For much of my career, I used the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to understand what America imports. Today, I see another use for that same system: helping American manufacturers discover purchasing demand for products they already make, or have the capability to produce.
Recently, I had the pleasure of discussing that idea with U.S. International Trade Commission Commissioner Samuel T. Negatu at the New American Industrial Alliance's New Industrial Age Forum. He was gracious with his time, and I appreciated the opportunity to share what we are building at Reshore Technologies.
Our conversation concerned a framework familiar to those of us who have spent our careers in trade. We use it to classify merchandise entering the country, determine applicable tariff provisions, and organize import statistics. My interest is in extending that framework to help us investigate which of those products could be supplied by American manufacturers.
An importer may know a component by an overseas supplier's part number. An American manufacturer may describe a comparable product through its material, function, or production process. A potential business relationship can remain hidden between those descriptions, even when the buyer has an established need and the manufacturer has relevant capability.
Mapping imported and domestic products against a common classification framework gives us a consistent place to begin looking for that relationship. It can help a buyer discover a domestic production option and a manufacturer recognize purchasing demand it would otherwise have little reason to investigate.
What Are HTS Codes
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, commonly called the HTS, establishes tariff and statistical categories for imported merchandise. It builds on the international Harmonized System, or HS, which provides a shared six-digit product classification framework. The United States adds detail through eight-digit tariff provisions and ten-digit statistical reporting numbers.
Products are classified according to the applicable descriptions and rules, using characteristics that may include material, function, construction, and degree of processing. The U.S. International Trade Commission publishes the official Harmonized Tariff Schedule.
For domestic supplier discovery, those classifications provide a structured way to organize what a company is purchasing. Behind an import sits a real business requirement: a product needed for a particular application, in a particular quantity, at an acceptable price and delivery schedule. Understanding that product is the first step toward investigating whether an American manufacturer could supply it.
Applying The Same Framework To Domestic Production
Once we understand the imported product, the next question is which American manufacturers might be able to supply it. At Reshore Technologies, we apply the same classification framework to domestic production so we can investigate that connection.
We examine what a manufacturer makes, including the product's material, function, and construction, and map those products to relevant HTS categories. We bring those classified products together with detailed manufacturing capabilities and import demand so companies can identify potential buyer and supplier relationships through Reshore Technologies. This gives products described differently by different companies a common framework for discovery.
For the manufacturer, this means being able to investigate companies importing the types of products it makes, including buyers outside its existing customers and markets. Its sales team has a company to research, a product to discuss, and evidence of purchasing demand to inform the conversation. For the buyer, it can bring an American production option into consideration that had not appeared in previous searches.
To make that connection useful, however, we need to understand both the products a manufacturer already makes and the capabilities behind them.
Adding The Products Companies Make And Buy
Users contribute to that shared framework by adding products to Reshore Technologies for classification. Manufacturers add the products they make, while importers add the products they buy. Both sides provide information about the actual goods so we can evaluate them against relevant HTS categories and look for potential connections.
For manufacturers, the starting point is a description of the product itself, including what it is made from, what it does, and how it is constructed. A catalog name or internal part number may mean little to someone outside the business. Describing the product's characteristics gives us a stronger basis for classification and helps a prospective buyer understand what the manufacturer produces.
Importers contribute the same kind of information for the products they purchase. Import signals can aid that process by pointing to products associated with a company's import activity and providing descriptions to review. The importer can then add or clarify the product information using its own purchasing knowledge, particularly where shipment descriptions are broad or incomplete.
As products from both sides are classified against the same framework, a manufacturer's production can be examined alongside an importer's purchasing demand. The manufacturers know what they make, and the importers know what they need. Bringing that knowledge together with import signals gives us a more informed basis for identifying potential domestic sourcing relationships.
Connecting Classified Products With Manufacturing Capability
Classifying an existing product and describing a production capability serve different purposes. We map the product to a relevant HTS category by evaluating its characteristics. Alongside that classification, we make information about the manufacturer's materials, processes, and production capabilities visible so a buyer can understand the work the company may be able to perform.
The manufacturer's existing products provide a starting point, but its catalog may not describe the full range of work its facility can perform. That is especially important for machine shops and other custom manufacturers whose output changes with the customer's drawing or specification.
A shop may have experience with certain metals, machining processes, dimensions, tolerances, and secondary operations. Those capabilities can make it worth investigating for a component it does not currently advertise. Determining whether it could produce that component requires a technical conversation about the actual work.
That is why broadcasting detailed capabilities alongside classified products matters. It gives buyers a fuller picture of a manufacturer and gives manufacturers a way to be considered for opportunities beyond the names and descriptions in their existing catalogs.
Connecting Purchasing Demand With West Virginia Production
A Spring 2026 project in West Virginia University's Supply Chain Management Program put this approach to work. Students began with HTS Chapter 39 and narrowed their research to a polyurethane category. That choice gave them a specific product to investigate on both sides of the sourcing question: who was importing it, and what relevant production capability existed in West Virginia?
Using the selected category as their reference, the students reviewed importer activity and product fit while evaluating West Virginia manufacturers for compatibility with the material and production requirements. The import research identified purchasing demand to examine. The manufacturer research identified where the state might have the ability to serve it. The HTS category kept those investigations focused on the same goods, rather than leaving the team to connect broad descriptions of buyers and manufacturers.
