UK Trade Tariff API — Import Duty Rates, Preferential Tariffs & Commodity Codes
Since Brexit, every UK importer needs to know the duty rate on their goods. The HMRC Trade Tariff is free to query, but its API is complex — commodity codes follow a 10-digit hierarchical structure, duty rates vary by country of origin, preferential rates depend on trade agreements, and tariff-rate quotas add another layer. The Trade Tariff endpoint simplifies all of this into a single call. Enter a commodity code or product description, get back the duty rate, VAT rate, preferential rates by country, active quotas, and the total number of applicable trade measures. For importers, customs brokers, and e-commerce platforms selling internationally, it turns a 30-minute HMRC research session into a 200ms API call.
What You Get
- •Commodity identification: resolved commodity code and full description from the HMRC tariff schedule
- •Duty rates: Most Favoured Nation (MFN) duty rate applicable to imports from countries without a trade agreement
- •VAT rate: applicable VAT rate for the commodity category
- •Preferential rates: reduced duty rates by country under UK free trade agreements (EU-UK TCA, CPTPP, individual FTAs)
- •Quotas: count of active tariff-rate quotas that may offer reduced rates up to a volume threshold
- •Trade measures: total number of applicable measures including anti-dumping duties, safeguards, and licensing requirements
Data Sources
HMRC Trade Tariff
The UK’s official trade tariff database maintained by HMRC. Contains 15,000+ commodity codes with duty rates, VAT rates, trade measures, preferential rates under 35+ free trade agreements, and tariff-rate quotas. Updated regularly to reflect new trade agreements and policy changes. This replaced the EU’s TARIC system for UK imports after Brexit.
Use Cases
Import Cost Calculation
Importers calculate landed costs before placing orders. The duty rate, VAT rate, and any preferential rates feed directly into cost models. Getting this wrong by even 2-3% can eliminate profit margins on low-margin goods. Before this API, importers either paid customs brokers £50-100 per classification or navigated HMRC’s tariff tool manually.
Customs Brokerage Automation
Customs brokers process hundreds of declarations daily. Automating commodity code lookup and duty rate retrieval eliminates the manual step that causes the most delays and errors in customs clearance. One wrong digit in a commodity code can mean a 20% duty difference.
E-Commerce Duty Estimation
Cross-border e-commerce platforms show customers their total landed cost including duties and VAT before checkout. Surprise customs charges are the number one cause of refused deliveries. Displaying accurate duty estimates at point of sale reduces return rates by up to 30%.
Trade Agreement Analysis
Trade policy analysts and exporters compare MFN rates with preferential rates to quantify the value of UK free trade agreements. The preferential_rates array shows at a glance which countries offer the best terms for a given product.
Example
Request
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \ "https://www.ukdatapi.com/api/v1/trade/0201?depth=standard"
Response
{
"data": {
"commodity": { "code": "0201100021", "description": "Fresh or chilled carcases and half-carcases of bovine animals, High quality" },
"duties": { "rate": "12.8% + 176.8 EUR/100 kg", "vat": "0.0%" },
"preferential_rates": [
{ "country": "Australia", "rate": "6.0% + 88.4 EUR/100 kg" },
{ "country": "New Zealand", "rate": "0.0%" }
],
"quotas": 3,
"measures_count": 12
}
}Pricing
| Depth | Credits |
|---|---|
| Summary | 10 |
| Standard | 10 |
| Full | 10 |
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