2. At present, tariff is still an important barrier in international trade, because:
1, the average level of low tariffs masks the high tariffs of some commodities. For example, in the United States, although the average tariff of industrial products is only 3%, the tariff of some industrial products is as high as 30%-40%.
2. The lower nominal tariff rate masks the effective tariff protection rate. In the reality that tariffs are imposed on both final products and intermediate products, the effective protection rate of tariffs is different from the nominal protection rate of final products. The effective tariff rate of Japanese tariff is about 2-2.5 times of the nominal tariff rate. In the early 1960s, the nominal tax rate of pig iron imported from the United States was 2%, but the effective tariff protection rate was 9%. The nominal tax rate of clothing is 25%, but the effective protection rate is 36%.
3. The lower normal import tax rate masks the higher import surtax. When a country imports goods, it will not only levy import tax according to the normal published tax rate, but also levy part of import tax according to the temporarily published tax rate when necessary. The purpose is either to deal with the balance of payments crisis, to prevent foreign countries from dumping goods, or to implement discriminatory policies against a certain country. For example, on August 5th, 197 1, in order to reduce imports and solve its balance of payments crisis, the United States implemented the "new economic policy" and announced the imposition of an import surcharge of 10%, which greatly affected the exports of many countries. Later, under the strong opposition of other countries, the US government had to cancel this tax rate.
4, the implementation of anti-dumping duties is the international, especially developed countries usually used to restrict imports. Anti-dumping is a means for WTO members to protect their products and markets, but it is being abused by developed countries. Since 1990s, China has become the biggest victim of international anti-dumping, involving tens of billions of dollars, and the anti-dumping tax rate levied by some countries exceeds 100%. From 1993 to 1994, Mexico imposed so-called anti-dumping duties on more than 4,000 kinds of goods in ten categories in China, ranging from 16% to105%.
5. With the development of regional collectivization, tariffs have become a means for customs union participants to impose import restrictions on goods from non-member countries. Countries participating in the customs union, such as members of the European Economic and Monetary Union, practice free trade at home and adopt a unified tax rate when collecting tariffs abroad.
But neither developed nor developing countries can equate "tariff" with "tariff barrier". What we usually refer to as tariff barriers refers to high import taxes and practices that hinder imports in terms of tariff setting, taxation methods and tariff management. According to the Guide to Investment and Trade Barriers issued by the Ministry of Commerce, common tariff barriers have the following forms: tariff peak, tariff escalation, tariff quota, specific tariff and ad valorem tariff.
1, tariff peak refers to the high tariff maintained by a few products under the condition of low overall tariff level. After eight rounds of GATT negotiations, the average tariff level of WTO members has dropped sharply, but some members still maintain tariff peaks in many fields. For example, in the Uruguay Round negotiations, a country agreed to substantially reduce tariffs while maintaining the tariff peaks of several industrial sectors, including food, textiles, footwear, leather products, jewelry, artificial jewelry, ceramics, glass, trucks and railway vehicles, in which the tariff on ceramics is 30%, that on glass and other glassware is 33.2% to 38%, and that on trucks with a load of 5-20 tons is 30%. Another example is that some products in Japan still maintain a high tariff level. These products include agricultural products, sugar, chocolate dessert (10%), cheese and dairy products (22.4-40%), sweet biscuits (18-20.4%), jam (12-34%) and smoked salmon (/kloc-). In the case of low overall tariff level, the high tariffs of the above-mentioned specific products unreasonably hinder the normal export of related products in other countries and constitute trade barriers.
2. Tariff escalation is a way to set tariffs, that is, lower tariffs or even zero tax rates are usually set for imported raw materials in specific industries, and with the improvement of processing depth, the tariff rates of semi-finished products and finished products are correspondingly increased. Tariff escalation can effectively restrict the import of high value-added semi-finished products and finished products, and it is a common trade barrier. Tariff escalation exists in both developed and developing countries. For example, in order to protect the domestic processing industry or manufacturing industry, a country applies a tariff rate of 5% to the steel suitable for manufacturing automobiles, while the tax rate of car body parts made of the same steel is 15%, and the tax rate of finished automobiles reaches 30%. This tariff escalation has restricted the export of auxiliary products. Another example is that the United States imposes high tariffs on imported middle and low-grade ceramic products and low tariffs on high-grade ceramic products, which creates obstacles for China's ceramic products to export to the United States. In addition, in the United States, the tariff is 8% for sports shoes whose upper leather area exceeds 565,438+0% of the total upper area, and 33% for sports shoes whose upper leather area is less than 565,438+0% of the total upper area. This unreasonable tariff structure makes China-related products in a very unfavorable competitive position in the US market.
