9903.03.11 (Ended): Section 122 Informational Materials Exemption

Key Points

• 9903.03.11 was a Section 122 exemption heading for informational materials, and it ended on July 24, 2026.
• The heading carried 0 percent additional duty itself; it took exempt goods out of the 9903.03.01 surcharge.
• It was effective from February 24, 2026 until July 24, 2026, and it is no longer in force as of October 2026.
• Because the heading carried no duty, its end created nothing to refund under it.
• An entry that paid the Section 122 surcharge because this exemption was not claimed follows the ordinary post summary correction or protest path.

On this page

1. What 9903.03.11 was
2. Products the heading covered
3. Rate and effective window
4. How an entry reported the heading
5. Relationship to the 9903.03.01 surcharge
6. What importers should do
7. Key references

9903.03.11 was a Chapter 99 exemption heading under the Section 122 program, and it ended on July 24, 2026. While it applied, it let importers report informational materials such as publications, films, posters and recordings as exempt from the 9903.03.01 surcharge. The heading carried 0 percent additional duty, and as of October 2026 it is no longer in force.

Read the source. The links in this article go to the primary documents: the proclamations, Federal Register notices, and official tariff schedule pages themselves. Start with the Federal Register, where Proclamation 11012 appeared at 91 FR 9339, and the official Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

What 9903.03.11 was

This was not a tariff. It was an exclusion heading that sat beside the Section 122 surcharge reported under 9903.03.01. Its job was to identify goods that were not subject to that surcharge.

The legal authority for the heading, as recorded in our reference data, was Proclamation 11012 (91 FR 9339) as an exclusion heading, together with CBP message CSMS 67844987. Both the proclamation and the CSMS message can be located through the White House and CBP sites. The sunset date for the heading was July 24, 2026.

Products the heading covered

The official heading text read: "Articles that are informational materials, including but not limited to publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks and news wire feeds."

The wording was illustrative, not a closed list. The phrase "including but not limited to" meant the named items were examples of informational materials. The text of the heading in the HTSUS governed what qualified, so any question about a product that was not named in the list was a matter for the heading text and a broker's review, not for guesswork.

The facts available to us do not name any country list for this heading. If you need to know how it applied to goods from a particular origin, confirm it in the HTSUS or with your broker.

Rate and effective window

• Rate: 0 percent additional duty. The heading carried no duty of its own.
• Effective date: February 24, 2026.
• Ended: July 24, 2026, the sunset date for the heading.

Between February 24, 2026 and July 24, 2026, qualifying informational materials were reported under 9903.03.11 and did not take the surcharge. After July 24, 2026, the heading no longer applied. It ended together with the surcharge it was written to carve goods out of.

How an entry reported the heading

Like other Chapter 99 headings, 9903.03.11 did not replace the regular tariff line. The product was still classified in its normal chapter 1 to 97 subheading. The Chapter 99 heading was reported alongside it.

For exempt informational materials, the entry reported 9903.03.11 in place of the 9903.03.01 surcharge heading on the exempt value. In practice that meant:

1. The article kept its ordinary HTS classification and any duty that came with it.
2. The exempt value was reported under 9903.03.11, which added no duty.
3. The 9903.03.01 surcharge heading was not used on that exempt value.

The mechanics of reporting Chapter 99 lines in the entry follow the same logic as other exemption headings. For a comparable case, see our article on the ended Section 122 in-transit exemption. For a general view of the year's headings, see the 2026 tariff code overview.

Relationship to the 9903.03.01 surcharge

The two headings worked as a pair. 9903.03.01 was the surcharge heading. 9903.03.11 was the way to claim that informational materials were outside it. If the exemption was not claimed on an entry, the surcharge heading was what applied to the value, and the importer could have paid Section 122 duty on goods that should have been exempt.

That is the main reason this ended heading still matters. Entries filed while it was in effect may still be reviewed, corrected or protested, so how the exemption was claimed on those entries remains relevant.

What importers should do

• Pull entries filed between February 24, 2026 and July 24, 2026 that included publications, films, posters, recordings, photographs, artworks or similar materials, and check whether 9903.03.11 was reported on the exempt value.
• Where goods were exempt but 9903.03.01 was reported instead, flag the entry for review and gather the product descriptions and the HTSUS heading text.
• Treat 9903.03.11 as a historical heading. Do not use it on new entries, since it is no longer in force.
• Know the refund position. This heading carried no duty of its own, so its end created nothing to refund under it, and no refund is promised. An entry that paid the Section 122 surcharge because this exemption was not claimed follows the ordinary post summary correction or protest path for that entry. Section 122 duty deposited stays with CBP unless a court order or a CBP notice directs refunds, and the IEEPA refund process does not apply to it.

Key references

• Federal Register: Proclamation 11012, published at 91 FR 9339, the authority for the exclusion heading.
• White House presidential actions: landing page for proclamations, including Proclamation 11012.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection: landing page for CBP guidance, including CSMS 67844987.
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule: the official schedule, where the heading text of 9903.03.11 can be checked.