About the mapping
Assistive products are essential for persons with disabilities, older persons and others with functional limitations. Yet many of these products are difficult to identify in standard trade statistics.
This mapping aims to make them more visible in trade data.
It shows how assistive products are classified in international trade statistics. It links a list of assistive products – based on the World Health Organization Priority Assistive Products List and expanded where relevant – to corresponding codes in the Harmonized System (HS), the international product classification system used by customs authorities and trade statisticians.
In some cases, an assistive product corresponds directly to a specific HS code. In other cases, the product is embedded within a wider HS code that includes other products.
Many assistive products, however, can’t be matched to a single HS code and are currently classified across multiple HS codes.
Building better trade data
This exercise builds on previous approaches by providing a more comprehensive and systematic mapping across a broad list of priority assistive products. Rather than focusing only on products that are easy to identify, it highlights different degrees of visibility within the HS classification system. This approach makes the results more transparent and useful for policy analysis, while showing clearly where caution is needed when interpreting trade data.
The mapping is an evolving tool. It will be refined over time as additional product information, classification practices, customs rulings and national tariff-line data become available. It’s also the first step in a wider and deeper programme of work to assess trade in assistive devices.
Future work will move beyond the HS six-digit level to examine more granular trade data, including national tariff-line classifications at the 8, 10 and 12-digit levels. This will help assess whether assistive products are more clearly identifiable in national systems and whether more detailed classification practices can support better trade analysis.
Putting it to use
The mapping supports policymakers, customs authorities, researchers, international organizations, business support organizations and other stakeholders working on access to assistive technology.
It can be used as a starting point for analysing how assistive products are treated in trade classification systems and for identifying where further work is needed to improve product visibility and classification consistency.
How the mapping works
To make these differences clear, the mapping groups products into three preliminary categories.
- Group 1: Assistive-specific HS codes
Products that can be directly matched to a single HS code that relates specifically to that assistive product. This data can be used to analyse trade flows, tariffs and non-tariff measures (NTMs).
- Group 2: Embedded direct mappings
Products that can be matched to a single HS code, but where that code also covers other products. This data can be used to analyse tariffs and NTMs.
- Group 3: Multiple-code mappings
Products that can’t be captured by a single HS code and instead require several codes to reflect their components, functions or variations. This data can be used to analyse the potential scope of tariffs and NTMs.