Six digits against CBP's own rulings -- Aervik Labs, measured 2026-09-17
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WHAT THIS IS. 98 binding classification rulings published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, each
carrying CBP's own description of the merchandise and the tariff number CBP assigned. Aervik Labs' HS
classifier was given the description alone and asked for the 6-digit subheading. results.csv has every
row, including the exact text the classifier was given, so anyone can rerun this against any tool.

THE RESULT: 23 of 98 exact at 6 digits (23.5%, 95% CI 16.2-32.8%).
It is our own product being graded, and we publish every miss.

HOW THE ANSWER WAS KEPT OUT OF THE INPUT. A ruling states its tariff number in the header and argues to
it in the body. Only the merchandise description was extracted, and a gate then DISQUALIFIED any
description containing an HTS-shaped number, the words HTSUS / heading / subheading / classification, or
the answer's own six digits. Disqualified rulings were dropped, never edited and kept. Drop counts by
reason are in summary.json.

THE LIMITATION THAT MATTERS MOST. A binding ruling exists because someone was unsure. This is a set of
hard cases by construction, not a representative product catalog, and the figure above should not be read
as accuracy on ordinary merchandise.

SOURCE AND LICENCE. CROSS, https://rulings.cbp.gov/. CBP's Copyright Notice: "Unless a copyright is
indicated, information on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website is in the public domain and may
be reproduced, published or otherwise used without the permission of the CBP." CBP is cited as the source
of the rulings. CBP did not participate in this study and does not endorse it.

The harness that produced this: scripts/research/cross-six-digit-study.mjs in the Aervik Labs repository.