Saudi customs tariffs above 5%: what changed and how to plan
The GCC tariff is 5%, but Saudi Arabia has raised duties on thousands of products since 2020 and keeps revising them. Here is how the Saudi tariff grew, what still enters at 5% or zero, and how to price for it.
A floor, not a ceiling
The GCC common external tariff is often described as a flat 5%, and for many goods entering the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain or Oman that description is close enough. Saudi Arabia is different. Like every member, it applies the common tariff, but it also uses the room that its commitments to the World Trade Organization leave it to set higher duties on products where it wants to protect or build domestic industry, and since 2020 it has used that room repeatedly. For a growing list of goods, the duty a Saudi importer actually pays is not 5% but 10%, 15%, 20% or, for a few products, 25%.
This matters well beyond Saudi importers. Because the customs union lets the destination collect the difference between its own rate and the 5% paid at first entry, a distributor that clears goods in Dubai or Bahrain and sells them on to Saudi customers will meet the Saudi rate at the causeway or the land border, regardless of where the goods first entered the Gulf. Anyone pricing goods for the Saudi market needs to know the Saudi rate for each product, not the common one.
How the Saudi tariff grew
The first and largest change came with Cabinet Decision No. 559 of 28 April 2020, which amended the tariff with effect from 10 June 2020 and raised duties on roughly three thousand items. The increases ranged from a little above 5% to 25% and covered textiles and clothing, leather and footwear, plastics and rubber products, building materials, many foodstuffs, chemicals, base metals and a wide range of manufactured goods. Textile fabrics and garments, for example, moved from 5% to between 10% and 15%; many plastics moved to between 6.5% and 15%. The change came in the same weeks as the government's decision to triple VAT from 5% to 15% from July 2020, and both were part of a fiscal response to the oil price collapse of that spring.
A second round followed in June 2022, when a ministerial decision raised duties on ninety-nine products, mainly foodstuffs, chemicals, electrical equipment and vehicle parts, to rates between 5.5% and 25% from 12 June 2022. Since then the approach has become more targeted. At the end of 2025 the Minister of Finance, as chairman of ZATCA, issued decisions revising descriptions and subheadings across the integrated tariff and amending duty rates for specific codes, with some items now at up to 20%, effective 27 November 2025. The same revision introduced a new code, 98.04, for goods moved between customs zones, including free zones, and new subheadings for sweetened drinks by sugar content to support the sugar-based excise that took effect on 1 January 2026. In June 2026 a further schedule revised the duty rates on fifty-one agricultural and food tariff lines, from live animals and dairy to seafood and processed foods.
Preferences that survive
The higher rates are most-favoured-nation rates, the duties that apply to goods from countries without a special arrangement. They do not affect goods that qualify for preferential treatment. Goods of GCC national origin, made in a member state and meeting the rules of origin, continue to enter Saudi Arabia free of duty, subject to the Kingdom's 2021 conditions on direct shipment, certificates, free zones and Israeli content. Goods originating in countries with which the GCC has a free trade agreement, including the members of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, can also benefit from preferential rates if the origin rules of the agreement are met.
For a foreign manufacturer, this creates a strategic choice that the tariff increases have sharpened. Selling finished goods into Saudi Arabia from outside the Gulf means paying the full Saudi rate. Producing in the Gulf, in Saudi Arabia itself or on the mainland of another member state, can bring the duty to zero, at the cost of meeting origin rules and, outside Saudi Arabia, of staying out of free zones. Many of the industrial investments announced in the Kingdom in recent years make more sense once the tariff on the imported alternative is taken into account.
Codes, rulings and documents
Because Saudi rates now vary widely between neighbouring tariff lines, the classification of a product is often worth more than any other decision in an import. Two codes that differ by a few digits can carry 5% and 15%, and the end-2025 revision changed both codes and descriptions, so a classification that was correct in 2024 may not be correct now. Importers should check their codes against the current integrated tariff, which ZATCA publishes with an inquiry service, and for significant flows should consider an advance ruling, which gives certainty before the goods arrive.
Documents matter as much as codes. Saudi customs relies on the commercial invoice, the certificate of origin where a preference is claimed, the conformity certificates required for regulated products and, for goods moving from another GCC state, proof of duty paid at first entry. Missing or inconsistent documents lead to goods held at the border, to the full rate being applied when a preference was available, or to penalties for incorrect declarations. Product conformity is a separate gate: regulated consumer products need SABER certificates under the Saudi standards authority's rules, and the authority itself updated its codes in step with the tariff, from January 2026.
