HS codes, or Harmonized System codes, are part of an international classification system designed to make the collection of trade statistics possible and to help different countries collect tariffs and customs duties. It is also helpful for companies and organizations that want to determine the landed costs of goods that they are importing or exporting. This cost is calculated to determine all of the expenses that will factor into the acquisition of an item including freight, duty and other trade related outlays. The harmonized commodity description and coding system is beneficial to the global community for many reasons. HS tariff classification is standardized throughout most of the world, as more than 170 countries are members of the Brussels-based World Customs Organization (WCO), which developed the harmonized system. It was not always this way, though. Each country had their own system in place to classify goods and services for many decades, which made it very hard to accurately classify merchandise for the purposes of collecting tariffs, customs duties and/or reporting. This is why the WCO stepped in to develop a system that could describe any product using a standardized six-digit system. The six-digit numbering system of HS codes is harmonized because it always classifies goods by chapter, heading and subheading. Although individual countries can extend the six-digit codes to eight or ten digits for customs or export purposes, they cannot change the initial six digits for any purpose. The United States and other developed countries have added additional commodity codes, for example, which have increased some of the codes to ten digits. HS tariff classification is extremely complicated, but compared to the complexity of using a different coding system for each country it is quite simple. The complete harmonized tariff schedule has approximately 5,000 item descriptions grouped into 22 sections and 97 chapters that help determine landed costs and other facts. With use of a good code lookup system, though, it is an excellent method of classifying internationally traded goods.