The regulation of foreign economic relations is the most important task of any state, because through the VEO the country interacts with the world around it, in fact, thanks to the VEO, the country's economic system is implemented with the geographic and economic external environment - the world economy. One of the ways to regulate VEOs is through customs duties on the import of goods, intellectual property, the acquisition of services by residents, and so on. In this article we will consider the economic meaning of duties and their types.
Why does it make sense to talk specifically about customs duties on imports, and not to mention the export of goods? The fact is that in their activities, each state seeks to maximize the influx of currency values, and this can be done by exporting as many goods as possible and importing as little as possible, so that the currency will come, but will not leave the national economy. The only case when a country is not interested in export may be the export of currency, cultural property and minerals. In all other cases, the principle of “exporting more - importing less” works without fail. Duties on the import of goods and services are a type of economic regulation of foreign economic policy. Another way of regulation is through administrative measures, such as setting quotas or imposing an embargo on trade with certain partners.
Customs import duties can pursue various goals, two of which can be distinguished as the main ones. These goals are to reduce imports and generate revenue.
The decrease in imports through the establishment of duties occurs as follows: since the importer is obliged to pay a duty when importing goods into the country, he will include it in the price of goods sold on the domestic market. Naturally, this will cause an increase in prices, and through the mechanism of action of the law of demand will lead to a decrease in demand for this imported product and a corresponding increase in demand for domestic substitute goods. Thus, the competitiveness of the domestic industry in the production of certain goods will increase significantly. As a rule, in order to significantly reduce the volume of imports, it is necessary to establish high duties, such as, for example, the customs duty on the import of cars.
If the duties are aimed at obtaining additional revenues by the state in order to fill the budget, a lower duty rate is set that will not reduce the demand for imported goods so significantly, but due to the amount of purchased goods it will bring significant income. Customs duties on import, established with the aim of generating additional income, work best on goods of zero elasticity, that is, absolutely insensitive to price changes, for example, rare medicines such as insulin. Also, higher duties, which will not lead to a significant decrease in demand, can be introduced on imported luxury goods: sports cars, expensive alcohol, tobacco, jewelry from famous designers and other objects, the value of which indicates that a person who is able to buy them can afford not to think about how to pay an extra thousand dollars for your favorite thing. Customs duties on the import of just such goods bring the greatest revenue to the treasury.
They also distinguish between tariffs with one and two columns. The tariff of one column means that the same duty rates apply for import from all countries, tariffs with two columns mean the existence of certain preferences or, conversely, restrictions for certain countries.