Glossary

Additional duties are taxes on traded goods. The possible types of additional duties are

• EA: Agricultural component
• ADSZ: Additional duties on sugar contents
• ADFM: additional duty on flour contents
• EAR: reduced agricultural component
• ADSZR: reduced additional duty on sugar contents
• ADFMR: reduced additional duty on flour contents

Political organisation, subgroup of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, that serves as a base for economic dialogue with the European Union. It was established in 1992. Its membership comprises the 15 Caribbean Community states, along with the Dominican Republic. All Participating States in CARIFORUM, with the exception of Cuba, are signatories to the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement or “Cotonou Agreement” and the EPA, respectively.

The member states are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Related content: 

EPA - Caribbean (CARIFORUM)

Refers to the structure of the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, know as the Harmonised System (HS). A chapter is a 2-digit number; a heading is a 4-digit number; a subheading is a 6-digit number. For example: Chapter 10: cereals; heading 10.06: rice; subheading 1006.30: semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed.

Countervailing duties, also known as anti-subsidy duties, are import duties imposed under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and aimed to neutralise the negative effects of subsidies. They are imposed after an investigation finds that a foreign country subsidises its exports, injuring domestic producers in the importing country.

Related content:

Countervailing duties on subsidised goods

Authorities or agencies responsible for collecting duties and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal, and hazardous items, into and out of a customs territory (such as a country or a customs union). The functions of customs cover the aspects of taxation, security and trade facilitation.

What is e-commerce?

Trade is today greatly facilitated by online platforms for e-commerce. These can either be individual e-commerce platforms, i.e. own online shops, or hosted platforms where a firm offers an interface and usually back-office software for different sellers and buyers (for example Ebay or Amazon). E-commerce platforms facilitate trade because they enable sellers from one country to get easily in touch with customers from other countries. Sellers can advertise and offer their goods and services on such platforms to many potential customers. Similarly, such platforms facilitate the search for adequate products for customers as they will be presented with and can compare between different sellers. Customers can be either end-users or other firms which use these goods for their own production process or service.

If you consider to sell your product via such online channels to customers in foreign markets, it is nevertheless necessary to assess the same exporting requirements as for traditional sales channels. When selling small quantities to end-users it is important to inform yourself about de minimis rules. Such rules often exempt low-value items from tariffs and have only minimal formal requirements regarding the necessary documentation. You can find more information on de minimis regimes here

Depending on the products you want to sell, additional requirements may need to be assessed. For example, you will need to consider questions about the payment gateways used online, about requirements in your target market about data privacy and the cross-border transfer of data, or questions how to handle warehousing and the logistics.

You can contact chambers of commerce, export promotion agencies, consultancies or similar institutions for help in this process (LINK to useful contacts). The Enterprise Europe Network also offers a general guide for SMEs to e-commerce in Europe which includes information on overseas markets.

Abbreviation of European Union (EU) which consists of 27 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden), as of 1 February 2020. (UK left the EU on 31/1/2020)

Regional trade organisation and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The organisation operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union.

Countries part of the European Free Trade Association. They are Iceland, Liechenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Sea zones, regulated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, over which states have special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources. Exclusive economic zones stretch from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from its coast.