To control the HTS code that is applied to your imports, you may wish to make the HTS number appear on all your import documents. You also may wish to ask the foreign exporter to use the HTS number you select in all export documents. Clearly, whatever number you select should be defensible with Customs. To be on the safe side, you might even want to obtain a binding ruling from Customs with regard to the harmonized number you select. At any rate, there is strong incentive to control the selection of an HTS number on your imported products in that the HTS code selected will determine the duty rate that's applied against your import.
Country of origin is a technical term which often means more than just where a product came from.
The US has approximately 20 different definitions of origin when a product is not wholly the growth, product or manufacture of a single country. The default position deals primarily with substantial transformation, but this position comes under review from time to time and may be revised at some point in the future. Imported products on which there has been an incorrect origin determination or a misrepresentation of origin may be refused entry, seized at the border or assessed a monetary penalty. Each of the US's preferential duty programs has specific requirements with which the benefiting importer must comply. Failure to take advantage of a preferential duty program to which an importer is entitled subjects the importer to the imposition of duties which could have been avoided and makes the importer's import transaction unnecessarily more expensive.