Definition
A tariff is a duty, tax, or schedule of rates imposed by governmental authority on goods imported into or exported from a country. The term carries three distinct but related meanings in legal and regulatory contexts:
1. A schedule of duties. The list or catalogue of merchandise subject to customs duties, specifying the rate applicable to each article. This is the original and most historically rooted meaning — a tariff as a document, drawn typically in alphabetical order, naming goods and the applicable rate of duty.
2. A rate or duty itself. The specific charge levied on a particular class of goods. When a statute or trade agreement imposes a ten percent duty on imported steel, that ten percent is itself "the tariff."
3. A schedule of rates in regulated industries. By extension, the published schedule of rates, charges, and terms filed by common carriers (railroads, utilities, telecommunications providers) with regulatory bodies. Under this usage, a carrier's tariff is a legally binding rate schedule, not a customs document.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods; a list of such duties, or the duties themselves. Also, a schedule of rates, fees, or prices. In British English, occasionally a scale of standard penalties for certain crime categories.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A schedule or scheme of duties imposed by government upon goods imported or exported. Also any schedule of rates or charges, as in railroad fares or fees.
The common meaning tracks the legal meaning closely in its customs sense, which can cause researchers to underestimate the term's regulatory reach. The common speaker does not typically recognize that "tariff" in domestic regulatory law refers to a carrier's filed rate schedule — a document with distinct legal consequences under filed-rate doctrine, entirely separate from international trade law.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Revenue tariff: A tariff imposed primarily to generate government income rather than protect domestic industry.
Protective tariff: A tariff designed to shield domestic producers from foreign competition by raising the cost of competing imports.
Ad valorem tariff: A duty calculated as a percentage of the goods' assessed value.
Specific tariff: A duty imposed as a fixed amount per unit (per pound, per item) regardless of value.
Carrier tariff: A published schedule of rates and conditions filed by a common carrier with a regulatory authority; legally binding on both carrier and shipper under filed-rate doctrine.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers face two distinct bodies of law under a single term, and conflating them produces serious analytical errors.
The international trade meaning governs import and export duties, trade agreements (GATT, WTO schedules), and congressional commerce power. Research in this area connects to treaty law, executive trade authority, and Section 201/301 actions. Historical sources in the corpus treat this as the primary — sometimes the only — meaning of tariff.
The carrier tariff meaning governs regulated industries domestically. Under the filed-rate doctrine (a common law and regulatory principle), a carrier's filed tariff is the legally operative rate regardless of any private agreement to the contrary. Courts have held that neither party can deviate from the filed tariff even if both agreed to a different rate. Researchers approaching railroad law, telecommunications regulation, or utility rate cases must recognize that "tariff" in those contexts is a specific regulatory instrument with procedural requirements for filing, notice, and amendment.
Timing matters significantly. The carrier tariff meaning expanded dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries alongside federal railroad regulation. Historical legal dictionaries from the mid-nineteenth century give little or no attention to this usage. Researchers using older corpus sources for carrier tariff questions will find the primary meaning — customs schedules — but not the full regulatory doctrine.
Jurisdictional variation also affects the carrier tariff context. Federal tariff filings before agencies like the FCC or FERC operate under federal regulatory frameworks. State public utility commissions maintain parallel tariff filing requirements for intrastate services, and the interplay between state and federal filed tariffs is a recurring preemption issue.
For trade law researchers, the corpus will reflect sharp shifts in tariff policy across distinct eras: the high-tariff period of the late nineteenth century, the reciprocal trade agreements era beginning in the 1930s, post-WWII GATT rounds, and the WTO framework from 1995 forward. The vocabulary in sources shifts accordingly — "schedules of concessions," "bound tariffs," "most-favored-nation rates" — and researchers should map their sources to the applicable trade regime.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on the customs-schedule meaning as foundational. Black's 2nd Edition quotes the term's mercantile origin directly — "a cartel of commerce, a book of rates, a table or catalogue, drawn usually in alphabetical order" — and pairs it with a Texas railroad case (Railway Co. v. Cushman), signaling that the carrier-rate meaning was recognized by the early twentieth century even if not fully theorized.
Anderson's gives the most complete treatment among the historical sources, noting the evolution from a simple price list to a statutory or conventional instrument governing import and export duties, and cross-referencing customs and duty entries. Bouvier's is briefer and focuses on the public revenue dimension — duties and tribute payable to the general government — without addressing the carrier usage at all.
None of the historical dictionaries adequately captures the procedural and legal-consequence dimensions of the carrier tariff as developed under federal regulatory law. Researchers relying solely on these sources for carrier-tariff doctrine will find the term defined but not the doctrine explained.
Jurisdictional Note
In international trade, tariff schedules are a matter of federal law and treaty obligation; states have no authority to impose duties on imports. In domestic regulatory law, both federal and state agencies maintain tariff filing regimes, and the boundary between them — particularly after telecommunications deregulation — has generated substantial litigation over which authority's tariff controls.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
International Trade Law (WTO, Tariffs, and Trade Agreements) — Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia