Division B. General rules concerning duties

The customs duties applicable to imported goods originating in countries which are Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or with which the European Union has concluded agreements containing the most-favoured-nation tariff clause shall be the conventional duties shown in column 3 of the schedule of duties. Unless the context requires otherwise, these conventional duties are applicable to goods, other than those referred to above, imported from any third country.

The conventional rates of duty reproduced in column 3 are applicable from 1 January 2017.

When autonomous rates of duty are lower than the conventional rates of duty, the autonomous duties, shown by means of a footnote, are applicable.

Paragraph 1 shall not apply where special autonomous customs duties are provided for in respect of goods originating in certain countries or where preferential customs duties are applicable in pursuance of agreements.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not preclude the Member States from applying customs duties other than those of the Common Customs Tariff where the application of such other duties is justified by the law of the European Union.

The duties expressed as percentage rates are ad valorem duties.

The symbol ‘EA’ indicates that the goods concerned are chargeable with an ‘agricultural component’ fixed in accordance with Annex 1.

The symbol ‘AD S/Z’ or ‘AD F/M’ in Chapters 17 to 19 indicates that the maximum rate of duty consists of an ad valorem duty plus an additional duty for certain forms of sugar or for flour. This additional duty is fixed in accordance with the provisions of Annex 1.

In Chapter 22, the symbol ‘€ /% vol/hl’ means that a specific duty, expressed in euro, is to be calculated for each percentage volume of alcohol per hectolitre. Thus, a beverage having an alcohol content by volume of 40 % is to be charged as follows:

• ‘€ 1/% vol/hl’ = € 1 × 40, giving a duty of € 40 per hectolitre, or

• ‘€ 1/% vol/hl + € 5/hl’ = € 1 × 40 plus € 5, giving a duty of € 45 per hectolitre.

Where, in addition, a minimum (MIN) value is shown, for example ‘€ 1,6/% vol/hl MIN € 9/hl’, it means that the duty, calculated on the basis of the above rule, is to be compared with the minimum duty, for example ‘€ 9/hl’, and the higher of the two is to be applied.