The Tariff portal (TARBEL) allows consultation and browsing of tariff data, most importantly the nomenclature codes and duty rates, and also other data related to Customs Tariff.
- Browse data concerning goods nomenclature, duty rates and other measures, and also additional information (Legal Notes, Binding Tariff Information, Classifications...)
- Search for text expressions in the areas mentioned above and in the goods nomenclature code descriptions area.
- Search for a goods code in correlation table.
- Search for geographical areas (countries, regions and groups) through their codes.
- Search for certificates.
- Search for additional codes.
- Search for footnotes.
- Search for quotas.
- Download Printed tariff.
- Download XML extractions.
- Calculate Meursing additional codes based on agricultural components.
The selection of one of the available languages enables the display and/or search for data in this language and also changes the Portal’s Interface language. Certain pages presenting text data exist only in Dutch and French independently from the other selected interface languages.
The Home page is the welcome page of the Tariff portal (TARBEL)
This indicates the current legal status date. TARBEL allows the search of data with legal status according to various dates. By default the simulation date is always the current date, and in case of search for a legal status with a different date, this date must be entered in the Simulation date field and confirmed by clicking on the "OK" button.
The ten most daily news messages are displayed on the Home page A link "More" leads to the Daily news web page where you can find all the daily news messages.
This indicates the date of the last update for data which can be displayed, searched with the Tariff Consultation.
The Home page allows to browse information and documents with the following menu:
- Preliminary information
- Nomenclature
- VAT
- Excises
- Anti-dumping
- Specific tariff measures
- Agricultural policy
- Others
- Useful links
- Search (text search within the documents of the previous sections)
The following operations can be performed in the Tariff browser screen:
- Browse nomenclature tree
- Search measures
- Search additional information
The following fields can be used to deepen the research:
- Trade type
- Goods nomenclature code
- Country of origin/destination (only for measures)
- Additional information
The goods nomenclature is built as a hierarchically structured tree. After the button "Browse nomenclature tree" has been pressed, TARBEL displays the "Nomenclature tree" screen with the section list. From that list, after clicking the section number, it is possible to go to the chapter list (two-digit code), then to the heading list (four-digit code), the sub-heading list (six-digit code), the combined nomenclature – CN list (eight-digit code), and the TARIC nomenclature list (ten-digit code), which is on the lowest tree level.
Sometimes footnotes and additional information (for example BTI) are assigned to codes on given levels. By clicking on the code of the footnote, the description appears; clicking on the BTI link redirects the user to the European BTI System (EBTI); clicking on other additional information opens a document in another html page.
Instead of scrolling the tree step by step, one can go directly to the searched code by entering the code into the "Goods nomenclature code" field and clicking the button "Browse nomenclature tree". TARBEL displays the searched code in the context of adjacent codes.
From the Nomenclature tree screen it is possible to go directly to the Measures screen. This is possible by clicking the nomenclature code on the lowest level, which appears in blue.
Note: Entering a criterion in the additional information field when browsing the nomenclature tree has no influence on the course of operation.
The measures are non-tariff measures (restrictions), tariff measures (duty rates), and national taxes (VAT and excise tax).
The measures are always displayed for a particular nomenclature code on the lowest level. After this code has been entered in the "Goods nomenclature code" field and the "Search measures" button has been pressed, TARBEL displays all measures assigned to that code, for all the origin/destination countries. If, in addition to the code, the field "Country of origin/destination" has been entered and the "Search measures" button has been pressed, the result will display only those measures which apply to the selected nomenclature code and origin/destination country.
Note: Entering additional information as a criterion has no influence on the course of measure display operation.
After the criterion (criteria) has been entered and the operation initialized, TARBEL displays the Measures screen, where the information is presented in the following order:
- goods code with the goods description;
- nomenclature groups;
- footnotes;
- supplementary unit;
- non-tariff measures (restrictions) concerning import and/or export of goods with relevant footnotes, additional codes, legal acts (Regulation);
- tariff measure (duty rates) for particular countries or for a specific country with relevant footnotes, additional codes, legal acts (Regulation) ;
- the national taxes (VAT and excises) with relevant footnotes, additional codes, legal acts (Regulation) ;
Clicking the footnote code, the regulation or additional code opens a window with detailed information.
Some duty rates include a link to an agricultural component (Meursing code). After clicking that link (“Meursing code composition”) the Meursing screen is displayed after entering the corresponding values, it is possible to see the corresponding additional code to calculate the agriculture component of the duty for certain agricultural commodities.
