Countervailing Duties

Countervailing Duties

These special
Additional import duties that a government may levy on goods exported from their country of origin, have been encouraged by the payment of an export bounty or subsidy.

The purpose of the duty is to offset, or "countervail", the county or subsidy so that the goods cannot be sold at an artificially low price in the foreign country and thereby provide unfair competition for local manufacturers.

Extra Charges
In addition to customs duty, an exporter may sometimes have to pay one or more extra charges in order to get its goods into the foreign country. These includes:

1. Taxes
a) An import surtax - calculated as a percentage of import duty.

b) A package tax - that is, a small tax on each package in a shipment.

c) An import surcharge - this is calculated as a percentage of the value of the shipment, it is usually levied on selected items, notable luxury goods, to discourage their import.

The exporter may also be required to pay various internal taxes (such as sales taxes, excise taxes, purchase taxes, and value added taxes) before its goods reach the final customer.

2. Prior Deposit
Some countries, particularly in Latin America, require importers to deposit local funds of up to 100 per cent of the value of shipment before they are permitted to import any

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goods. These deposits are then held, interest-free, by the Central Bank of that country, for various lengths of time before being refunded.

3. Consular Fees
Another, and often substantial, additional charge on imports is the consular fee required to legalize shipping documents.

This fee may be collected by the consular authorities in the exporting country or by the customs officials at the port of entry.

Customs Nomenclature

Since 1950, over 120 countries have agreed to use the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN) established in that year, which classifies products according to their physical substance.

Another customs nomenclature, the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), was developed by the United Nations, but had been adopted for only a few various products.

An item-by-item correspondence has been worked out between the two tariff classifications.

Because, many thousands of different products entering into international trade, more and more countries are switching to the already-widely-used Brussels Tariff Nomenclature.

A Customs Cooperation’s Council, located in Brussels, with membership of over 120 countries, is promoting this trend towards greater customs uniformity by preparing drafts for new customs conventions and by offering technical assistance in customs administration.

Below are some of the many benefits arising from greater uniformity of customs nomenclature:

1. It would assure exporters and importers of a uniform classification of their goods, whatever the country.

2. It facilitate the negotiation and administration of tariff agreements as the participating countries would classify their products in the same way.

3. It removes many of the trade obstructions and distortions that result from the administration of dissimilar nomenclatures.

4. It is essential for any country planning to enter into regional trade pacts.

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Free Trade Zone
Bonded Warehouses
GATT- now known as WTO

"...signatories to 'GATT' now call 'WTO' agreed
to exchange most-favored customs treatment..."