Dear filip999,
I have found an online, regularly updated database provided by the
European Union that lets you look up duties and tariffs applicable to
all imports into its member states. The European Union includes almost
all countries of Western Europe as well as the more prosperous ones of
Eastern Europe. Its member countries are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Finland, France,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland,
Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, United
Kingdom. If you need to know about duties and tariffs for some other
country, let me know with a clarification request and I'll try to help
you further.
The home page of the European Union's tariff database, called TARIC
(an acronym for the French "Tarif Intégré de la Communauté"), is at
this address.
TARIC: home
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/databases/taric_en.htm
And the following page lets you look up rates for specific products in English.
TARIC: English lookup
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/en/tarhome.htm
I've tried out the system and found it to work quite well. Let me give
you an example. If I want to search for a product by category, I
select "Search tariff information via Taric code", which takes me
here.
TARIC Consultation
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarchap?Lang=EN
I want to import silk neckties from China but I don't know the TARIC
code, so I click on the Browse button. I choose Section XI, Textiles
and Textile Articles; then Chapter 50, Silk; under which I find code
5007, Woven fabrics of silk or of silk waste; then code 500710,
Fabrics of noil silk; and finally code 5007100090, Other, because my
silk is not made on hand looms. This final code is inserted into the
appropriate box of the TARIC database form, to which the database
automatically returns. I now select China as the country of origin.
For the simulation date, I select 31.10.2004, meaning that I want to
import the neckties on October 31st of this year, and I accept the
legal warning that tells me I'm looking up future duties, which are,
of course, subject to change. I end up with the following summary of
restrictions, duties, and quotas, along with links to the relevant
laws.
TARIC: Duty Rates, code 5007100090, China
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarduty?ProdLine=80&Type=0&Action=1&Lang=EN&SimDate=20041031&YesNo=1&Indent=-1&Flag=1&Test=tarduty&Periodic=0&Download=0&Taric=5007100090&Country=CN%2F0720&Day=31&Month=10&Year=2004
Once you know the TARIC code, you can enter it directly into the
database form without browsing. Make sure you don't include any spaces
when you type in the code, or else it might not fit. Instead of
browsing through the product taxonomy, you can launch a textual search
by selecting "Search tariff information via Taric description". A
search for "hard disk", for instance, tells us that hard disks are
imported under code 8471705300.
TARIC: Goods: hard disk
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/dds/cgi-bin/tarlist?Lang=EN&DesLang=EN&SimDate=20040906&Offset=1&Goods=hard+disk&Day=06&Month=09&Year=2004
If you feel that my answer is incomplete or inaccurate in any way,
please post a clarification request so that I can meet your needs
before you assign a rating.
Regards,
leapinglizard |