Sometimes applicability of a measure or the amount of duty rate depends on certain conditions. In such a case there's a "C" in the Conditions column. After clicking that link the screen presenting the information regarding conditions is displayed.
Measures are displayed in alphabetical order according to the geographical areas to which they are assigned, but measures that apply to all countries (Erga Omnes) are always displayed first.
By clicking the code of the country or country group the system displays the related information on the Geographical areas screen.
If the measure is assigned to the country group, some countries from that group may be excluded from the application of the measure. In that case the abbreviation excl. is displayed next to the country group code with link(s) to the excluded country (countries) ISO code
Some tariff measures are only applicable by using a quota. In this case, the given order number is displayed in the “Quota” column. By clicking on this number, the “Quota” screen opens. For more information, see 3.8 Quotas here after.
Union measures are identified by the Union flag and national measures by the Belgian flag.
If a criterion (criteria) has been chosen (trade type and/or country destination), it will be displayed in the “Measures” screen just before the Non-tariff measures (Restrictions). By clicking on the “X”, the criterion will disappear and the measures will be adapted.
The additional information covers Legal Notes, Binding Tariff Information,Classifications, etc.
The display of additional information is carried out by displaying all information (within one of the area mentioned above areas) which is assigned to the nomenclature code entered as a criterion. When, for example, "01" has been entered and the additional information area "Legal notes" has been selected, TARBEL displays all legal notes assigned to chapter 01. Only the additional information valid for the entered date is displayed.
When no additional information is assigned to the entered code, TARBEL displays the message “No search results”.
This field may be used to select only the measures for import or export. By default, it is “---” and measures for import and export are displayed.
This is the code which allows for hierarchical classification of goods. After the code has been entered, TARBEL displays the code within the nomenclature tree or measures assigned to the code or additional information containing the code. The code must have the correct format, that is, it must be the two-, four-, six-, eight- or ten-digit code without space.
This is the country from which the taxed commodity is imported or to which it is exported. After the country has been entered, TARBEL displays all the measures assigned to that country (including country groups of which it is a part of).
For each country, the line contains the country code and the country name.
In addition to the country, the goods nomenclature code indicating the commodity must also be entered. If no code has been entered, TARBEL displays no measures.
This is the information assigned to the entered goods nomenclature code. It is only possible to display these assignments on one search area. After the goods nomenclature code and the selected area have been entered, TARBEL displays the additional information containing entered code, as already explained in point 3.1.3 above.
The text search is searching in additional information (except BTI) and in nomenclature codes descriptions added, according to the text expression. When, for example, the word "animal" has been entered and the additional information area "Legal Notes" has been selected, TARBEL displays all legal notes containing the word "animal". Only the additional information valid for the set reference validity date is searched. As a reminder, the simulation date can be changed in this screen. For more information about the simulation date, see 2.1..
If there is a need to search in all areas one should select “All Scopes” in the additional information drop down list. The result of such a search will present a list of all available areas with the number of matches found in each area. Every item of this list is a link which displays the search results in a particular area.
Independent of whether one or more occurrence of the entered expression is found in the selected search area, the found information is displayed in the beginning as a list of identifiers. After clicking the proper identifier, the complete additional information with the occurrences of the entered expression highlighted is displayed in TARBEL.
On the Text search screen the searched word or other search pattern (a fragment of a word, sentence, eventually with special signs or operators) should be entered.
To search for information based upon a fragment of a word, the star wildcard character ( * ) should be used. For example, when searching for "pac*", all information containing "pac" such as "packs", "packings", “packages" etc. is obtained.
Several text expressions can be entered as well. To get the information containing all expressions, the expressions should be connected by the AND operator. To get information containing at least one expression, the expressions should be connected by OR operator.
For this search, TARBEL does not distinguish different sizes of letters. The same results will be obtained after entering “Meat”, “MEAT” or “meat”.
The text expression is a word or part of the word. For example: “meat”, “beef meat”, “fresh beef meat”, etc. More precise ways of searching are described in the examples below.
More precise ways of searching are described in the examples below.
When using text search, special operators, which define the range of searched expressions, can be used. The following list presents examples of the available operators. The examples concern nomenclature code descriptions in English. The main purpose of the list is to present search operator basics. Due to modifications or updates of the Master Tariff data the actual search results may look a bit different.