3. Tariff quota refers to the application of lower tax rate to imported products within a certain quantity (quota quantity) and higher tax rate to imported products exceeding the quota quantity. In practice, there are many ways to manage and allocate tariff quotas, such as first receipt, bidding, auction and administrative allocation. Some inappropriate practices in quota determination, allocation and management may hinder trade. In the case of administrative distribution, barrier measures may appear in the following links:
Determination of (1) quota. For example, the quota set by a WTO member is lower than its average export volume in the latest Theory of Three Represents year, so the quota constitutes a trade barrier.
(2) Quota issuance and management. Lack of transparency or notarization in quota issuance and management will also form trade barriers. For example, a country lacks transparency in the management of dairy tariffs, and sometimes even issues quotas to enterprises that no longer engage in dairy business, resulting in vacant quotas.
In addition, in the process of issuing tariff quotas by auction, bidding, etc., artificial manipulation or other reasons may also create barriers to imported products.
Specific duty is a tariff levied according to the weight, quantity, capacity, length and area of goods. Among them, weight is the most commonly used unit of measurement. Some countries adopt the gross weight method, others adopt the net weight method, or adopt the method of "taking gross as net".
The calculation formula of specific tax amount is: tax amount = quantity of goods × unit specific tax.
For example, the tariff of EU 1992 stipulates that a tariff of 40 European currency units is levied per 100 liter of champagne. China also adopts specific tax standards for imported goods such as beer, crude oil and photographic films. Specific tax is characterized by simple procedures, no need to review the specifications, quality and price of goods, and easy calculation. Because the unit tax is fixed, the import of low-grade goods with poor quality and low price is subject to the same tariff as that of high-grade goods, which makes the import of low-grade goods unfavorable and thus has greater protection. The decrease of domestic prices, because the tax amount is fixed, the tax burden is relatively increased, which is not conducive to imports and the protection role is strengthened. For this reason, specific tax is widely used in some countries, which is widely used in the import of food, beverages and animal and vegetable oils. About 33% of tax items in the United States are subject to specific tax; Norway's specific tax also accounts for 28%. Because most of the export commodities of developing countries belong to higher grades, they have to bear much higher specific tax burden than developing countries.
Ad valorem tax is a tariff levied according to the price of imported goods. Its tax rate is expressed as a percentage of the commodity price.
The calculation formula of ad valorem tax is: tax amount = total value of goods × ad valorem tax rate.
For example, according to China's 1997 tariff, the taxable amount of sunglasses with tariff code 9004. 1000 is 20% of its import duty-paid price.
Ad valorem tax is the main taxation method adopted by various countries. Because: First, since the ad valorem tax is calculated according to the value of the goods, it is easier to estimate how much fiscal revenue should be obtained. Second, the amount of ad valorem tax changes with the change of commodity prices, and ad valorem tax constitutes an obstacle to the import of products or luxury goods with high processing degree. For example, the specific tax is 1 liter /2 dollars, and the tax rate for a bottle of cheap wine worth 2 dollars is100%; A bottle of expensive wine worth $20 is only equivalent to the tax rate of 10%. 10% ad valorem tax, 0.2 USD for cheap wine and 2 USD for expensive wine. Thirdly, in the negotiation of international tariff concessions, it is easy to compare the tariff levels of various countries and negotiate tariff concessions on the basis of ad valorem tax. However, the tariff levied according to the ad valorem tax depends to a great extent on the method used to determine the taxable customs value. Therefore, if the customs determines that the value of duty-paid goods is $65,438 +0,000, a tariff of $65,438 +0% will be levied. If the customs determines that the duty-paid price is $65,438+0,200, then the importer will have to pay the import duty of $65,438+0,200 for the same goods. If the customs does not use the price listed in the invoice as the basis for determining the value, the benefits brought by tariff concessions to trade will be greatly reduced. Therefore, in order to ensure that the tariff payable by importers is not higher than the normal tariff level determined in the importer's tariff concession table, it is very important to establish rules for evaluating commodities. /wiki/% E5 % 85% B3 % E7 % A8 % 8E % E5 % A3 % 8 1% E5 % 9E % 92