Saudi tariff changes are made by ministerial and Cabinet decisions published in the Official Gazette, sometimes with short notice. Anyone with regular Saudi flows should have a broker or adviser monitor the gazette and confirm the rate at the time of each significant shipment.
Garments through Bahrain
A European clothing brand stocks its Gulf inventory in a Bahraini warehouse and sells to retailers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Its garments enter Bahrain at the common 5%. Bahraini and Kuwaiti customers receive goods on which the duty has been paid, and the brand's Bahraini sales and exports carry the documents to prove it. Saudi customers, however, face the Saudi rate for garments, which since 2020 sits well above 5%, so Saudi customs collects the difference at the causeway, and 15% import VAT on the customs value including duty.
The brand's Saudi retailers had priced on the assumption that duty was settled in Bahrain, and complained when the first invoices from their brokers arrived. The solution was commercial rather than legal: the brand started quoting Saudi customers on a landed, duty-paid basis, so that the higher Saudi duty was visible from the start, and it reviewed whether some product lines could be sourced from a GCC-origin producer to remove the duty altogether. Neither step required a change in the law. Both required knowing the Saudi rate before the goods moved.
What importers should take from all this
The trend in Saudi tariffs is not toward a single higher rate but toward targeted protection, line by line, in sectors where the Kingdom wants local production: food and agriculture, building materials, metals, plastics, textiles and, increasingly, assembled consumer goods. Each revision is aligned with the Kingdom's international commitments and coordinated with GCC partners where the common tariff is concerned, but the effect at the border is that Saudi Arabia is no longer a 5% market for many goods.
For a business entering Saudi Arabia, three habits follow. Price on a landed basis using the current Saudi rate, not the common tariff. Keep classification under review, particularly after each published revision. And consider where producing inside the Gulf, or inside the Kingdom, would change the arithmetic, because for an increasing number of products it does.
Moving goods between customs zones
One small change in the November 2025 revision deserves attention from anyone using Saudi Arabia's own special zones. The tariff now contains a dedicated code, 98.04, for goods transferred between customs zones, including free zones and the Kingdom's special economic zones. It is part of a wider effort to track goods moving between zones with different duty and tax treatment, and it means that a transfer from a zone into the local market, or between zones, is declared and visible in its own right rather than folded into an ordinary import. Businesses planning to use the special economic zones for manufacturing or logistics should build that declaration into their processes from the start, because it is where the zone's duty benefits are reconciled with goods that eventually reach Saudi customers.
Questions we get asked first
What customs duty does Saudi Arabia charge?
The GCC common external tariff of 5% applies to many goods, but Saudi Arabia applies higher national rates, from 5.5% up to 25%, to a large number of products under decisions taken since 2020.
What changed in the Saudi customs tariff in 2020?
Cabinet Decision No. 559 of 28 April 2020 raised duties on around three thousand items from 10 June 2020, with increases up to 25% on textiles, plastics, building materials, foodstuffs, metals and other goods.
What changed at the end of 2025 and in 2026?
Decisions effective 27 November 2025 revised codes and rates, with some items at up to 20%, added code 98.04 for movements between customs zones, and created sugar-content subheadings for sweetened drinks. A June 2026 schedule revised rates on 51 agricultural and food lines.
Do goods cleared in Dubai or Bahrain pay Saudi duty again?
Not the 5% paid at first entry, if proven, but Saudi customs collects the difference where its national rate for the product is higher.
Do GCC-made goods pay Saudi duty?
No, if they meet the rules of origin, travel with a certificate, are shipped directly and are not made in or routed through a free zone or with Israeli components.
How can I confirm the Saudi rate for my product?
Check the current integrated tariff through ZATCA's inquiry service, confirm classification with a licensed broker and consider an advance ruling for significant flows.
For many goods, Saudi Arabia is not a 5% market
Since 2020 Saudi Arabia has raised duties on thousands of products and keeps revising them line by line. Whatever route goods take into the Gulf, the Saudi rate applies at the Saudi border. Price on a landed basis, keep classification current, and consider whether GCC-origin production would remove the duty altogether.
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This article is general information, current as of 2026, and is not advice for any specific situation. Confirm current rules with the MOIC, the NBR or the relevant authority before acting.