2026 Harmonized Tariff Schedule Revision 1: Key Changes for HS Classification

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) released the 2026 Harmonized Tariff Schedule Revision 1, effective January 1, 2026. This revision incorporates the World Customs Organization's 7th Amendment to the Harmonized System, which introduced approximately 350 new subheadings globally, along with domestic modifications specific to the United States. The changes affect classification across nearly every section of the tariff schedule.

Among the most significant changes are new breakouts for electric vehicles and their components (Chapter 87), lithium-ion batteries and energy storage systems (Chapter 85), and advanced semiconductor devices (Chapter 84). These new subheadings provide greater specificity for products that were previously classified under broad residual categories, and in many cases carry different duty rates than their predecessor codes. Importers of EV components should pay particular attention to the new distinction between battery cells, modules, and packs, each of which now has its own tariff line.

The revision also introduces new provisions for environmental goods, including solar panels, wind turbine components, and water purification equipment. These changes align with international commitments under the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations and, in some cases, provide preferential duty rates for qualifying products. However, the classification criteria are technical and require careful analysis of product specifications.

For compliance teams, the immediate action item is to review all active HS codes against the 2026 schedule and identify any that have been modified, split, or eliminated. Products classified under codes that no longer exist must be reclassified before the next entry, or they will be rejected by the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. Companies with large product catalogs should prioritize this review, as manual reclassification of hundreds or thousands of SKUs is both time-consuming and error-prone.

AI-powered classification tools can significantly accelerate this transition by automatically mapping old codes to their 2026 equivalents and flagging products that require human review due to ambiguous splits. Early adopters of automated reclassification report completing the transition in days rather than weeks, with higher accuracy rates than manual processes.