The InventoryItem resource now includes HS codes, country codes, and province codes
API
Effective February 15, 2019
The InventoryItem resource now includes fields for the 6-digit Harmonized System code (HS code), the country code of origin, the province code of origin, and a list of country-specific HS codes.
The Harmonized System (HS) is used worldwide for classifying goods according to different cateogories, each with a unique six-digit code. However, each country can have its own sub classification for certain products. The country-specific HS code fields for an inventory item are exposed only through the API.
The fields for HS codes, country codes of origin, and province codes of origin let merchants add information to their product variants that is used by customs worldwide to calculate import duties. This feature will roll out to all merchants over the next few days.
Merchants will see a new UI for the HS code when they edit a product variant. This change will let merchants find the right code for their product by searching using keywords. This new field accepts only the globally-accepted 6-digit codes. A new field for country of origin is also available while editing a product. For merchants who use Shopify Shipping, these two fields will also be pre-filled on the customs information form that's generated while printing a shipping label. The province code of origin is shown only on the customs information form when using Canada Post.
To enable you to leverage this information in your apps, we're exposing these fields on the InventoryItem resource in the REST Admin API. You can also read and write country-specific HS codes by using the API. To learn more, see InventoryItem.
Who is affected by this change?
- Merchants who sell internationally.
- Shipping and fulfilment apps that need information about products' HS codes and countries of origin
How do I prepare for this change?
- Start consuming the HS code, country-specific HS code, country code of origin, and province code of origin from the InventoryItem resource.
- Stop using the
harmonizedSystemCodekey available as a metafield on the Product Variant resource. This key will be deprecated in the near future.
What happens if I do nothing?
Within the next few months, we will deprecate the harmonizedSystemCode field on the Product Variant resource, and any read/write calls to the harmonized_system_code metafield key in the global namespace for a ProductVariant will return a header marking the field as deprecated.