Saudi HS Codes and Customs Duty — A Practical Guide

What the code is

From 1 January 2025 the GCC states apply the GCC Integrated Customs Tariff at twelve digits, based on the 2022 edition of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System. The first six digits are the international HS subheading, shared with every other HS country; the digits beyond that are Gulf and national detail, and they are where two products that look identical to a foreign exporter part company.

Before this, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE used eight digits while Saudi Arabia had used twelve since 2016. The move to a single twelve-digit tariff across the customs union is what allows a classification to travel between Gulf states — and it is why classification lists built before 2025 need re-checking rather than reusing.

SOURCES · GCC Customs Union Authority, first edition of the GCC Integrated Customs Tariff, implemented 1 January 2025; ZATCA, Integrated Tariffs; U.S. International Trade Administration.

What the code decides — which is not only the duty

• The customs duty rate.
• Whether the goods are restricted or prohibited, and which authority has to approve them.
• Whether a SASO technical regulation applies, and therefore whether a SABER product certificate is needed.
• Whether SFDA, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Ministry of Commerce or another regulator is referred the declaration inside Fasah.
• Whether excise tax applies.
• Whether a preferential rate under a trade agreement is available.

SOURCES · SASO (SABER tariff code alignment, effective 1 January 2026); ZATCA.

Rates

Saudi Arabia applies the GCC common external tariff: at least five percent on most goods imported from outside the GCC, charged ad valorem. Specified categories attract higher rates, and the tariff was revised alongside the move to twelve digits, so a rate remembered from an earlier shipment is not evidence.

Food and agriculture is the clearest example of policy inside a tariff. Most food products carry a five percent duty; selected processed foods are assessed higher depending on the Kingdom’s self-sufficiency in the product, with a maximum of forty percent ad valorem applied where local production of a food or agricultural product exceeds a self-sufficiency level. Rice, bulk animal feed, livestock, fresh red meat, coffee and tea enter duty-free. Saudi Arabia operates no tariff rate quotas.

This desk does not print a rate table by commodity, on purpose. Rates and codes move, and a wrong rate published here would be worse than none. The binding answer is the rate shown against your twelve-digit code in ZATCA’s Integrated Tariff on the day you file.

SOURCES · U.S. International Trade Administration, Saudi Arabia Country Commercial Guide — Import Tariffs, last published 11 May 2026; ZATCA, Integrated Tariffs.

Customs value

Duty is calculated on the CIF value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods, plus the freight and insurance to the Saudi port of entry. Saudi Arabia applies the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, which sets the hierarchy of methods for arriving at that figure when the transaction value cannot be used.

Two consequences follow, and both are routinely missed. An FOB invoice is not the customs value — freight and insurance are added. And import VAT is charged on the value including the duty, so a classification error compounds: the wrong duty rate produces the wrong VAT as well.

SOURCES · ZATCA; WTO Customs Valuation Agreement (GATT Article VII); ZATCA Fee Rules on Customs Services, effective 6 October 2024.

Origin and preference

Origin decides whether a preferential rate is available, and it is a legal test rather than a shipping route. Goods originating in another GCC state and meeting the rules of origin move within the customs union without the common external tariff. Saudi Arabia is also party to trade agreements that provide for exemption from customs duties for the member countries concerned.

Claiming preference requires the origin to be documented and defensible — a certificate of origin certified in the exporting country, consistent with the invoice, and consistent with where the goods were actually produced rather than where they were shipped from.

SOURCES · ZATCA; U.S. International Trade Administration, Saudi Arabia Country Commercial Guide — Import Tariffs.

Getting the answer in advance

ZATCA operates an advance customs ruling service. A ruling obtained before shipping converts a classification argument at the border into a settled position — which for a repeat product line is the difference between a predictable landed cost and a recurring dispute.

Use it where the classification is genuinely contestable: multi-function goods, kits and sets, goods whose function differs from their construction, and anything where the difference between two plausible codes is a technical regulation rather than a percentage point.

SOURCES · ZATCA (advance customs ruling service).

Official sources

ZATCA — Integrated Tariffs ↗

The tariff itself, including the twelve-digit GCC Integrated Customs Tariff in force since 1 January 2025.

ZATCA — customs e-services ↗

Advance customs rulings, tariff enquiries and the restriction and prohibition services.

RiyadhCargo.com is an independent news monitoring service. It is not a customs broker, freight forwarder, carrier or law firm, and nothing on this page is customs, tax or legal advice for a particular shipment. Procedures and rates change; the authorities named on this page are the only binding source. Check the current position with ZATCA or a licensed Saudi customs broker before you ship.

Frequently asked questions

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