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Last updated 7 November 2026 · every figure recomputed from the sources listed at the foot of this page

Wine Duty Is Cents per Litre: 11 Rates and the 200% Line Above Them

Ask what the US charges on imported wine and the honest answer is a number of cents per litre, not a percentage. Chapter 22 prices wine by volume: 18 rated lines carry 11 distinct rates, from 3.5 to 22.4 cents per litre. This page prints every line, turns the rates into percentages at four invoice values, and prints the Chapter 99 line that sits above the whole schedule when a quota is exceeded.

Why the schedule prices wine by volume

An ad valorem duty is a fraction of what you paid. A specific duty is a fixed amount per unit. For a commodity that arrives in a narrow range of container sizes and a very wide range of qualities, the specific form is the one that charges the same per bottle whether the bottle holds a $4 wine or a $40 wine.

That is a policy choice, and its arithmetic consequence is that the effective rate is not a property of the tariff at all — it is a property of the price. The same 22.4 cents per litre is a rounding error on a $40-per-litre wine and a substantial charge on a $4-per-litre one. Any statement of “the wine tariff” as a percentage is therefore incomplete unless it names the price it was computed at.

Every rated line in the export

The table prints the 18 lines under headings 2204 and 2205 that carry a rate: 13 under 2204 (wine of fresh grapes) and 5 under 2205 (vermouth and other flavoured wine).

This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.

Source: USITC · checked 7 November 2026, 00:34 UTC.

Three things in that table are easy to miss. The sparkling wine lines carry the same rate as the effervescent line under 2204.21 — the schedule does not charge more for bubbles per se. The two lowest rates sit on lines whose description begins “if entitled under regulations”, which is a conditional scope rather than a product category. And one line is compound rather than simple: 2204.30.00.00 prints 4.4 + 31.4 cents, where the second component is per proof litre — a different unit from the first, which is why the two cannot simply be added.

From cents to percent: the arithmetic

The conversion is one division. Take the duty per litre in dollars, divide by the invoice value per litre, multiply by 100. The table below does it for the lowest and highest simple rates at four invoice values, and also shows what the same rate amounts to on a standard nine-litre case (twelve 750 ml bottles).

This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.

Source: USITC · checked 7 November 2026, 00:34 UTC.

Read the first two rows together. At $4 per litre the highest rate is 6.40 times the lowest, and the two rates span the entire range of the schedule. At $40 per litre the same two rates are both under one percent. The duty per case, meanwhile, does not move at all: it is fixed by volume, which is the whole point of a specific duty.

This is also why a per-case figure is more useful to an importer than a percentage. A container of wine has a known volume and an unknown value until the invoice exists; the duty is computable from the volume alone, and the percentage follows from the value rather than the other way round.

The line above the schedule

Chapter 99 contains a heading that overrides the per-litre schedule entirely, and its rate is not in cents:

This table is wider than the screen: scroll it sideways to reach every column.

Source: USITC (United States International Trade Commission) · checked 7 November 2026, 00:34 UTC.

The scope is narrow and printed in the heading itself: still white wines, not over 14 percent alcohol, in containers of 3.8 litres or less, valued over $1.05 per litre. When that scope is met and the quota condition in the note is triggered, the duty is 200% instead of the per-litre rate — a different order of magnitude, and the reason the per-litre schedule alone is an incomplete picture for a white wine importer.

Note what the heading does not say. It does not apply to red wine, to wine over 14 percent alcohol, to larger containers, or to wine below the value floor. A shipper who reads only the word “wine” in the heading will conclude the 200 percent applies to their shipment when the scope excludes it.

Reading the schedule for a real shipment

One: identify the line. The splits that matter are still versus sparkling, container size, alcohol strength, and whether the line is conditional. Getting the container-size break wrong moves the rate by several cents.

Two: confirm the rate is specific. Most of these lines are; one is compound, and the compound component uses proof litres, so the volume measurement has to be taken twice with different units.

Three: compute the duty from volume. Litres times cents per litre, divided by 100. That number does not depend on the invoice.

