Guide — HS Classification

Working position

Our research position is HS 2402.90 — the heading for cigarettes made from tobacco substitutes — for finished, cigarette-format sticks. The product is manufactured into sticks for smoking; it is not shipped as loose raw herb material, and it is not a food preparation.

Why other headings do not fit

• Chapter 24, heading 2404 covers products intended for inhalation without combustion; HongQue sticks are lit and burned, so 2404 is not the working position.
• Heading 1211 (plants used primarily in pharmacy or perfumery) describes unmanufactured plant material, not finished sticks.
• Heading 2106 (food preparations) does not describe a smoking product; declaring a smoking product as food creates a misdeclaration risk and is not a route we will ship under.
• Loose-material variants (if ever offered) would fall for classification under heading 2403; no loose format is currently offered.

What Chapter 24 classification triggers

• Excise or tobacco-category taxation in markets that tax Chapter 24 goods (in the UAE, excise at the Chapter 24 rate plus digital tax stamping)
• Smoking-product registration and labelling regimes rather than general consumer-goods rules
• Age-restricted handling through the supply chain

Advance ruling

Classification is ultimately decided by the destination customs authority. Importers are advised to seek an advance ruling or a written broker opinion in their market before a first order; our documentation pack (composition file, process description, format sheet) is prepared to support that application.