Reasoning in the words of the law
Section and chapter notes, General Rules of Interpretation applied in order, every step cited. The same shape as a BTI application, Box 7 and Box 9.
Customs classification · HS / CN
A customs code you can defend.
From a photo of the goods, or two lines of description, Varco walks the tariff nomenclature step by step and returns the heading with the reasoning written in the words of the law: section and chapter notes, the General Rules of Interpretation applied in order, binding precedents cited. And when the evidence is not enough, it asks instead of guessing.
- No credit card
- One isolated workspace per company
- Interface in 35 languages
The goods: Carbon-fibre racing bicycle, complete frame, 22-speed drivetrain, hydraulic disc brakes, aluminium wheels. 7.8 kg. Finished product, ready to use, individually packed.
VIIPlastics and articles thereof; rubber
XVIIVehicles, aircraft, vessels and transport equipment
XXMiscellaneous manufactured articles
39Plastics and articles thereof
87Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock
8711Motorcycles and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motor
8712Bicycles and other cycles, not motorised
8714Parts and accessories of vehicles of headings 8711 to 8713
8712 00Heading reachedBicycles and other cycles (including delivery tricycles), not motorised
72 decisions · 65 exclusions · session 3c1dc64b
The problem
It isn't customs that stops the goods. It's the data.
Customs clears almost every declaration in minutes. A shipment stops when a field is wrong: it goes to inspection, and the bill can arrive years later. The first field on every declaration is the classification code of the goods. Duty, VAT and controls all follow from it.
Minutesautomated release, when the data is right
120 daysthe legal term for binding certainty from the authority. The price list waits
3 yearsthe window in which a closed declaration can be reopened and recalculated
What it costs, in practice
Hours of a licensed professional for every hard classification. Goods picked for inspection. Products that do not ship until the code is safe. And the general chatbot does not help: it always answers and never gives a reason, and in a dispute that code cannot be defended.
What you are choosing against
The competitor is not a software. It's a three-second shortcut.
The tariff heading gets assigned when a new item is created in the system, and the most common way to assign it is to copy it from a similar product. It works, and it is very fast. The problem comes later.
Copying the code of a similar item
Varco
How long it takes
Three seconds
A few minutes
What stays on file
A code
A code and the reasoning that holds it
If customs disputes it
“We have always classified it that way”
Section notes, GIRs applied in order, precedents cited
When the goods are doubtful
You don't know: a code comes out anyway
It tells you: it asks for a fact, or it refuses
What we do not claim: that copy-and-paste gets it wrong more often than we do. Nobody has measured that, us included, and this page exists precisely to not carry that kind of number. We compare what the two produce, not how often they are right.
How it works
Four steps, and none of them is a black box.
Every step cites the text it rests on. That is the whole point: an opinion a professional can sign is one whose every line can be checked.
- 1
Photograph or describe
A photo of the product, or two lines of description. Varco extracts material, function and use, and tells you what it understood before going any further.
- 2
It walks the legal tree
Section notes, chapter notes, the General Rules of Interpretation applied in order. Level by level, from the section down to the heading, with the source quoted at each step.
- 3
It compares with precedent
122,874 binding EU rulings, 70,930 US CBP rulings, 795 Court of Justice judgments, wired to the engine and cited by number, not recalled from memory.
- 4
You receive the reasoning
The code, the confidence, the headings considered and the ones excluded with the criterion that excluded them, sources in full. Exportable, ready to attach to the file.
- !
And when the evidence is not enough, it asks
If a chapter note depends on a fact that is missing, the cotton percentage, whether it is for food use, Varco asks. One question at a time, with why it matters written next to it. If two headings stay tied, it says so.
Live traces
Two real classifications, replayed.
Not written for this page: taken from the production system on 23 August 2026. One concluded on the right heading. The other stopped and asked. Both are the product, and the second one is the reason it exists.
The goods: Carbon-fibre racing bicycle, complete frame, 22-speed drivetrain, hydraulic disc brakes, aluminium wheels. 7.8 kg. Finished product, ready to use, individually packed.
The goods are ours. Nothing on this page comes from a customer's file. The nomenclature text stays in English because that is the language the engine reasons in: translating it would show words the product never produced.
