TARIC commodity code, preferential origin and anti-dumping: how to pay the right customs duty with BTI, BOI, REX and EUR.1

The tariff heading or commodity code is the code for your goods in the European Union tariff, and it is built in layers: the first six digits are those of the Harmonized System, common to almost the entire world; the eight digits of the Combined Nomenclature (CN) are those of the Union; and the TARIC code adds two more with the subdivisions the Union uses to apply specific measures, such as an anti-dumping duty or a tariff quota.

Classifying is not just typing a word into a search engine. The General Rules for the Interpretation of the Nomenclature are applied in strict order: the wording of the headings and of the section and chapter notes governs (titles are for reference only); an unassembled article is classified as the finished article if it already has its essential character; between two headings, the more specific one wins, and in mixtures and sets, the component that gives the essential character prevails. To interpret these, you use the Explanatory Notes to the CN and the Harmonized System, Commission classification regulations, and judgments of the Court of Justice.

The tariff heading does not only determine the customs duty: all other Union measures on trade in goods are also applied according to classification. This includes certificates, licences, and, from 1 July 2026, the flat-rate duty of €3 on distance sales for consignments of up to €150, which is payable per category of items sharing the same tariff classification. A poorly chosen code drags everything else down with it.

The customs declaration is submitted by your company or a registered customs representative; we leave the tariff classification, the origin study, and the calculation of duties and VAT fully prepared for you. You can see the updated fee on our goods import study page.

TARIC is the European Commission's public database that brings together, for each code, everything that applies when importing and exporting. You search by commodity code and by country of origin, and it displays the normal duty, preferences under each trade agreement, anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard duties, tariff quotas and suspensions, and required certificates. What counts is the country of origin, not the country where you bought the goods or the port of shipment.

For trade defence measures, the commodity code alone is not enough. The regulation imposing an anti-dumping duty describes the product concerned and sets an individual rate for each named manufacturer, another for cooperating companies, and a residual rate for all others. You must verify that your product matches that description and know who manufactured it.

The Commission creates TARIC codes for the product as soon as it opens an investigation, and the Central Economic-Administrative Court (Tribunal Económico-Administrativo Central) presumes that the importer is aware of the potential circumvention of an anti-dumping measure from the moment the notice of initiation of a review is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. If you import products subject to measures, someone needs to read the Official Journal for you.

Binding Tariff Information (BTI, or Información Arancelaria Vinculante, IAV, in Spain) is a customs decision, adopted only upon application by the interested party, that sets the tariff classification of your goods. In Spain, you apply for it under procedure DD02 of the AEAT (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, the Spanish Tax Agency), either online or at its offices, using the form in Annex 2 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341. It is submitted in the Member State where the applicant is established or where the BTI is to be used.

Customs has 30 days to accept the application and 120 days from acceptance to issue a decision, extendable by 30 days if notified in advance, and longer if laboratory analysis is required. There is no tasa: you can only be charged for the costs of analysing and returning samples.

A BTI is valid for 3 years from the date it takes effect (not 6, as under the old Community Customs Code). It binds only its holder, only for goods declared after it takes effect, and you must be able to prove that the declared goods correspond in every respect to those described in the decision. Each application covers a single product or a family of goods whose differences do not affect classification, and it is published in the Commission's database, excluding confidential data.

A BTI cannot be amended. It is annulled if it was based on incorrect or incomplete information from the applicant, and it is revoked if it ceases to be compatible with the explanatory notes, a judgment of the Court of Justice, or a Harmonized System classification opinion. If it ceases to be valid due to a classification regulation or is revoked, a grace period of up to 6 months may be granted for binding contracts already concluded, provided you apply within 30 days; this does not apply if the nomenclature itself changes.

It is worthwhile when a product sits between two headings with different duty rates or measures, when anti-dumping is at stake, or when import volumes are recurring. A binding tax ruling (consulta vinculante) to the Directorate-General for Taxation (Dirección General de Tributos) cannot be used for this: Spanish law refers customs matters to the Union Customs Code. Managora prepares the complete application and files it under your power of attorney; you can check the updated price on our Binding Tariff Information page.

Non-preferential origin is the economic nationality of the goods: that of the country where they were wholly obtained or, if more than one country is involved, that of the country where they underwent their last substantial, economically justified processing or working, carried out in an undertaking equipped for that purpose and resulting in the manufacture of a new product or representing an important stage of manufacture. This is the origin used for normal customs duties, non-tariff measures, and anti-dumping. Relabelling or routing the shipment through another country does not change it.

Preferential origin is what entitles you to a reduced or zero duty rate under an EU trade agreement or a unilateral preference, such as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). Its rules are set out in each agreement, product by product. Preferential treatment is not applied automatically: you must claim it on the customs declaration and hold valid proof of origin.

If the doubt concerns origin, the equivalent customs decision is Binding Origin Information (BOI, or Información Vinculante en materia de Origen, IVO): 120 days from acceptance, extendable by 30 days, with no tasa, valid for 3 years, and it can be requested by a direct representative holding a power of attorney.

It depends on the trade agreement with the destination country. Under the agreements with Canada (CETA), Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, and under the Economic Partnership Agreements with Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Eastern and Southern Africa, the EU exporter self-declares the origin on the invoice using their Registered Exporter (REX) number. With these countries, the EUR.1 certificate does not exist.

