Search for “EU import duty dried fruit” and you’ll get a number. It will usually be the MFN rate — the default a country charges the whole world under WTO rules. It’s a real number. It’s just frequently not your number, and the difference can be the margin on the entire shipment.
Three numbers pretending to be one
- MFN — the default rate for everyone, and the one most searches surface.
- Preferential — the rate under a trade agreement between your two countries: an EPA, an association agreement, a free-trade agreement.
- Unilateral schemes — preferences granted one-way to developing economies: the EU’s Everything But Arms, the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme, GSP tiers.
A Rwandan producer shipping dried chilli to the EU doesn’t pay the MFN rate — under Everything But Arms the duty is zero. A Kenyan exporter lands in the EU duty-free under the EU–Kenya EPA. The same pallet, priced off the MFN number you found online, looks uncompetitive by exactly the margin the preference would have returned.
Rules of origin: the fine print that decides
Preferences aren’t automatic. Your product has to originate in your country under the rules of the specific scheme — either wholly obtained there, or sufficiently transformed from imported inputs. A roaster using third-country beans, a garment maker using imported fabric: whether that processing counts is defined per product heading, per agreement. Getting it wrong doesn’t just cost the preference; it can mean duty reassessed at the border, after you’ve priced and shipped.
The sticker duty is an average. The landed cost is a decision.
The landed cost is the only honest number
Duty is one line in the real calculation: freight, insurance, currency, certification, and compliance costs all land on the same unit. Two markets with identical duty rates can be a full margin apart once the rest is counted — which is why comparing markets on tariff alone quietly picks the wrong one.
- Check the preferential rate for your corridor before you accept the MFN number.
- Verify the rule of origin for your HS heading — not your product’s name.
- Model landed cost per unit, per market, before choosing between them.
- Recheck when policy moves — schemes get suspended, agreements get signed.
This is the arithmetic Promote:Global runs per corridor: applied rates from official WTO, EU, and UK schedules, scheme-aware down to unilateral preferences, with a landed-cost model to compare markets and a policy watch so a change in the rules doesn’t reach you as a surprise at customs.
Written by the team building Promote:Global.
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