A common external tariff (CET) must be introduced when a group of countries forms a customs union.
In addition to having the same customs duties, the countries may have other common trade policies, such as having the same quotas, preferences or other non-tariff trade regulations apply to all goods entering the area, regardless of which country, within the area, they are entering.
The main goal of the Custom Unions is to limit external influence, liberalize intra-regional trade, promote economic development and diversification in industrialization in the Community.
The structure of the CET is related to the internalization of terms-of-trade effects in the Common External Tariff which has the following Structure as adopted by the ECOWAS Council of Ministers at its 70th ordinary session in June 2013 is as follows [1] The goods declared to Customs in the Community, must generally be classified according to the CET.
This determines which rate of customs duty applies and how the goods are treated for statistical purposes.