Global Tariff & Duty Monitor: US HTS + UK Customs (MCP)

Search official customs-duty rates and get alerted when they change — for the United States (USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule) and the United Kingdom (HMRC Trade Tariff API) in one run. Built for AI agents and humans: no key, no login, dataset-ready, MCP-compatible.

Why this data is hard (and worth it)

• Every search hits two official government APIs — hts.usitc.gov (US International Trade Commission) and www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk (GOV.UK / HMRC). No mirrors, no summarized blogs: the authoritative rate, fetched live.
• The raw formats are hostile: USITC returns undocumented reststop objects where the code lives in htsno and rates split across general / special / other columns; the UK API is JSON:API with 500+ included nodes per product (60+ measures, effective-date windows, preferential origins). This actor resolves all of it into one clean row per tariff line.
• Tariffs move constantly (trade measures, quotas, preference schemes). An LLM memorizing "the duty for coffee" will be wrong sooner or later — a customs broker bills $50–$500 per classification. Here you get the current official rate for $0.001 per line.

What you get per tariff line

field	meaning
hsCode, description	normalized code + product text (US: as in HTS; UK: declarable commodity)
dutyGeneral	US: General (MFN) column rate. UK: Third country duty (base UKGT rate)
dutySpecial	US only: Special column (FTA rates incl. country groups, e.g. Free (A+,AU,BH,...,MA,...))
dutyOther	US only: Column 2 rate (countries without normal trade relations)
dutyPreferences	UK only: preferential rates with origin (e.g. 0.00% (European Union); 0.00% (CARIFORUM))
dutyOtherMeasures	UK only: other current measures (organic controls, restrictions…), truncated list
dutyNotes, units	US footnote flags + tariff units; UK measureCount of active measures
additionalDuties	US flag that extra duties (e.g. Section 301) may apply — verify on hts.usitc.gov
declarable	UK: this code is a real customs-line code you can declare with

Mode search — duty lookup

{ "mode": "search", "query": "coffee", "markets": ["us", "uk"], "maxResults": 10 }

• Keyword → USITC keyword search + UK search references (8,900+ cross-refs filtered to your exact words), each resolved to its real commodity with duty.
• HS code → prefix matching: 0901, 0901.90, or full 0901210000.
• Charged per tariff line returned.

Mode monitor — duty-change alerts (watchlist)

{ "mode": "monitor", "watchlist": ["us:0901.90.20.00", "uk:0901210000", "uk:8507600000"] }

• Run 1 = free baseline (info row only, $0 in line charges) — duty snapshot of every watched code stored in a persistent key-value store.
• Run 2+ = diff — you are charged only for codes whose duty actually changed (changeKind: "duty-changed", with previousDuty for before/after).
• Schedule it daily in Apify (Console → Schedule) and add a webhook to Slack / Google Sheets / n8n / Make for push alerts. A zero-change day costs $0.001 total (start event only).

Three ready recipes

1. Landed-cost checker for AI agents — wire this actor as an MCP tool; your agent answers "what's the import duty for LED lamps into the US and UK?" with official rates and source links.
2. Importer watchlist — export your product codes from your ERP to watchlist, run daily, receive alerts before a rate change hits your margins or makes a customs declaration wrong.
3. Catalog browsing — query a 4-digit heading (e.g. 0901) to list every tariff line under it, US and UK, with rates — for classification research.

Data honesty & limits

• US rates shown are the HTS General/Special/Other text exactly as USITC publishes; additional duties (Section 301, AD/CVD, quotas) are flagged, not summed — always confirm on hts.usitc.gov before declaring.
• UK rates come from the live Trade Tariff API; preferential eligibility depends on rules of origin — dutyPreferences lists the scheme rates, not eligibility.
• EU TARIC is not covered (the official Access2Markets API requires a registered key) — US + UK only, stated plainly.
• This is official data, not legal/tax advice. For binding classification, consult a licensed customs broker or the relevant authority.

Sources (official, anonymous, no key)

• US ITC — Harmonized Tariff Schedule: https://hts.usitc.gov (endpoint reststop/search)
• UK HMRC — Trade Tariff API: https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff (JSON:API api/v2)

Price

event	price
Actor start	$0.001
Tariff line extracted (search row or changed watchlist code)	$0.001 / line

Typical runs: a 10-line search ≈ $0.011 · a 25-code watchlist with 2 changed duties ≈ $0.003.

MCP / AI-agent usage

Add the actor URL to your agent as a tool, or run via API:

https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_HANDLE~global-tariff-duty-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN

Input = the JSON examples above. Output = the dataset rows described in the table. The actor is compatible with per-request agentic payments.

Questions / feedback: see the actor's Issues tab on Apify Store.