Poster|HTS Code

Poster harmonized system code

Product Overview Poster under HTS 4911.91 is defined as a finished, printed single-sheet pictorial or typographic item produced primarily for display, information or advertising and not bound into a book or album. Key characteristics include standard formats from A4 up to A0 and custom sizes (commonly to 1.2 m × 2.4 m), substrate specifications (paper 80–350 g/m² or film 80–300 µm), surface treatments (uncoated, coated gloss/matte, aqueous/UV varnish, lamination 12–250 µm) and colour reproduction at production resolutions of 150–300 dpi for offset and digital processes. Processing levels cover prepress (PDF/X workflows, trapping, 3–5 mm bleed), printing technologies (offset, digital electrophotographic, large-format inkjet) and post-press finishing (cutting, creasing, folding, scoring, lamination). Product classifications within 4911.91 commonly distinguish single-sheet indoor posters, folded posters, educational charts and weather-resistant posters printed on plastic/film. Commercial applications include point-of-sale displays, advertising/promotional campaigns, exhibition and event signage, educational aids, and interior retail merchandising across printing, marketing and signage industries. HTS Code Classification & Trade Specifications Complete HTS structure: Chapter 49 (printed books, newspapers, pictures and other printed matter); Heading 4911 (printed pictures, designs and photographs); Subheading 4911.91 (posters and similar printed matter, in single sheets, whether or not folded). Classification rationale: finished, printed single-sheet display items meet HS criteria for “printed pictures and similar printed matter” and are not classed as books, blank paper or photographic plates. Trade considerations for customs and logistics include packaging (flat-packed in rigid corrugated cartons with interleaving and backing boards, or rolled on cores for large formats), palletization (EUR/ISO pallets), maximum carton dimensions, and preservation (acid-free interleaving, desiccants, controlled humidity ~30–50% RH). Required trade documentation should show the six-digit HS, country of origin, unit quantities, net/gross weights and material composition (paper grade, GSM or film µm). Quality and conformity references commonly cited are ISO 12647 (colour control), ISO 9706 (paper permanence) and chain-of-custody standards such as FSC.

Poster Chapter Note

1.- This Chapter does not cover : (a) Photographic negatives or positives on transparent bases (Chapter 37); (b) Maps, plans or globes, in relief, whether or not printed (heading 90.23); (c) Playing cards or other goods of Chapter 95; or (d) Original engravings, prints or lithographs (heading 97.02), postage or revenue stamps, stamppostmarks, first-day covers, postal stationery or the like of heading 97.04, antiques of an age exceeding one hundred years or other articles of Chapter 97. 2.- For the purposes of Chapter 49, the term “printed” also means reproduced by means of a duplicating machine, produced under the control of an automatic data processing machine, embossed, photographed, photocopied, thermocopied or typewritten. 3.- Newspapers, journals and periodicals which are bound otherwise than in paper, and sets of newspapers, journals or periodicals comprising more than one number under a single cover are to be classified in heading 49.01, whether or not containing advertising material. 4.- Heading 49.01 also covers : (a) A collection of printed reproductions of, for example, works of art or drawings, with a relative text, put up with numbered pages in a form suitable for binding into one or more volumes; (b) A pictorial supplement accompanying, and subsidiary to, a bound volume; and (c) Printed parts of books or booklets, in the form of assembled or separate sheets or signatures, constituting the whole or a part of a complete work and designed for binding. However, printed pictures or illustrations not bearing a text, whether in the form of signatures or separate sheets, fall in heading 49.11. 5.- Subject to Note 3 to this Chapter , heading 49.01 does not cover publications which are essentially devoted to advertising (for example, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, trade catalogues, year books published by trade associations, tourist propaganda). Such publications are to be classified in heading 49.11. 6.- For the purposes of heading 49.03, the expression “children's picture books” means books for children in which the pictures form the principal interest and the text is subsidiary.