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TARIC code: the ten digits that carry the EU measures

Updated on 31 August 2026

TARIC is the integrated tariff of the European Union. It takes the eight-digit CN code and adds two more digits, and those last two are where the measures live: anti-dumping duties, tariff quotas, duty suspensions, import and export prohibitions, surveillance, and licensing requirements.

A CN code tells you the duty rate. A TARIC code tells you what else applies, and it is the reason two products with the same eight-digit code can face very different treatment at the border depending on where they come from.

What a TARIC code carries

TARIC is a database of measures attached to codes, origins, and periods. The measures that most often change an import are:

  • Third-country duty: the standard MFN rate that applies when no preference is claimed.
  • Tariff preferences: reduced or zero rates for goods originating in a country with an agreement, conditional on valid proof of origin.
  • Anti-dumping and countervailing duties, frequently specific to a named producer through an additional code.
  • Tariff quotas: a reduced rate up to a volume, then the full rate, allocated first-come first-served or by licence.
  • Suspensions: temporarily zero or reduced duty on inputs the EU does not produce.
  • Prohibitions, restrictions, and surveillance, including the certificates and licences that release them.

Additional codes, and why ten digits are sometimes not the end

For some goods the ten digits are still not specific enough to identify the applicable measure. TARIC then uses four-character additional codes on top: to name the producer for an anti-dumping duty, to identify an agricultural component, or to flag a chemical.

That matters in practice because the additional code frequently decides the rate. A shipment classified correctly to ten digits but declared without the right additional code can attract a residual anti-dumping duty many times the rate the actual producer's code would have carried.

Reading a measure correctly

A measure is never just a rate. Each one is scoped by an origin, a validity period, and often a set of conditions expressed as certificate and action codes: present document X, and the measure is satisfied; present nothing, and the measure applies.

Y-codes are the common trap. They look like certificates but function as exclusions: they state that the goods are not the ones the measure targets. Reading one as a licence produces a declaration that claims an exemption the goods do not have.

Frequently asked questions

How many digits does a TARIC code have?

Ten. The first six are the HS code, digits 7 and 8 the EU Combined Nomenclature, and digits 9 and 10 the TARIC subdivision that carries the EU measures. Germany adds an eleventh national digit for import declarations.

What is the difference between a CN code and a TARIC code?

The eight-digit CN code carries the EU duty rate. The ten-digit TARIC code carries the measures: anti-dumping duties, quotas, suspensions, prohibitions, and licensing requirements, each scoped to an origin and a period.

What is a TARIC additional code?

A four-character code used where ten digits cannot identify the applicable measure, most often to name a specific producer subject to an anti-dumping duty. The wrong additional code usually means the wrong rate.

Do I declare the TARIC code on an import declaration?

In Germany an import declaration takes the eleven-digit commodity code, which contains the ten TARIC digits plus a national digit. An export declaration takes the eight-digit CN code.

How often does TARIC change?

Daily. Measures are added, amended, and expire continuously, which is why a classification that was checked once cannot be assumed still to be complete a year later.

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