Trade agreements and preferential duty

1. Is the deal in force for this pair of countries, on this date? Some apply provisionally, or phase in cuts over years.
2. Does the tariff line get a reduction? Agreements exclude products or phase them in. Your code has to be right first, which is why HS classification comes before everything else.
3. Do the goods originate? Each product has a rule: wholly obtained, a change of tariff heading, a value-content threshold, or a specific process. Merely repacking or labelling usually fails.
4. Can you prove it, and do the shipping rules hold? That means the right origin document and records, and direct shipment if the deal requires it.

Being wrong on any of these turns a saving into a duty bill, usually with interest, and sometimes a penalty.

As an illustration, a shipment of 40,000 in value at a 12% general rate saves 4,800 if it qualifies. Now compare that with the cost of proving origin for one product line, per year:

At a 2% general rate the same goods save just 4,800 a year, and the cost of the paperwork takes 4,000 of it. Run the sum for each product, because a claim on a low-rate line may not pay for its paperwork. The compliance figures here are examples: put in your own.

This isn't a full list. Others, such as CPTPP, RCEP and the many EU and UK deals, work on the same four tests.

Most additional US duties aren't removed by an FTA. The note to the July 2026 Section 301 duties applies them to goods eligible for special tariff treatment, unless an exemption says otherwise. Canada and Mexico have one for USMCA goods. Other FTA partners, such as Australia or South Korea, should check the heading for their origin, and CAFTA-DR textile goods have their own exemption. A qualifying claim still removes the general rate, so it can still be worth making. See US tariff changes.

Keep supplier declarations, bills of materials and costings. For the EU-UK deal, HMRC's guidance says importers keep their records for 4 years from importation, whether you claim on a statement on origin or on importer's knowledge. In practice, the supplier who wrote "made in X" on an invoice isn't giving you evidence of origin under an agreement. The difference is explained in country of origin.