The AND operator is used to search for texts containing at least one occurrence of each of the searched expressions. The AND operator can be combined with all the other operators.
Example: when searching for "live AND animals", the results are: “LIVE ANIMALS”, "Live bovine animals" and "Other live animals".
The OR operator is used to search for texts containing at least one occurrence of each of the searched expressions. The OR operator can be combined with all the other operators.
Example: when searching for "potatoes OR meat", the results contain the words "potatoes" or "meat" or both of them.
The star wildcard operator indicates that any character or characters can appear in the position represented by the wildcard. The * operator can be used in any place within a word.
Example: When searching for “pack*”, the results include "packs", "packings", packer", "packed" etc. next to "packages".
The text phrase is a text or its fragment. After the text expression has been entered, TARBEL finds it within the selected additional information category. The default search area is "Goods nomenclature codes descriptions".
Information that contains the entered expression is searched for. Additional information covers: Goods nomenclature codes descriptions, Legal notes, Classification, etc.
After the expression and the selected area (Scope) have been entered, TARBEL displays additional information containing the entered expression. When no expression is entered in the selected area, TARBEL displays an error message.
Changes can be performed to TARIC codes (10 –Digit codes). The Correlation table is a tool that helps traders to find out which of the nomenclature codes are affected by those changes.
This determines the movement direction (Import or Export).
The Correlation type shows the type of the displayed results (New commodity codes, Expired / Replaced codes). After the TARIC code has been entered in the field “Goods nomenclature codes” and “New commodity codes” has been chosen, TARBEL displays the new commodity codes with the expired / replaced codes and the start date of replacement. When choosing “expired / Replaced codes”, TARBEL displays the expired / replaced codes, the codes that replaced them and the end date of the expired / replaced codes.
After the TARIC code has been entered, TARBEL displays whether the goods nomenclature has expired or if it has been replaced by another code.
This is the start date for the correlation table search. The field is mandatory.
This is the end date for the correlation table search. The field is optional: when no date has been entered, The End date is the current date.
Searching for a geographical area consists of searching for the country or country group.
The country is searched for by entering the country ISO code (for example, "CH"), the country name or a combination of both. The obtained result includes, in addition to the country ISO code and the country name, the codes of all the country groups to which the searched country belongs.The country group is searched for by entering the group’s code (for example, “1011”) in the "Country group code" field. The obtained result includes the list of all the countries ISO codes which belong to this group. By clicking on a country ISO code of this group, the list of all the groups to which the country belongs is displayed.
This section identifies licenses, certificates and similar documents required to be produced for import/export declarations. Certificates are not integrated as separate measure types, but as conditions of the various measure types, for example Veterinary control, Tariff preferences, Preferential tariff quota, etc. Here the user can search and view details of certificates.
By entering a certificate code in the field "Code", TARBEL displays the description corresponding to this certificate code.
The "Description" field refers to the description of the certificate. It allows a "text search" to find a certificate. After entering a word or an exact text expression preceded and followed by the wildcard character (*), TARBEL finds the certificate (s) code (s) together with its description (s) whose description contains the word or expression entered.
By clicking on the “Search” button, without specifying any code or description, TARBEL displays the full list of possible “Certificates”.
Additional codes are optional and used to differentiate or to specialise measure applicability.
By entering an additional code in the field “Code”, TARBEL displays the description corresponding to this additional code.
The "Description" field refers to the description of the additional code. It allows a "text search" to find an additional code. After entering a word or an exact text expression preceded and followed by the wildcard character (*), TARBEL finds the additional(s) code(s) together with its description(s) whose description contains the word or expression entered. By clicking on the “Search” button, without specifying any code or description, TARBEL displays the full list of possible “Additional codes".
Footnotes are optional and are used to provide additional information.
By entering a footnote code in the field “Code”, TARBEL displays the description corresponding to this footnote code. By entering the two first characters in the footnote, TARBEL displays all the footnotes starting with these characters and their descriptions.
The "Description" field refers to the description of the footnote. It allows a "text search" to find a footnote. After entering a word or an exact text expression preceded and followed by the wildcard character (*), TARBEL finds the footnote(s) together with its description(s) whose description contains the word or expression entered. By clicking on the “Search” button, without specifying any code or description, TARBEL displays the full list of possible “Footnotes”.