REX registration is requested via the AEAT online portal (procedure DC47) and is decided within 120 calendar days. Any exporter, manufacturer, trader, or re-consignor established in the Union who can prove the origin of the goods may apply, and it is a one-off formality: no certificate needs to be issued for each shipment. Unless the specific agreement provides otherwise, an exporter who is neither registered nor approved may only declare origin on consignments worth up to €6,000.

Approved exporter status (exportador autorizado) is a separate authorisation (procedure DC12) used for agreements where the proof of origin is an invoice declaration made out by an approved exporter, such as those with Morocco, Switzerland, Mexico, or South Korea. The value threshold above which it is required depends on each origin protocol.

Movement certificates EUR.1 and EUR-MED only exist under agreements that provide for them, such as those in the pan-Euro-Mediterranean zone, and are issued upon written application by the exporter or their authorised representative. In all cases, you must keep copies of the origin declarations and all supporting documents (bills of materials, costings, supplier's declarations) for at least 3 years; for a registered exporter, this period runs from the end of the calendar year in which the statement on origin was made out, and the specific agreement or national law may require a longer period.

The origin declaration is signed by the exporter, who bears full responsibility for it. Managora carries out the rules-of-origin analysis, drafts the exact wording for your invoice declaration, and prepares your REX or approved exporter applications ready for your company to sign.

Customs can carry out post-clearance audits after the goods have been released. If they have reasonable doubts about the proof of origin, they may request any additional evidence and, if the preference is denied or the tariff classification was wrong, assess the difference in duty. That customs debt can be notified for up to 3 years from the date it was incurred, a time limit that extends to between 5 and 10 years if the customs debt was incurred as the result of an act which, at the time it was committed, was liable to give rise to criminal court proceedings.

A good-faith importer has specific legal protection: if the certificate of origin issued by the authorities of the exporting country turns out to be incorrect, this is treated as an error by the competent authorities that the importer could not reasonably have detected, and you can apply for repayment or remission of the duty. This protection does not apply if the certificate was based on an incorrect account of the facts provided by the exporter, nor if the Commission had already published a notice in the Official Journal stating that there were well-founded doubts regarding that country, and you must demonstrate that you took all necessary steps to ensure the conditions were met.

Against a post-clearance tax assessment (liquidación), you may file an administrative appeal for reconsideration (recurso de reposición) or an economic-administrative claim (reclamación económico-administrativa) within one month of notification. Repayment or remission on grounds of an error by the competent authorities, overcharged duties, or equity must be requested within 3 years of notification of the customs debt. Our registered Spanish lawyer files this under your power of attorney; you can view the updated fee on our import duty repayment or remission page.

If there was concealment or misrepresentation, it may constitute smuggling (contrabando): a criminal offence from €150,000 upwards (€50,000 for dual-use goods, defence material, CITES specimens, drug precursors, historical heritage, and state-monopoly or prohibited goods; €15,000 for manufactured tobacco; with no financial threshold for drugs and weapons). Below those thresholds, it is an administrative offence carrying a fine of 100% to 350% of the value of the goods (up to 600% for tobacco) plus confiscation of the goods. Managora does not handle criminal defence.

Anti-dumping duties tax imports sold below their normal value; countervailing duties offset subsidies granted by the country of origin; and safeguard measures curb a sudden surge in imports, for example through tariff quotas. They are charged on top of the normal customs duty, although no product may be subjected to both anti-dumping and countervailing duties for the purpose of dealing with one and the same situation.

Provisional anti-dumping duties are not paid at the time of clearance: they are secured by a guarantee, and if the definitive duty turns out to be higher, the difference is not collected. Definitive duties expire after 5 years, unless an expiry review extends them, and while that review is pending they remain in force.

Three examples in force as of October 2026 (full details in the table below): Chinese iron or steel fasteners, ranging from 22.1% to 86.5% depending on the manufacturer; Chinese battery electric vehicles, subject to definitive countervailing duties since 30 October 2024; and steel products, which from 1 July 2026 are subject to duty-free tariff quotas with a 50% out-of-quota duty, plus mandatory proof of the country of melt and pour from 1 October.

Attempting to bypass these measures usually proves expensive. Anti-dumping duties can be extended to slightly modified products designed to fall under a different tariff code, to consignments transhipped through third countries, and to assembly operations in the Union or a third country where parts from the country subject to measures constitute 60% or more of the total value of the parts of the assembled product and the value added during assembly is not greater than 25% of the manufacturing cost.

An autonomous tariff suspension is a European Union measure that temporarily reduces or eliminates the normal customs duty on certain goods, typically raw materials, semi-finished goods, or components not produced in the Union. A tariff quota grants that reduced or zero rate only up to a set volume: as soon as the quota is exhausted, imports revert to the normal duty rate. Both appear in TARIC with their respective codes and conditions.

Neither is applied automatically. The Union Customs Code states that these favourable tariff measures apply only upon application by the declarant, meaning you must claim them on the customs declaration using the correct code and meet all attached conditions; if you do not claim them, you pay the normal duty. For tariff quotas, moreover, the available balance is drawn down as imports are cleared, so the exact timing of customs clearance matters.

If you import a component or raw material that is not manufactured in the Union and does not yet benefit from a suspension, your company can apply for a new suspension through the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise (Ministerio de Economía, Comercio y Empresa), which forwards the request to the European Commission. Managora prepares the technical dossier ready for your company to sign, as the applicant remains responsible for the accuracy of the data.