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International Trade vocabulary · Customs and Tariffs

Customs

Meaning in international trade, with examples

/ˈkʌstəmz/nounCore term

In international trade, customs means: The government authority that controls goods entering and leaving a country, collects duties and taxes and checks that the rules are followed; also the place where this happens.

In Turkish: gümrük, gümrük idaresi

How it is used

Always ends in -s. You hear 'go through customs', 'clear customs', 'held at customs' and 'customs officers'. It works like an adjective in many compounds: customs duty, customs declaration, customs broker.

Example sentences

  1. The container has been held at customs for three days because of a missing certificate.

  2. Our broker says the goods will clear customs tomorrow morning.

Common collocations

  • clear customs
  • held at customs
  • customs officer
  • customs authorities
  • go through customs
  • customs clearanceThe process of completing all customs formalities and paying any duties so that goods are allowed to leave or enter a country.
  • customs dutyThe tax paid to customs on imported goods, calculated from their customs value, their HS code and sometimes their origin.
  • customs brokerA licensed professional or company that prepares customs declarations and handles clearance on behalf of importers and exporters.
  • customs declarationThe official form, usually submitted electronically, in which a company tells customs what goods it is importing or exporting, with their value, origin and classification.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Customs and Tariffs

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