HS Code 3213Colours; artists, students, or signboard painters, modifying tints, amusement colours and the like; in tablets, tubes, jars, bottles, pan or in similar forms or packings

What HS code 3213 covers

Picture the paint box on an art desk. Heading 3213 is for that kind of product. The colours are made for hand use by artists, by students and by sign painters. Modifying tints and amusement colours are listed here too.

These goods are sold in small, ready-to-use packs. Common forms are paint tubes, jars, bottles and pans. Tablets and similar packings count as well. The pack matters. The heading is about colours made for hand painting, not paint sold by the can for walls.

The heading sits in Chapter 32, the part of the Harmonized System for dyes, pigments, paints and inks. The Harmonized System is a shared coding list used by customs offices in many countries. Because it is shared, the same heading number points to the same kind of product from one country to the next.

Difference between HS 321310 and 321390

The only test is whether the colours come as a set.

Use 321310 when several colours are packed together as one set. A boxed student paint set is a simple example. A case of tubes for an artist is another.

A single tube, a lone jar or one bottle of one colour goes here. Both codes cover the same kind of product. Only the way it is packed changes.

If you are unsure, look at how the goods reach the end buyer. One pack with many colours points to a set. One pack with one colour points to the other code. The HS code classifier can help you check your choice.

How 3213 differs from paints, dyes and inks in Chapter 32

Many items in Chapter 32 sound alike. Here is how to tell them apart from artists' colours.

House and industrial paints do not belong in 3213. Paints and varnishes based on synthetic polymers sit in 3208 when they are in a non-aqueous medium. Water-based ones sit in 3209.

Pigments used to make paint, and dyes packed for retail sale, are in 3212. Those are raw materials or retail dye packs, not finished artists' colours.

Ink is a different group again. A bottle of drawing ink is therefore not a 3213 colour, even if an artist uses it.

A short rule helps. A small-pack colour made for painting as art or sign work points to 3213. Paint for coating surfaces points to 3208 to 3210. Ink points to 3215.

Find importers and exporters of artists' colours

Once you know your code, you can look for who trades in it. EximDataX shows shipment-level import and export records from official customs sources. You can search by HS code to see who imports and exports a product, and book a free demo.

Coverage: 43 direct customs feeds plus 184 mirror-derived countries. Named buyers and named suppliers are available in 38 of the 43 direct markets. Most markets refresh weekly and some refresh daily.

Start with import data or export data for the heading. Then use buyer data and supplier data to narrow the list to companies that handle artists' colours.