Cocoa tariffs and supply-chain law
Cocoa beans enter the main buying markets free of duty. Cocoa that has been processed often does not, and chocolate pays most. Alongside the tariffs, a set of new European laws asks sellers what they can show about how cocoa was produced.
Read this first
- The duties shown are the published general rates. Most producing countries export under preferences or trade agreements that lower them, often to nothing, and those were not read. The table shows the shape of each schedule, not what any exporter pays.
- Neither of the two laws described names cocoa. They apply to products and companies in general.
- Dates and thresholds have already changed once. Check the texts.
General import duty, by stage of processing
| Product | European Union | United Kingdom | United States | Japan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocoa beans | Free | 0% | Free | Free |
| Cocoa paste (liquor), not defatted | 9.6% | 8% | Free | 10% |
| Cocoa butter | 7.7% | 6% | Free | Free |
| Cocoa powder, unsweetened | 8% | 0% | 0.52 cents per kg | 21.5% |
| Chocolate bars, filled | 8.3% plus an agricultural component, capped at 18.7% plus a sugar duty | 8% | 5.6% | Not read |
European Union: the Combined Nomenclature for 2026. United Kingdom and United States: the governments’ online tariff services on 9 October 2026. Japan: the schedule of 1 January 2026. Rates are for the tariff lines named in the sections below; each heading has many more lines.
The United States figure for filled bars is the general rate on tariff line 1806.31.00 as returned by the service. “Not read” means the line was not extracted, not that it is free.
Tariffs: free for beans, charged for products
A tariff that is higher on a processed good than on its raw material is called tariff escalation. It makes it cheaper to import the raw material and process it at home. The schedules of the main buying countries can be read for it directly.
- The European Union admits cocoa beans free and charges 9.6% on cocoa paste, 7.7% on cocoa butter and 8% on cocoa powder, before any preference. (source 1)
- Chocolate is charged more again, and by a compound formula: for filled bars, 8.3% plus a component for the agricultural ingredients, up to a ceiling of 18.7% plus an additional duty on sugar. (source 1)
- The United Kingdom's schedule has the same shape with simpler numbers: 0% on beans, 8% on paste, 6% on butter, 8% on filled chocolate, and 0% on unsweetened powder. (source 2)
- The United States is different. Beans, paste and butter all enter free, and unsweetened powder at about half a cent a kilogram. Its duties fall on chocolate and sweetened preparations. (source 3)
- Japan admits beans free and sets a general rate of 10% on cocoa paste, with a long list of lower rates for partners in more than twenty agreements. (source 4)
Not shown: What exporters in producing countries actually pay. Preferences and trade agreements, under which much West African and Latin American cocoa enters, were not read, and they may reduce these rates to zero.
Not shown: That tariffs are why cocoa is processed where it is. One published study argues that, once preferences are counted, the European Union and United States do not in effect protect their processors against Ghana; it was found in a search and not read, and is mentioned only to mark the question as open.
Not shown: Export taxes charged by producing countries, which push the other way.
The European ban on goods made with forced labour
- From 14 December 2027 no product made with forced labour may be placed or made available on the European Union's market, or exported from it. (source 5)
- Forced labour has its meaning from the International Labour Organization's convention, and expressly includes forced child labour. That is narrower than child labour: most children working on family cocoa farms are not in forced labour. (source 5)
- The regulation covers every product and names no sector. The Commission is to build a database of risks by geographic area and by product or product group, which is where cocoa may or may not come to be listed. (source 5)
Not shown: Whether cocoa will be in the risk database. It had not been published in anything read.
Not shown: How the ban will be enforced, or what evidence will satisfy an authority.
Not shown: The equivalent United States law, which was not read.
The European due diligence directive
- The directive obliges large companies to identify and address adverse impacts on human rights and the environment in their own operations, their subsidiaries and their business partners' chains of activities, and makes them liable for failing to. (source 6)
- It was narrowed before it applied. As adopted in 2024 it covered companies established in the Union with more than 1,000 employees and a worldwide turnover above 450 million euros. A 2026 amendment raised that to more than 5,000 employees and 1.5 billion euros. That reaches only the very largest manufacturers and traders directly, and everyone else only through what those companies then ask of their suppliers. (source 7)
- Its timetable has slipped twice. A 2025 amendment set 26 July 2027 as the date by which member states must write it into national law. The 2026 amendment moved that to 26 July 2028 and replaced the staged start with one date: the national measures apply from 26 July 2029 for every company in scope. (source 7)
Not shown: The directive as it now stands. Further amendments were proposed in 2025; only the 2024 text and the 2025 change of dates were read.
Not shown: How any member state has implemented it.
Not shown: The sustainability reporting directive, which was downloaded and not analysed.
How these sit beside the deforestation regulation
- Three European instruments now bear on cocoa, and they ask different things. The deforestation regulation, which names cocoa, asks where it was grown. The forced labour regulation asks how any product was made. The due diligence directive asks what a large company has done about harm anywhere in its chain. (source 5; source 6)
- Their start dates differ and have each moved: 30 December 2026 for deforestation at the last reading, 14 December 2027 for forced labour, and 26 July 2029 for companies under the directive. (source 5; source 7)
Not shown: What compliance costs a farmer, a co-operative or a trader. No measurement was found.
Not shown: Whether any of these has changed anything on a farm. None had applied when this was written.
Sources
Studies are cited by author and year and summarised, with their limits, on the research pages. The official documents are listed here. Each was downloaded and read, and the passage relied on was checked to be in it.
- European Commission. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1926 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (the Combined Nomenclature for 2026) (2025-09-22). eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/1926/oj
Law · EU - HM Revenue and Customs. UK Integrated Online Tariff, chapter 18 (extract from the Trade Tariff API) (2026-10-09). www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/chapters/18
Law · United Kingdom - United States International Trade Commission. Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, chapter 18 (extract from the HTS search service) (2026-10-09). hts.usitc.gov/
Law · United States - Japan Customs. Japan's Tariff Schedule as of 1 January 2026, chapter 18 (2026-01-01). www.customs.go.jp/english/tariff/2026_01_01/data/e_18.htm
Law · Japan - European Parliament and Council. Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market (2024-11-27). eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/3015/oj
Law · EU - European Parliament and Council. Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on corporate sustainability due diligence (2024-06-13). eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1760/oj
Law · EU - European Parliament and Council. Directive (EU) 2026/470 amending Directives 2006/43/EC, 2013/34/EU, (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements (2026-02-24). eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2026/470/oj
Law · EU
Reviewed 9 October 2026.
Related: the EU deforestation rules, sustainability: promise and outcome, cocoa trade, cocoa futures, manufacturing at origin, forced labour in cocoa and what legally counts as chocolate. All data.