3401 30 — Organic surface-active products and preparations for washing the skin, in the form of liquid or cream and put up for retail sale, whether or not containing soap

3401 Soap; organic surface-active products and preparations for use as soap, in the form of bars, cakes or moulded pieces or shapes, whether or not containing soap; organic surface-active products and preparations for washing the skin, in the form of liquid or cream and put up for retail sale, whether or not containing soap; paper, wadding, felt or fur felt and nonwovens, impregnated or coated with soap or detergent: – soap and organic surface-active products and preparations, in the form of bars, cakes or moulded pieces or shapes, and paper, wadding, felt or fur felt and nonwovens, impregnated or coated with soap or detergent: 3401 11 – – for toilet use (including medicated products) 3401 19 – – other 3401 20 – soap in other forms 3401 30 – organic surface-active products and preparations for washing the skin, in the form of liquid or cream and put up for retail sale, whether or not containing soap

Soap is an alkaline salt (inorganic or organic) formed from a fatty acid or a mixture of fatty acids containing at least eight carbon atoms. In practice, some of the fatty acids can be replaced by wood resin acids. This heading covers only soap soluble in water, that is, true soap. Soaps are a class of anionic surfactants with an alkaline reaction that give abundant foam in aqueous solutions. There are three categories of soap: hard soap, which is usually made using sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate and is basically a regular soap. Solid soap can be white, colored or marble; soft soap that is made using potassium hydroxide or potassium carbonate. Such soap is viscous and usually has a green, brown or pale yellow color. Such soap may contain small amounts (usually no more than 5%) of synthetic organic surfactants.

liquid soap, consisting of a solution of soap in water, in some cases with the addition of small quantities (generally not more than 5%) of alcohol or glycerol, does not contain synthetic organic surface-active agents. This part covers, in particular: (1) Toilet soap, often coloured and perfumed, which includes floating bath soaps and deodorant soaps, as well as glycerine soaps, shaving soaps, medicated soaps and certain soaps having disinfectant or abrasive properties, as described below: (a) floating soaps and deodorant soaps; (b) glycerine soaps – translucent, made by treating white soap with alcohol, glycerol or sugar; (c) shaving soaps (shaving creams fall in heading 3307); (d) medicated soaps containing boric acid, salicylic acid, sulphur, sulphonamides or other medicinal substances; (e) disinfectant soaps containing small quantities of phenol, cresol, naphthol, formaldehyde or other bactericidal, antiseptic, etc., substances. These soaps should not be confused with the disinfectants of heading 3808 containing the same constituents, the difference lying in the proportions of the constituents (soap on the one hand, and phenol, cresol, etc., on the other). The disinfectants of heading 3808 have a high content of phenol, cresol, etc., and are liquid products, whereas disinfectant soaps are generally solid; (f) abrasive soaps, consisting of soap to which sand, silica, pumice powder, slate powder, sawdust or any similar product has been added. Abrasive soaps fall in this heading only in the form of bars, cakes or moulded pieces or shapes. Abrasive cleaning pastes and powders, whether or not containing soap, fall in heading 3405. (2) Household soap, which may be coloured or perfumed, abrasive or disinfectant. (3) Soaps based on resin, tall oil or naphthenates, containing not only alkali salts of fatty acids but also alkali resinates of heading 3806 or alkali naphthenates of heading 3402. (4) Industrial soaps for special purposes, such as soaps used for wire drawing, for the polymerisation of synthetic rubber or in laundries. Subject to the exclusions indicated above in paragraph 1 (f), the soaps of this heading are usually in the following forms: bars, cakes, moulded pieces or shapes, flakes, powders, pastes or aqueous solution. (II) ORGANIC SURFACE-ACTIVE PRODUCTS AND PREPARATIONS FOR USE AS SOAP, IN THE FORM OF BARS, CAKES OR MOULDED PIECES OR SHAPES, WHETHER OR NOT CONTAINING SOAP This part covers toilet or washing products and preparations in which the active component consists wholly or partly of synthetic surface-active agents

