HS Code Detail
490199 Chapter 49 · Books & Print Printed books, other
Six-digit subheading in Books & Print, chapter 49 of the Harmonized System, priced here for 6 destination markets.
Anatomy of 490199
You will declare against a longer local code that begins 490199: ten digits in the United States and the United Kingdom, eight in the European Union, and the first six the same everywhere. Which trailing digits apply is what a rate can differ on, though on this subheading all 6 destinations below charge the same, 0%.
What this code covers
Import duty by country
MFN duty rate · 6 countries| Country | Duty | VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺Australia | 0% | 10% |
| 🇨🇦Canada | 0% | 5% |
| 🇩🇪Germany | 0% | 7% |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | 0% | 6% |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | 0% | 0% |
| 🇺🇸United States | 0% | 0% |
Rates shown are MFN (Most Favoured Nation), the default for WTO members. Preferential FTA rates may be lower with valid proof of origin. Section 301 / anti-dumping surcharges on Chinese-origin goods are not included.
What that costs: 490199 into Portugal
An illustrative consignment of 490199 invoiced at EUR 2,000.00, priced in EUR because a threshold is set in the destination's currency and nothing here is converted.
| Goods value on the invoice | EUR 2,000.00 |
| International freight | EUR 120.00 |
| Cargo insurance | EUR 30.00 |
| Value the duty is charged on, CIF basis | EUR 2,150.00 |
| Duty at 0% | EUR 0.00 |
| Portugal tax at 6%, charged on the value plus the duty | EUR 129.00 |
| Total, before commercial charges | EUR 2,279.00 |
And if the consignment were small
Portugal relieves nothing: the relief was abolished, so the duty above is charged whatever the consignment is worth. A smaller shipment pays less because the value is lower, not because a threshold spared it.
Selling rather than buying? EUR 2,279.00 is what your buyer in Portugal pays to take delivery of this consignment, yours to pay if you quote DDP and theirs if you quote DAP: Exporting to Portugal sets out who collects it and what your invoice has to say.
An illustration, not a quotation: broker fees, handling and any trade remedy on the origin sit outside it. Price 490199 on your own numbers in the duty calculator.
How these rates were verified
Rates last verified 30 August 2026Every figure in the table above was read from the official tariff database of the market that charges it, on the date shown. Nothing here is copied from another aggregator.
- 🇦🇺AU
- Australian Border Force Schedule 3 working tariff, general rate for 4901.99.90, read from abf.gov.au.
- 🇨🇦CA
- CBSA Customs Tariff 2026, MFN rate for 4901.99.00, read from cbsa-asfc.gc.ca.
- 🇩🇪DE
- EU Access2Markets, third country duty for CN 4901990000 and the German reduced VAT rate on printed books, read from trade.ec.europa.eu.
- 🇬🇧GB
- UK Trade Tariff, third country duty and the zero rate of VAT for commodity 4901990000, read from trade-tariff.service.gov.uk.
- 🇵🇹PT
- EU Access2Markets, third country duty for CN 4901990000 and the Portuguese reduced IVA rate on printed books, read from trade.ec.europa.eu.
- 🇺🇸US
- USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule, general rate for HTS 4901.99.00, read from hts.usitc.gov.
Re-check first: Duty is free in all six markets, so the figure that moves the landed cost is the tax rate, and that is what to re-check. The UK zero rate, the German 7% and the Portuguese 6% are reduced rates specific to printed matter, not the standard rates.
What falls under 490199
- Printed books, brochures and similar printed matter, other than in single sheets
- Hardback and paperback titles, bound or in folded signatures, in any language
What's specifically excluded
These look similar but belong under a different code:
- 490110: Printed matter in single sheets, whether or not folded
- 490300: Children's picture, drawing or colouring books
- 491199: Commercial advertising matter and trade catalogues
Commonly confused with
852380: Audiobooks on recorded media
A book read aloud onto a disc is recorded media and follows its carrier. Heading 4901 is about the printed page, so literary content does not carry a product into it once the words have left paper.