For West Virginia, that is the question we want this work to answer: could production here serve purchasing demand that is currently being met from overseas? Once the students had a potential relationship to examine, they compared offshore and in-state production costs and considered the equipment, workforce, quality, and other requirements needed to make domestic sourcing practical.
The result was a feasibility proposal presented to manufacturers, the Polymer Alliance Zone, state economic development partners, and others who could carry the work forward. It was not a completed sourcing transaction. Its value was showing how an HTS category could bring import demand and relevant West Virginia production capability into the same analysis, giving the partners a potential business opportunity to evaluate.
That is the connection we are working to make repeatable through Reshore Technologies. Knowing that a state has manufacturers and imports is only the beginning. We need to understand where what those companies can produce relates to what buyers already purchase, and whether that relationship can become business for an American manufacturer.
Making Supplier Discovery Repeatable
Researching one imported component can be manageable through searches, phone calls, and technical discussions. Repeating that work across hundreds or thousands of products becomes difficult when every buyer, manufacturer, and data source uses different terminology.
At Reshore Technologies, organizing import demand and domestic production against the same framework allows companies to repeat this process across product categories. Capability information adds the detail needed to assess which manufacturers warrant a conversation, including custom shops whose work may extend well beyond an existing product catalog.
As manufacturers add more detailed product and capability information, future searches can build on that knowledge. A buyer can examine relevant production options, while a manufacturer can investigate demand in markets it may not previously have considered.
For economic development organizations, this creates a practical way to help local manufacturers investigate existing purchasing demand. A community's production base includes the small shops and custom operations whose capabilities may be substantial even when their product catalogs are limited. Helping those companies describe their work can make them more visible to prospective buyers.
Is An HTS Match An Exact Product Match
One question comes up when people consider this approach: "Is it an exact match?" Sharing an HTS code does not mean two products are identical, or that a manufacturer can supply a buyer without further discussion. It does mean we have a common way to compare what that buyer imports with what an American company makes, which is often the connection we have been missing.
The usefulness comes from what the HTS describes. An industry code tells us what business a company is in, and a part number may tell us very little outside that company. HTS categories describe the goods themselves, with distinctions that can include material, function, construction, and how far a product has been processed. That detail helps us get beyond "this company makes plastics" and closer to the type of plastic product a buyer actually needs.
We can also learn something before every digit lines up. A two-digit match gives us a broad view of demand in a category such as plastics and where to investigate our manufacturing base. Four digits narrow the product family, six provide a more specific category shared internationally, and eight add U.S. tariff distinctions. Ten-digit categories can narrow it further. The broader levels help us decide where to look; the more detailed levels help us decide which products and companies deserve a closer look.
For a manufacturer, that may reveal a buyer importing the kind of product it already makes. It may also reveal related work that its equipment and experience could support, even if the exact item is not in its catalog. That is why we bring capabilities alongside classified products. The code helps us find the relationship, and the manufacturer's capabilities help us understand what might be possible.
From there, the companies still need to discuss drawings, materials, tolerances, quality, quantities, delivery, and cost. Import activity does not tell us a buyer is ready to change suppliers, either. But it gives us a company to research and an existing need to understand. We do not need the HTS to replicate every specification to make that introduction worthwhile; we need it to help us find a production relationship we would otherwise have missed.
Using Classification For Discovery Rather Than Customs Entry
For those of us who have worked in trade, using a classification to explore a possible relationship may take some getting used to. On an import entry, the HTS code is part of a declaration to the government. Importers commonly work with licensed customs brokers, and formal entries generally require a customs bond. The importer remains responsible for exercising reasonable care, and incorrect classifications can lead to additional duties, delays, and substantial penalties where the legal conditions for a violation are met. "Close enough" is not the standard for an import declaration.
We are doing something different when we map an American-made product to an HTS category solely to research domestic sourcing. We are not entering merchandise through Customs or declaring what duty is owed. That research does not itself require a customs broker or bond, and revising a tentative category in a domestic sourcing analysis is not, by itself, a customs-entry violation. We can examine related categories, improve descriptions, and refine the classification as we learn more about the product. The information still needs to be represented honestly, and a research classification should never be carried into a customs filing without the appropriate review.
Our aim is to get to the ten-digit level wherever the product information supports it, because that detail can help us get very close to the production relationship we are looking for. But a promising sourcing conversation should not have to wait until every classification question is resolved. A broader category, supported by a clear product description and relevant manufacturing capabilities, may already give a buyer good reason to speak with a manufacturer.
That is what getting close means here: close enough in the actual product and production requirements for the companies to compare what is needed with what can be made. They can then work through the specifications and determine whether there is a fit. The classification helps them find one another; it does not need to settle every technical question before they begin talking.
A Map Of What America Could Make
Looking back on my conversation with Commissioner Negatu, this is what I hoped to convey. The framework that has helped generations of trade professionals organize international commerce can also help American companies discover one another.
We have used these classifications to document goods moving across borders and produce national trade statistics. Within those categories are purchasing decisions made by real companies for products they need. Organizing domestic production against the same framework gives us a way to investigate which of those needs American manufacturers could meet.
Behind that domestic production are facilities, workers, and capabilities that deserve to be seen. Connecting them with relevant purchasing demand can create a conversation neither company would otherwise have known to pursue and, where the requirements align, an opportunity to put American manufacturing to work.
That is the possibility I see in the HTS. The holy grail of trade classification can also become a map for discovery, helping us investigate what America could make and which manufacturers could make it. Our task is to follow that map, product by product, and turn the possibilities into business.