This article compares the statutory ad valorem tariff rates (official
rates) with the ratio of tariff revenues to import values (collected r
ates) for Jamaica, Kenya, and Pakistan. It identifies four general fea
tures of the tariff codes, considers whether these features apply to a
ll developing countries, and discusses four implications of these feat
ures for tariff reform. First, the collected rate for any given item i
n the tariff code is only weakly related to the official rate for that
item. Second, the variation of collected rates around the official ra
te increases with the level of the official rate. Third, the collected
rates, on average, increase much less than the official rates. Fourth
, the relation between official rates and collected rates is nonlinear
, because the slope is lower at higher levels of the official rate.