Directory / Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Preparations of vegetables, fruit
Vegetables, fruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants once they have been preserved or prepared, together with fruit and vegetable juices.
The code this site holds in chapter 20
| Code | What it covers | Markets priced | Duty range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200911 | Orange juice, frozen | 6 of 6 | 0% to 5% plus 4 charged per unit |
Where this chapter ends
Preservation is what brings goods here from chapters 7 and 8. Freezing alone generally does not, but cooking, canning, or preserving in vinegar or sugar does. Juice stays in this chapter only while it is unfermented and unspirited: once it carries alcohol it becomes a beverage in chapter 22.
The guides in chapter 20 name one code outside it that goods reach when they turn out not to belong here.
- 210690 (chapter 21): Food preparations not elsewhere specified, where the juice has become an ingredient in something else
What the notes to section IV say
Chapter 20 sits in section IV, prepared foodstuffs; beverages, spirits and vinegar; tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes; Products, whether or not containing nicotine, intended for inhalation without combustion; Other nicotine containing products intended for the intake of nicotine into the human body, which runs from chapter 16 to chapter 24. A section note governs every chapter in its section, so it stands one layer above the note to chapter 20 below and applies before it.
The nomenclature publishes one note to section IV, and it reaches chapter 20. It is quoted here in full, as published.
The note to section IV
In this section the term 'pellets' means products which have been agglomerated either directly by compression or by the addition of a binder in a proportion not exceeding 3% by weight.
Read from the section notes published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/sections/4, on 2026-09-08, and read a second time from the chapter endpoint quoted below, which carries the same section note and has to agree with it. Like the chapter and heading notes, a section note is part of the international text of the Harmonized System, so it decides classification and never a rate.
What the nomenclature excludes
The sentence above is this site's summary. This one is not. Note 1 to chapter 20 sets out what this chapter does not cover, and these are its 5 items as published, with the heading each one sends the goods to. Where a note names a chapter this site also covers, the chapter number is a link.
- (a) vegetables, fruit or nuts, prepared or preserved by the processes specified in Chapter 7, Chapter 8 or Chapter 11
- (b) vegetable fats and oils (Chapter 15)
- (c) food preparations containing more than 20% by weight of sausage, meat, meat offal, blood, insects, fish or crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates, or any combination thereof (Chapter 16)
- (d) bakers' wares and other products of heading 1905
- (e) homogenised composite food preparations of heading 2104
Read from the chapter notes published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/20, on 2026-09-07. The first six digits of that nomenclature are the Harmonized System itself and the notes to a chapter are part of its international text, so this is the same note whichever of this site's destinations a shipment is going to. It decides classification and never a rate.
What the notes say about each heading
The note above governs chapter 20 as a whole. Underneath it the same published notes speak about individual four digit headings, and that is the layer a classification usually turns on. This site holds codes under one heading in this chapter. One of them is the subject of a numbered note.
| Heading | What the nomenclature calls it | Codes here | What the notes say about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Fruit or nut juices (including grape must and coconut water) and vegetable juices, unfermented and not containing added spirit, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter | 200911 | Subject of note 6 |
How each of those notes opens, in the words the nomenclature uses. The note in full is on every code page under the heading it governs, which is where a reader deciding a classification is standing.
Note 6 to chapter 20, which takes heading 2009 as its subject
Opening, as published
For the purposes of heading 2009, the expression ‘juices, unfermented and not containing added spirit’ means juices of a...
Note 6 in full on 200911 , and on every other code this site holds under that heading.
Read from the same chapter notes quoted above, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/20, on 2026-09-07, with each heading title read from its own endpoint. The Harmonized System publishes no separate heading notes: its legal text is section notes, chapter notes and subheading notes, and what governs a heading is a chapter note whose subject clause names it. The section notes are quoted at the top of this page, which is the layer above.
What chapter 20 costs to import
The dearest line this site holds in chapter 20 is 200911, orange juice, frozen, at 5% into Australia. 1 of the 2 rates charged on value in this chapter is zero. The widest gap between destinations is on 200911, orange juice, frozen, which runs from 0% to 5% depending on where it lands. 4 rates in this chapter are charged per unit rather than on value, so they are left out of every range above.
A destination that prices part of a chapter answers for part of it, so this is how much of chapter 20 each one covers, out of 1 code.
| Destination | Codes priced | Duty range in this chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1 of 1 | 5% |
| Canada | 1 of 1 | 0% |
| Germany | 1 of 1 | Charged per unit, not on value |
| Portugal | 1 of 1 | Charged per unit, not on value |
| United Kingdom | 1 of 1 | Charged per unit, not on value |
| United States | 1 of 1 | Charged per unit, not on value |
Third country rates, which is what applies with no trade agreement claimed. Destination tax is charged on top. Each code page carries the reading behind its own figures and the day they were read.