The Sierra Leone Customs and Excise Tariff is based on the Common External Tariff of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which uses the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) to classify goods. It is a five-band regional tariff categorized as follows:

• 0 percent for essential social goods
• 5 percent for basic goods, raw goods, and capital goods
• 10 percent for inputs and semi-finished goods
• 20 percent for finished goods
• 35 percent for specific goods for economic development

For most imports, taxes are assessed based on the Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF) value, while a few others are specific, primarily based on the weight, volume, and quantity. Excise duty is also levied on imports depending on the nature of the goods. Excises are either ad valorem or specific and are levied on juice, energy drinks, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, luxury cars, and petroleum products, among others.

To look up duties and tariffs use, use the Customs Info Database tariff look-up tool, available on trade.gov (free; registration required), to estimate duties and taxes.