Term	Meaning
HS	Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System — the WCO's six-digit product nomenclature used by most countries for tariffs and trade statistics.
HTS / HTSUS	The U.S. national tariff schedule, adding digits 7–10 to the HS code.
MFN	Most-favoured-nation (“general”) duty rate applied to WTO members without a preference.
AD/CVD	Antidumping and countervailing duties — product- and country-specific remedies that stack on top of other duties.
FOB	Free On Board (Incoterms®): seller loads goods on the vessel; buyer pays main freight and insurance.
CIF	Cost, Insurance and Freight: seller pays freight and minimum insurance to the destination port; risk passes at loading.
EXW / DDP	Ex Works (buyer does almost everything) and Delivered Duty Paid (seller does almost everything, including import duties).
FCL / LCL	Full container load vs less-than-container load (shared container priced per m³).
CBM	Cubic metre — the volume unit for ocean freight. 1 m³ ≈ 35.3 ft³.
MPF / HMF	U.S. Merchandise Processing Fee and Harbor Maintenance Fee charged on formal entries.
AQL	Acceptable Quality Limit — the statistical sampling standard used in pre-shipment inspections.
KD / RTA	Knock-down / ready-to-assemble — furniture shipped in parts to save volume.
Binding ruling	A written classification decision from customs that you can rely on for future entries.
Drawback	Refund of duties paid on imported goods that are later exported or destroyed.