- Why(a) The heading title 'Tractors (other than tractors of heading 8709)' does not describe the goods, which are a road bicycle designed for cycling, not a vehicle for hauling or pushing.
- WhyHeading 8702 covers 'Motor vehicles for the transport of ten or more persons, including the driver'. The goods under consideration are a non-motorised road bicycle designed for a single rider.
- WhyThe goods are a road bicycle (racing bicycle), non-motorised. Heading 8703 covers 'Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the transport of persons...
- WhyThe goods are a road bicycle (racing bicycle) made of carbon fiber and aluminum. Heading 8704 covers 'Motor vehicles for the transport of goods'.
- WhyHeading 8705 covers 'Special purpose motor vehicles, other than those principally designed for the transport of persons or goods'.
- WhyThe goods are a road bicycle, which is a non-motorised vehicle. Heading 8706 covers 'chassis fitted with engines, for the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705'.
- WhyThe goods are a road bicycle, which is a cycle not motorised. Heading 8707 covers bodies (including cabs) for motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705 (tractors, buses, cars, goods vehicles, special…
- Why(a) The title of heading 8708 is 'Parts and accessories of the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705'. The goods are a complete road bicycle, not a part or accessory.
- Why(a) The title of heading 8709 describes works trucks, self-propelled, not fitted with lifting or handling equipment, of the type used in factories, warehouses, dock areas or airports for short…
- WhyThe goods are a road bicycle, not motorised, not armoured, and not a fighting vehicle. Heading 87100000 covers 'Tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, motorised' and parts thereof.
- Why(a) The title of heading 8711 describes 'Motorcycles (including mopeds) and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motor, with or without side-cars; side-cars'.
- Why(a) The heading title is 'Bicycles and other cycles (including delivery tricycles), not motorised'.
- WhyHeading 8713 covers 'Carriages for disabled persons, whether or not motorised or otherwise mechanically propelled'.
- WhyHeading 8714 is for 'Parts and accessories of vehicles of headings 8711 to 8713'. The goods are a complete road bicycle (racing bicycle), which is a non-motorised cycle.
- Why(a) The heading title 'Baby carriages and parts thereof' does not describe a road bicycle, which is a cycle for road cycling, not a carriage for babies. The goods are clearly not baby carriages.
- WhyHeading 8716 covers trailers, semi-trailers, and other vehicles not mechanically propelled, including parts thereof. The goods are a road bicycle (racing bicycle) not motorised.
The goods: Pneumatic torque-controlled expanders for tubes from 3/4" to 1.1/4" (19.0 to 31.8 mm), designed for use on construction sites.
8479 is a residual heading: it applies only when nothing more specific does. Between a specific heading and a residual one the choice moves the duty. Guessing here would have been fast and useless.
More than one heading appears to apply to these goods. Which one describes them most accurately?
Both traces are replayed from the production system, not staged. They cost nothing to show, and they happened. Real cases run on your goods, in your own workspace, and the tariff depth of the Alpha reaches the declarable code.
The film · 55 seconds
From a photo of the goods to a customs code you can defend.
Fifty-five seconds on what Varco does, and on the one thing it refuses to do: invent.
0:55
The product
Everything you get, and nothing you have to take on faith.
Varco is a working system, in service on a European server. This is what is in it today.
Binding rulings compared
EU classification decisions, plus 70,930 US CBP rulings and 795 Court of Justice judgments, wired to the engine and quoted by number.
It asks instead of guessing
Calibrated confidence on every case. Below the threshold it stops, names the missing fact and asks. Roughly half of the goods get a question, not a guess.
Interface languages
The twenty-four languages of the Union and eleven more. The opinion itself in five. Arabic reads right to left.
Export formats
PDF, Word, HTML, JSON and more, with the fonts embedded and a citable reference on every opinion.
One isolated workspace per company
Each company enters its own space, separated from every other. Profiles per person, invitation only, an append-only access log.
A searchable case archive
Every case stays on file with its trail. Search by description or by code, filter, reopen read-only, export again.
Minutes, not months
A new catalogue gets classified today. Binding certainty from the authority still takes up to 120 days; Varco prepares the file that gets you there.
Nothing to install
It opens in the browser. Photo or description in, reasoned opinion out, from any desk in the company.
