Tariff WatchThe tariff schedule prints three rate columns against each classification. The Column 1 General rate is the ordinary rate, and it is the base every trade remedy is added to.
The three columns
General, Special, and Column 2.
- Column 1 General. The rate for goods of any country with which the United States has normal trade relations. Also called the most-favored-nation or MFN rate. It does not vary by origin.
- Column 1 Special. Reduced or free rates available under a trade agreement or preference program, each identified by a letter code. Available only where the goods qualify and the claim is made.
- Column 2. A separate and generally much higher schedule of rates, applying to goods of the small number of countries that do not have normal trade relations with the United States.
The forms a rate takes
Ad valorem, specific, compound, or free.
Most rates are ad valorem, a percentage of the customs value. Some are specific, charged per unit of quantity, such as 3.3 cents per kilogram; those need a reported quantity as well as a value. A compound rate carries both, as in "$1.104/kg + 14.9%". "Free" is a rate, not an absence of one.
A small residue of lines is non-formulaic and states a cross-reference instead of a number, such as the rate applicable to each garment in an ensemble if separately entered. Those cannot be reduced to a figure without resolving the referenced lines.
What it is not
The ordinary rate is not the duty owed.
The Column 1 rate is the starting point, not the total. Every trade remedy in scope for the classification and the origin is added to it, and one class of Chapter 99 heading replaces it outright. A Column 1 rate quoted on its own understates what is collected on a great many articles.
Related
Elsewhere on this site.