Progress in trade liberalisation: where to find information on dismantling of tariffs

Progress in trade liberalisation: where to find information on dismantling of tariffs

The EU has concluded several free trade agreement negotiations over the past few months. The tariff treatment of different types of goods is often one of the first questions businesses seek answers to. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has put together some guidance on how and where to find information.

This year has been an exceptionally important year for the EU in terms of free trade agreements: in the beginning of the year, the EU achieved breakthroughs in the Mercosur agreement as well as in the negotiations with India and Australia.The EU has also concluded its negotiations with Indonesia. While the entry-into-force procedures take time, the texts of several agreements have already been published. The Mercosur agreement will be provisionally applied from the beginning of May. The implementation of the other agreements will probably commence in 2027. To get the most updated information on each agreement, we recommend that you check the European Commission's website.

Questions regarding the agreements often revolve around the tariff treatment of goods. As a rule, the agreements either eliminate or reduce export and import tariffs on almost all goods. Product-specific tariffs will be eliminated either when the agreement enters into force or gradually during the transition period. It should, however, also be noted that some goods are completely excluded from the scope.

A summary page of each EU free trade agreement is available on the European Commission's website. There is often also a pagewith links to the chapters and appendices of the agreements. The chapter 'Trade in goods' is the main chapter for information on tariffs.

Up-to-date information on the latest free trade agreements is available on the following websites:

• EU-Australia
• EU-Intia
• EU-Indonesia
• EU-Mercosur

Tariff elimination schedules can be found in the appendices to the chapter 'Trade in goods' in the agreements (e.g. Appendix 2-A-2 -Tariff schedule of Indonesia). The Commission publishes the preliminary versions of the tariff schedules on its website once they have been revised. The tariff schedule appendices to recently negotiated agreements are therefore often published at a later stage than the rest of the agreement texts.

Tariff elimination schedules usually include:

• the base rate of duty;
• the staging category, which indicates the timeline for elimination of the duty.

A significant proportion of tariffs is gradually eliminated. There are differences in how staging categories are specified in different agreements, but in general they are based on the following structure: .

• Categories "0" and "A" mean that tariffs are immediately eliminated
• Other categories mean that tariffs are gradually reduced. For example, in the Mercosur agreement, category 4 means that customs duties will be gradually reduced to 0 over four years.
• Some categories, for example "E" and "X", means that the products excluded from tariff reductions.

The tariff list is based on the importing country's customs codes. For this reason, the customs code assigned to the product when it is exported from the EU may not be directly found on the destination country's tariff schedules. In order to verify the applicable custom code in question, it is recommended to check to description of the customs code.