What Is the CCC Code? A Complete Guide to Taiwan's 11-Digit Import Tariff Code

The HS Convention requires contracting parties to be consistent only down to the 6th digit; beyond that each country adds its own digits and there is no correspondence between them. So entering a Japanese 9-digit code straight onto a Taiwanese declaration is guaranteed to be wrong, and the same is true in reverse. When comparing tariff schedules across countries, the only part that can safely be matched is the first 6 digits; everything after that must be reclassified in the destination country's own schedule. It is also why the 10-digit “commodity code” supplied by a seller in mainland China cannot be used as a Taiwanese CCC Code — only the first 6 digits line up.

Every CCC code carries three columns of duty rates, and under General Rule 2 of the 《Customs Import Tariff》 the applicable column is determined by the country of origin of the goods:
① Column I—— applies to WTO members and to countries/territories granting Taiwan reciprocal treatment; most imported goods fall under this column.
② Column II—— applies to specified goods from countries/territories that have signed a free trade agreement or an economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan, and to specified goods from certain least-developed and developing countries; this is the preferential column (commonly 0%). It currently covers Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, New Zealand, Singapore, Paraguay, Eswatini, Belize and the Marshall Islands, as well as goods on the ECFA Early Harvest List.
③ Column III—— where neither of the first two applies; the highest rates (goods at 5% under Column I may be 10% under Column III).
🔑 Two things to remember: where Column I and Column II could both apply, the lower rate is the one that applies; and what decides the column is the country of origin rather than where the seller is — buy online from the United States but find the goods marked as made in mainland China, and mainland China's treatment is what applies.

Every CCC line carries three tariff columns, and under General Rule 2 of the Customs Import Tariff the applicable column is decided by the country of origin of the goods:
① Column 1 — applies to WTO members and to countries/territories that grant Taiwan reciprocal treatment; most imported goods fall in this column.
② Column 2 — applies to specified goods from countries/territories that have signed a free trade agreement or economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan, and to specified goods from certain least-developed and developing countries; this is the preferential column (commonly 0%). It currently covers Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, New Zealand, Singapore, Paraguay, Eswatini, Belize and the Marshall Islands, plus goods on the ECFA Early Harvest List.
③ Column 3 — for goods that neither of the first two columns covers; the highest rates (a line at 5% in Column 1 may be 10% in Column 3).
🔑 Two things to remember: where both Column 1 and Column 2 could apply, the lower rate is used; and the column is decided by the country of origin, not by where the seller sits — buy from a US website but the goods are marked as made in mainland China, and mainland China's treatment is what applies.

Take mainland-grown green tea (CCC 0902.10.00.00-7): its import regulation field reads “465 F01 MW0”, which means three gates apply at the same time: 465 requires a certificate of origin, F01 requires an import inspection application to the TFDA, and MW0 means goods of mainland origin may not be imported (MW0 = import from mainland China is prohibited; the small-quantity import permit exemption does not apply to Chapters 1–24).
🔴 The easiest thing to misread: the 465 rule contains the sentence “goods imported for personal use in a quantity not exceeding 6 kg are exempt from attaching it” — but that waives only “the certificate of origin document”; it does nothing whatsoever to lift MW0. So mainland green tea bought “for personal use, only 5 kg” still may not be imported. Whenever you see a proviso saying “exempt from attaching” or “exempt from a permit”, go back and check whether MW0 is still there.

These are two independent sets of rules. The duty-free threshold governs “whether tax is payable”; MW0 governs “whether it may enter at all” (MW0 = import from mainland China is prohibited; the small-quantity import permit exemption does not apply to Chapters 1–24). A mainland dried shiitake mushroom marked MW0 still may not be imported, even if it is worth only NT$300 — far below the NT$2,000 duty-free threshold.
The consequences come in two kinds: if you declare truthfully, customs will order the goods to be returned within a set period under Article 96 of the Customs Act, and if that is not done within the deadline the goods are sold off or destroyed at your own expense; if you misdeclare the origin or the description in an attempt to get around the rules, then — because a Ministry of Finance directive expressly defines “controlled goods” as covering “mainland goods that the Regulations Governing Trade Between the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area prohibit from import” — it amounts to evasion of controls, and under Article 37 of the Customs Anti-smuggling Act, which refers on to Article 36, the goods are confiscated and a fine of up to 3 times the value of the goods is imposed.
(Low-value duty exemption: a consignment with a customs value of NT$2,000 or less is exempt from customs duty and business tax, but this ceases to apply once you exceed 6 times within a half-year period, i.e. from the 7th time onward; the count restarts on 1/1 and 7/1 each year.)

These cases must be kept apart; mixing them up is exactly what gets shipments held:
① Food / agricultural products: the Customs Administration states in writing that “food not open to import that is sent by mail requires case-by-case import permit documents, and the small-quantity permit-exemption rules do not apply”. Regardless of personal use, regardless of the amount of money, regardless of the quantity, it cannot be shipped in.
② Industrial products (tariff Chapters 25～97): small quantities of mainland Chinese goods in Chapters 25–97 may be imported without an import permit if the whole declaration is within CIF NT$32,000 and each single product is within 24 pieces (40 kg if it cannot be counted; a single product is identified by its model number, or by the line item on the declaration if there is no model number, and may not be split by size, specification or colour; stone under heading 6802 and tiles under heading 6907 must meet both 24 pieces and 40 kg). Electric motorcycles, electric bicycles and their controllers (tariff lines 8711.60.10, 8711.60.20 and 8543.70.99.50) are excluded, and Chapters 1–24 do not qualify. Inspection, quarantine and other import requirements must still be met separately. There is no guarantee that any industrial product in a small quantity can be shipped in.
③ Separate quantity allowances exist for mainland goods carried by inbound travellers, and they never apply to consolidated shipping or mail — taking “a traveller may bring it in” to mean “it may be shipped” is the most common misjudgement of all.

The procedure above is designed for formal trade between companies. For personal online shopping via consolidated shipping there are four practical barriers, and any single one of them is enough to block the route on its own:
① The certificate is applied for by the mainland exporter, and the applicant must be a registered market entity holding a Unified Social Credit Code (統一社會信用代碼) (a company or an individually-owned business) — a natural-person consumer is not eligible to apply.
② It must be issued before the export declaration on the mainland, whereas by the time you place an online order the seller has long since shipped the item as ordinary goods.
③ The importer field on the certificate has to name an importer registered on the two sides of the Strait, and at the moment of shipping the seller has no way of knowing who will finally import the goods, or on which Taiwan import declaration.
④ One certificate of origin covers only one import declaration, whereas consolidated shipping is by its very nature many buyers and many sellers packed into one box.
So for mainland goods moving by personal consolidated shipping, Column 1 rates apply in practice, without exception. The real way to save is to check the duty rate of the product’s own CCC tariff line before ordering (plenty of 3C products, books and some skincare items are at 0% to begin with) and to check whether it carries MW0 (import from mainland China is prohibited; exception: small quantities in Chapters 25–97 need no import permit if the whole declaration is within CIF NT$32,000 and each single product is within 24 pieces, with a 40 kg limit only for goods that cannot be counted; electric motorcycles, electric bicycles and their controllers are excluded, and Chapters 1–24 do not qualify) — rather than studying a certificate you can never obtain, first make sure the thing can be shipped in at all.