Who it is for
Built for the people who sign.
Customs brokers and customs centres
Your licence is on the line for every entry
Varco gives you an argument you can put in front of an inspector, and tells you plainly when it has none.
Freight forwarders
Every shipment, every day
A code that stops a shipment costs more than the minutes it takes to reason it. Classify at booking, ship with the reasoning attached.
Import and export desks
When the catalogue changes
New SKUs, new suppliers, new materials. Assign the heading when you create the item, not when the goods are already at the border.
What Varco does not do
The limits, written by us before you find them.
This is the section professionals look for first and never find. It is here for the same reason the numbers are at the top.
Not a ruling
It does not replace a BTI.
Binding Tariff Information is issued by the customs authority and is the only act that binds. Varco prepares the file; it does not sign it.
Not advice
It is not customs consultancy.
Responsibility for the declaration stays with whoever files it. Varco brings the elements and the sources so that person decides better, not instead of them.
Not omniscient
It does not conclude on everything.
On roughly half of the goods it stops and asks. That is a design choice: a box filled at random costs more than an empty one.
Not the whole declaration
It does not touch value or origin.
Those are the other two pillars of the declaration, and different trades. Varco does classification, and only that.
Pricing
It pays for itself on the first hard case of the month.
One hard classification costs a professional between half an hour and two hours. Every plan costs less than one of them.
Professional
One licensed professional
€ 99/ month- Cases included, metered beyond
- Reasoned opinion in the words of the law
- Precedents compared and cited
- Export in 7 formats
Company
An import or export desk
€ 199/ month- Everything in Professional
- Profiles for the whole desk
- Searchable case archive
- One isolated workspace
Firm
A brokerage or licensed customs centre
€ 349/ month- Everything in Company
- Several client companies, one login
- Append-only access log
- Highest included case volume
Enterprise
Volume, integration, national tariff depth
By project- Everything in Firm
- Integration into your systems
- Volume pricing
- Dedicated onboarding
Launch pricing, VAT excluded. Cases are included in every plan and metered beyond. The Alpha opens by invitation from Q4 2026 and reaches the declarable code, CN8 and TARIC10. No credit card to start, no set-up fee.
Questions
The questions a professional asks before trusting a tool.
Is the result binding?
No. In the European Union only Binding Tariff Information issued by the customs authority binds, and in the United States only a CBP ruling does. Varco prepares the file that gets you there: the heading, the reasoning in the words of the law and the precedents, in the same shape as a BTI application.
Which nomenclature does it use?
The Harmonized System and the EU Combined Nomenclature, down to the heading level today. The Alpha, by invitation from Q4 2026, reaches the declarable code, CN8 and TARIC10. The 70,930 US CBP rulings are already in the system; US national depth (HTSUS) is the next build.
What happens when it is not sure?
It does not invent. Below a calibrated confidence threshold it stops, names the missing fact and asks for it, one question at a time. If two headings stay tied it says so. Roughly half of the goods get a question rather than a guess, and we consider that the product working, not failing.
Where are my data processed?
On a European server. The inference providers we use are configured not to retain what you send. Each company works in its own isolated space, with profiles per person and an append-only access log. Nothing from a customer's file ever appears on this site.
Which languages does it speak?
The interface is available in 35 languages: the 24 official languages of the Union and eleven more, Arabic included. The opinion itself is written in five: Italian, English, French, German and Spanish. The nomenclature text is quoted in English, which is the language the engine reasons in.
Can I export the opinion?
Yes, in seven formats, PDF, Word, HTML and JSON among them, with fonts embedded and a citable reference on every document. Every case stays in your archive, searchable by description or by code, and can be reopened and exported again.
Does it replace my customs broker?
No. It gives your broker, or your import desk, a reasoned starting point and the sources to check it against. Responsibility for the declaration stays with the person who files it. Varco does classification, and only that: it does not touch customs value or origin.
How do I start?
Varco is in its trial release and entry is by invitation. Write to info@varcotrade.com and we open a workspace for your company. No credit card, no set-up fee.
Early access
Entry is by invitation, for now.
Varco is in its trial release and does not take open sign-ups: every company gets its own space, isolated from the others. Write to us and we open the door.
- No credit card
- One isolated workspace per company
- Nothing to install