Four: check Chapter 99. If the goods are white wine inside the heading's scope and the quota condition is met, the per-litre arithmetic is irrelevant.

Why the query space around wine is so confused

The autocomplete variants for wine tariffs split into two groups that look alike and are not. One group asks about the US rate on wine coming in: what the duty is on a bottle, how much it costs to import wine. The other group asks about duty on wine going somewhere else — into Canada, into the UK — or about tax inside a US state. Those are three different instruments: a customs duty, a foreign country's import charge, and a domestic excise or sales tax.

This page answers the first question only, and it answers it in the form the schedule uses: cents per litre by line. A reader who wants the second or third will not find it here, and a reader who applies a cents-per-litre figure to a state tax question will get a number that means nothing. Naming the boundary is part of the answer, because the most common error in this topic is applying the right rate to the wrong charge.

The conditional lines, and what “if entitled” means

Two of the rated lines in the export carry a description that begins “if entitled under regulations of the United States Internal Revenue”. That is not a product description; it is a condition. The line exists for wine that qualifies under a specific regulatory route, and a shipment that does not qualify is classified elsewhere in the heading and pays the rate of that other line instead.

The practical effect is that two shipments of identical wine in identical bottles can carry different rates depending on paperwork rather than on the goods. That is unusual enough in the tariff schedule to be worth flagging: the schedule normally keys on what the article is, and here it keys on which regulatory basis the entry is made under. Reading only the product description will put a shipment on the wrong line.

What this page does not cover

Federal excise tax on alcohol is a separate charge from the customs duty and is not part of this schedule; neither are state-level charges. The special column carries preferential rates under trade agreements, which this page does not print. And the quota mechanics behind the Chapter 99 heading live in a note that sets the triggering quantity — this page prints the heading's own scope and rate, not the quota volume.

What it does establish is that wine duty is a fixed charge per litre with a computable percentage attached, and that the percentage moves by a factor of 6.40 across the schedule at a low invoice value while barely moving at a high one. That single fact explains most of the confusion in the query space around wine tariffs.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the US tariff on wine?

Chapter 22 charges wine by volume, not by value. The 18 rated lines under headings 2204 and 2205 carry 11 distinct rates from 3.5 to 22.4 cents per litre. The percentage that implies depends on the invoice value, so there is no single percentage answer.

What percentage is the wine tariff?

It depends on the price. At $4 per litre the 22.4 cent rate is 6.40 times the 3.5 cent rate; at $40 per litre both are under one percent. The conversion is duty per litre divided by value per litre.

Is there a 200% tariff on wine?

Yes, but only inside a narrow scope: heading 9903.04.45 applies 200% to white still wines not over 14 percent alcohol, in containers of 3.8 litres or less, valued over $1.05 per litre, when the quota condition in the note is met. Red wine, stronger wine and larger containers are outside it.

Why is one wine line compound?

2204.30.00.00 prints 4.4 + 31.4 cents, where the second component is per proof litre rather than per litre. The two components cannot simply be added because they are measured in different units.

Does the duty change with the price of the wine?

Not in dollars, but yes in percentage. The duty is fixed per litre, so a cheaper wine carries a higher effective rate and an expensive one carries a lower rate. That is the defining property of a specific duty.

Is customs duty the only charge on imported wine?

No. Federal excise tax on alcohol and state-level charges are separate from the customs duty and are not part of this schedule. Preferential rates under trade agreements sit in the special column, which this page does not print.

Sources

• USITC — Chapter 22 REST export (headings 2204 wine and 2205 vermouth) (read 2026-11-07T00:34:49Z, sha256 ebfb659814e2cd1a…)
• USITC (United States International Trade Commission) — Chapter 99 REST export re-read by this task; 3,350 rows. Byte-identical to the copy batch 1 read on 2026-11-06 (read 2026-11-07T00:34:48Z, sha256 e55de042e0cb6b67…)

Every figure above is recomputed from the datasets listed here at render time; the dataset vintage and each source's check timestamp are printed with it. This page extends the prototype that already earns search traffic on the same mechanism. Rates are informational, not a binding customs determination: confirm the classification and the entry with CBP before shipping.