a person against those texts. A page is only published once that check is recorded, with the reviewer and the date shown on the page.

Duty rates, additional duties such as US Section 301 or Section 232 (Chapter 99 codes like 9903.88.03), exemptions and import VAT are not written by anyone. They are filled in from the live releases every time the page is built, so they change the day a new release goes live.

3. Use of AI

AI helps draft wording and suggest candidate codes. It never sets a rate. Nothing an AI drafts is published until a person has reviewed it, and figures on the page always come from the release data, not from the draft.

4. Dates and updates

“Last updated” is the newest of the page’s own review and the live releases it reads. The sources section names each release, its publisher’s version and the date it went live on border.bot. A page whose codes are no longer in the live Harmonized System is taken down until it has been reviewed again.

5. What the pages are not

Classification depends on the exact product, and rates can depend on origin, value and use. The pages are estimates to check with the customs authority or a licensed customs broker before you rely on them. The importer stays responsible for what is declared.

6. Reporting an error

If a code, rate or sentence looks wrong, email info@border.bot with the page address and, if you have it, a link to the official source. We check every report against the publisher’s file, fix the data or the wording, and the page shows the new date once it changes.