Section Notes
Section notes are legally binding provisions that appear at the beginning of each of the 22 sections of the HTSUS. Under GRI 1, section notes are the first legal text consulted in any classification determination—before heading text and before chapter notes. They can exclude goods from a section entirely, define terms used in headings, or direct goods to a specific classification regardless of what the heading text might otherwise suggest.
In Detail
The 22 sections of the HTSUS group chapters by broad product category: Section I covers live animals and animal products; Section XI covers textiles and apparel; Section XVI covers machinery and mechanical appliances. Each section may have its own notes, though not all sections include them. Where section notes exist, they bind every chapter and heading within the section.
Section notes perform several distinct functions. Exclusion notes remove specific goods from a section's scope entirely—Section XVI Note 1, for example, lists numerous articles that are explicitly excluded from that section despite fitting the general heading descriptions. Definition notes establish the legal meaning of terms used across all headings in the section. Inclusion notes expand a section's scope beyond what the heading text might naturally suggest. Each type of note is binding and cannot be overridden by heading language.
A section note that excludes a good from a section is controlling—no heading within that section can classify the good regardless of how well the heading text matches. This is why section notes must be evaluated first. A classifier who proceeds directly to heading comparison without reviewing applicable section notes has skipped a legally required step, and any resulting classification may be incorrect.
Classification Significance
Under GRI 1, classification is determined by the terms of the headings and "any relative section or chapter notes." In legal practice, the notes come first: if a section note excludes a product, the headings in that section are irrelevant to classification. Classification cannot begin with a heading comparison—it must begin with the legal notes that set the boundaries of each section's scope. Missing an applicable exclusion note is one of the most consequential and least visible classification errors.
How Kanon Handles This
Kanon's corpus parser ingests all HTSUS section notes and converts them into structured condition trees. During classification, every applicable section note is evaluated against the product's attributes before any heading comparison is made—replicating the legal priority the HTSUS requires and documenting each evaluation in the Classification Support Package.