This function allows to search and view Quotas quotas defined in the system. The quotas displayed are the Union Tariff quotas, the so-called “first come, first served quotas” and not the agricultural quotas (starting with 094…)
One can search quotas by quota number, country code, critical status and status.
After the search, a list of found quotas will be displayed. To view full information about particular quota, the “Details” link placed on the right side of screen can be used..
This is the quota number that identifies the quota.
The critical status indicates that the quota is in a critical status i.e. the quota has reached the quota critical threshold and it is close to being exhausted.
After the country has been entered and pressed "Search", TARBEL displays only quotas assigned to the specified country of origin.
In addition to the country of origin, a quota number, critical status or status can be specified. If the field is " country of origin" is empty, TARBEL displays quotas regardless of the country of origin
Note: the search results show in the column "country of origin" a group country code if the quota is assigned to a whole country group and not only to a specific country.
Status displays the status of quota (open, blocked, unblocked, etc.)
Detailed information related to status, balance, associated nomenclature codes and associated sub-quotas.
This function allows to download a report which contains all the measures applied to the selected goods nomenclature codes and the selected simulation date.
To download the Printed Tariff, enter the goods nomenclature code with 4, 6, 8, 10 digits and click on “Download”.
This function allows users who intend to load into their own IT systems and databases the Tariff data maintained by Tariff system. The XML extractions include collections of hierarchical Tariff objects, the links between different Tariff objects and reference attributes that allows unambiguous identification of the object in the XML extractions. The extracted data includes all EU-TARIC and National Tariff objects.
This is the year to which the user is looking for the XML extraction. It will be selected from the drop-down list.
This is month to which the user is looking for the XML extraction. It will be selected from the drop-down list.
The user can choose to download in a .zip file all the search results buy clicking on the Download button next to the Search button. Note: This option does not include the FULL extractions file. The user can choose to download selected .zip file by clicking on the download button corresponding to the file.
In Tariff Consultation, when searching for "Correlation table",
"Geographical areas", "Certificates", "Additional codes",
"Footnotes" and "Quotas" none, one or more blank fields can be
filled-in as search criteria . If all blank field are left empty
(except for Geographical areas category), the system shows all
available results for the chosen category.
Criteria filter the search request.
Another way to search roughly is to use "Wildcard" symbol in the blank fields(*):
Before or after a single or a set of characters and a single or a set of characters between the "Wildcard" symbol (*).
TARBEL allows search with "Wildcard" symbol (*) in all blank fields.
Bellow some examples of generic search.
Except for "Geographical areas" all other categories allow search with all blank fields "is empty". In other categories like "Certificates", "Additional codes", "Footnotes" both fields "Code" and "Description" can be left empty or filled using a "Wildcard" in the criterion. The search engine is case sensitive (cf. example with "Geographical areas").
Examples:
a) With empty blank field "Goods nomenclature code" Trade type = Import Correlation type = New commodity codes
Goods nomenclature code = [empty]
Start date = 01-01-2018
End date = [No end date]
The system displays all results for New commodity codes with no end date and start date = 01-01-2018 b)With Wildcard (*) Trade type = Import
Correlation type = New commodity codes
Goods nomenclature code = 29*
Start date = 01-01-2018
End date = [No end date]
The system displays new commodity codes under the chapter “29” with no end date and start date = 01-01-2018
In Geographical areas
Country ISO code = [is empty]
Country name: *be*
Country group code = [is empty]
The system displays two results: Liberia and Uzbekistan. Belgium is not included in the search results.
When *be*is replaced by *Be*, five different results are found: Belgium, Benin, Bermuda, Belarus, Belize. All country names start with "Be". It means that the reference data search is case sensitive.
Country ISO code = [is empty]
Country name: [is empty]
Country group code = E*S
The system displays one results: ERGA OMNES. The search result corresponds to the request "find all Country codes which start with "E" and end with "S"" In Certificates, Additional codes, Footnotes
a) Search for Code= *10*. The system displays all codes which contain the number 10. b) Search for Code= *10* AND Description = *la*. The system restricts the search results with the additional entered criterion.
The Meursing menu allows user to calculate Meursing code, or display values of components based on the known code.
In order to calculate the Meursing code, the following fields must be completed:- Fat Milk
- Milk protein
- Starch / glucose
- Sucrose / Sugar / Isoglucose
The system displays the corresponding Meursing code.
It is also possible to enter the known Meursing code in order to display the corresponding values of components.