(which may contain soap in any proportion), provided that they are in the form of bars, cakes or moulded pieces or shapes, i.e., the usual forms of soaps intended for the same purposes. This part also covers products and preparations which have been made abrasive by the addition of sand, silica, pumice powder, etc., provided that they are in the forms described above. (III) ORGANIC SURFACE-ACTIVE PRODUCTS AND PREPARATIONS FOR WASHING THE SKIN, IN THE FORM OF LIQUID OR CREAM AND PUT UP FOR RETAIL SALE, WHETHER OR NOT CONTAINING SOAP This part covers preparations for washing the skin, in which the active component consists wholly or partly of synthetic surface-active agents (which may contain soap in any proportion), provided that they are in the form of liquid or cream and are put up for retail sale. Such preparations not put up for retail sale fall in heading 3402. (IV) PAPER, WADDING, FELT OR FUR FELT AND NONWOVENS, IMPREGNATED OR COATED WITH SOAP OR DETERGENT This part covers paper, wadding, felt or fur felt and nonwovens, impregnated or coated with soap or detergent, whether or not perfumed and whether or not put up for retail sale. These products are generally used for washing the hands or face. In addition to the exclusions mentioned above, this heading excludes: (a) soapstocks (heading 1522); (b) water-insoluble products and preparations which are "soaps" only in the chemical sense, e.g., calcium or other metallic "soaps" (Chapters 29, 30, 38, etc., as the case may be); (c) paper, wadding, felt or fur felt and nonwovens, merely perfumed (Chapter 33); (d) shampoos and dentifrices (headings 3305 and 3306, respectively); (e) organic surface-active agents (other than soap), surface-active preparations and washing preparations (whether or not containing soap) and solutions or dispersions of soap in an organic solvent, of heading 3402; (f) cellular plastics, cellular rubber, textile materials (other than wadding, felt or fur felt and nonwovens) and metal pads, impregnated or coated with soap or detergent (these generally fall in the heading appropriate to the substrate material).

Notes

English text as published in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2021/1832 (Combined Nomenclature). The EAEU tariff and the EU nomenclature copy these notes from the same convention. For a Russian declaration the binding version is the Russian one: Annex to Decision No 80 of the EEC Council of 14 September 2021.

1. This chapter does not cover:

(a) edible mixtures or preparations of animal, vegetable or microbial fats or oils of a kind used as mould release preparations (heading 1517);

(b) separate chemically defined compounds; or

(c) shampoos, dentifrices, shaving creams and foams, or bath preparations, containing soap or other organic surface-active agents (heading 3305, 3306 or 3307).

2. For the purposes of heading 3401, the expression ‘soap’ applies only to soap soluble in water. Soap and the other products of heading 3401 may contain added substances (for example, disinfectants, abrasive powders, fillers or medicaments). Products containing abrasive powders remain classified in heading 3401 only if in the form of bars, cakes or moulded pieces or shapes. In other forms, they are to be classified in heading 3405 as ‘scouring powders and similar preparations’.

3. For the purposes of heading 3402, ‘organic surface-active agents’ are products which, when mixed with water at a concentration of 0,5 % at 20 °C and left to stand for one hour at the same temperature:

(a) give a transparent or translucent liquid or stable emulsion without separation of insoluble matter; and

(b) reduce the surface tension of water to 4,5 × 10–2 N/m (45 dyn/cm) or less.

4. In heading 3403, the expression ‘petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals’ applies to the products defined in note 2 to Chapter 27.

5. In heading 3404, subject to the exclusions provided below, the expression ‘artificial waxes and prepared waxes’ applies only to:

(a) chemically produced organic products of a waxy character, whether or not water-soluble;

(b) products obtained by mixing different waxes;

(c) products of a waxy character with a basis of one or more waxes and containing fats, resins, mineral substances or other materials. The heading does not apply to:

(a) products of heading 1516, 3402 or 3823, even if having a waxy character;

(b) unmixed animal waxes or unmixed vegetable waxes, whether or not refined or coloured, of heading 1521;

(c) mineral waxes or similar products of heading 2712, whether or not intermixed or merely coloured; or

(d) waxes mixed with, dispersed in or dissolved in a liquid medium (headings 3405, 3809, etc.).