482000: Diaries, journals and notebooks
A blank-page book is stationery of heading 4820 because it is sold to be written in rather than read. Importers move these into 4901 far too readily, and a bound diary with a printed calendar section is still stationery.
Classification & cost note
Printed books enter almost every major market free of duty, and they do so because of a specific instrument rather than general tariff generosity: the Florence Agreement on the importation of educational, scientific and cultural materials. That matters in practice because the relief attaches to the character of the goods and can be questioned when a consignment is substantially promotional. A catalogue whose purpose is to sell the products it pictures is advertising matter of heading 4911 however handsomely it is bound, and that reclassification is a routine finding at audit. The second point is that duty and tax answer separately here. Many countries charging no duty on books still apply a reduced or zero rate of value added tax to them under domestic rules that have nothing to do with the tariff, so a book shipment can be duty free and still carry a tax line.
Typical products: Trade paperback fiction in cartons · Academic hardbacks and monographs · Illustrated cookery and art titles · Bound exhibition catalogues
What the notes to section X say
Chapter 49 sits in section X, pulp of wood or of other fibrous cellulosic material; recovered (waste and scrap) paper or paperboard; paper and paperboard and articles thereof, and the nomenclature publishes no note to that section at all, so the note to chapter 49 is the highest rule over this code; that is the published position rather than a gap here, and the chapter 49 page says the same, read from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/sections/10 on 2026-09-08.
What the nomenclature says about heading 4901
490199 is a subheading of 4901, printed books, brochures, leaflets and similar printed matter, whether or not in single sheets , and it is the only code this site holds under that heading.
2 numbered notes to chapter 49 take heading 4901 as their own subject, and they are quoted below in full, as published.
Note 4 to chapter 49
Heading 4901 also covers:
a. a collection of printed reproductions of, for example, works of art or drawings, with a relative text, put up with numbered pages in a form suitable for binding into one or more volumes;
b. a pictorial supplement accompanying, and subsidiary to, a bound volume; and
c. printed parts of books or booklets, in the form of assembled or separate sheets or signatures, constituting the whole or a part of a complete work and designed for binding.
However, printed pictures or illustrations not bearing a text, whether in the form of signatures or separate sheets, fall in heading 4911.
Note 5 to chapter 49
Subject to Note 3 to this Chapter, heading 4901 does not cover publications which are essentially devoted to advertising (for example, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, trade catalogues, yearbooks published by trade associations, tourist propaganda). Such publications are to be classified in heading 4911.
One further note to chapter 49 names heading 4901 from elsewhere in its own text, usually to send goods into it or away from it, and the sentence that names it is quoted below.
Note 3 to chapter 49, which is about something else
Newspapers, journals and periodicals which are bound otherwise than in paper, and sets of newspapers, journals or periodicals comprising more than one number under a single cover are to be classified in heading 4901, whether or not containing advertising material.
Read from the notes to chapter 49 published in the UK Trade Tariff by HM Revenue and Customs, at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/chapters/49, with the heading title from https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/api/v2/headings/4901, on 2026-09-07, with the whole layer and the reason a heading note is a chapter note set out on the chapter 49 page. These notes are part of the international text of the Harmonized System, so the rule is the same whichever destination a shipment is going to, and it decides classification and never a rate.
Questions about 490199
Is there import duty on books?
Most major markets apply no MFN duty to printed books, reflecting the Florence Agreement on educational, scientific and cultural materials. Import VAT or GST is a separate question, often reduced rather than zero, so the two have to be checked independently.
Does a product catalogue count as a book?
No. Printed matter whose purpose is to advertise goods or services is commercial advertising material of heading 4911, even when it is perfect bound and runs to hundreds of pages.
Codes in nearby chapters
Chapter 49 holds 1 subheadings on this site, so these are the closest chapters by number rather than codes for similar goods.
Calculate duty for HS 490199
Pre-fills the calculator with this code. Add your destination and shipment value for an instant landed-cost estimate.
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