Import Duty Calculator for Amazon FBA

Import duty is one of the most underestimated costs in an Amazon FBA business. Sellers obsess over Amazon's referral and FBA fees but treat customs duty as a rounding error — then a Section 301 tariff quietly turns a winning product into a break-even one. Here is exactly how US import duty works, and how to fold it into your numbers before you wire a supplier deposit.

Duty is charged on your goods value, not your freight

US Customs assesses import duty on the customs value of your shipment — the transaction value of the goods themselves, which is normally the FOB (free on board) price on your commercial invoice. Unlike the EU and UK, which duty the CIF value (cost + insurance + freight), the US does not add international ocean or air freight to the dutiable amount. That is genuinely good news: a $10,000 order is dutied on $10,000 in the US, not on $11,500. In the calculator above, enter your supplier's per-unit price as the unit cost and keep freight in its own field — freight still counts toward your landed cost, just not toward duty.

The layers of a current import duty bill

Your effective duty rate is the sum of several layers, and it helps to see them separately:

• Standard (MFN) duty. Every product has a baseline rate in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), set by its 10-digit HTS code. These “Most Favored Nation” rates are stable and have changed little in decades. Most everyday consumer goods sit between 0% and 6.5%; apparel and footwear are the painful exceptions, running from 8% to over 30%.
• Section 301 China tariffs. If your goods are made in China, an additional Section 301 tariff applies on top of the MFN rate — 7.5% for most consumer goods (List 4A) and 25% for furniture, auto parts and many household items (List 3). Goods from Vietnam, India, Mexico and elsewhere are not subject to Section 301.
• IEEPA and other policy tariff layers. These are policy-driven tariffs, not permanent HTSUS rates, and US trade policy has been unusually turbulent through 2025 and 2026. As of the May 2026 data review, this calculator sets the IEEPA policy-tariff layer to 0% because USITC notes that collection of certain IEEPA tariff actions ended in February 2026, even though related HTS lines may remain listed until further direction. Always confirm the current figure with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before you commit to a large order.

Add them up and a typical consumer product from China can still land in the high single digits to 30%+ all-in depending on the category and Section 301 list — a number most first-time sellers never budgeted for.

Why country of origin matters as much as category

Country of origin decides two things: whether Section 301 tariffs apply, and whether a free-trade agreement can wipe out the MFN duty entirely. Goods that qualify under USMCA (Mexico and Canada) or KORUS (South Korea) can enter duty-free — but only if they genuinely meet the agreement's rules of origin, not simply because they ship from that country. Moving sourcing out of China to Vietnam or India removes the Section 301 layer completely; the comparison strip in the calculator shows that gap side by side. Just weigh the duty savings against unit cost, minimum order quantities, lead time and quality — the lowest duty rate is not always the lowest landed cost.

The costs beyond duty: MPF, HMF, bonds and brokers

Duty is not the only line CBP and your freight partners will charge. The Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) is 0.3464% of customs value on formal entries, with a floor near $33.58 and a ceiling near $651.50 per entry. Ocean shipments also pay a Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) of 0.125% of cargo value. Beyond that you will need a customs bond — a continuous bond runs roughly $50–$100 per month through most brokers — and usually a customs broker to file your entry, often $100–$200 per shipment. The calculator folds MPF and HMF into your landed-cost total; budget the bond and broker fees on top.

How import duty changes your FBA math

Here is the part that actually matters: import duty comes out of your margin before Amazon takes a cent. Say you source a kitchen product from China at $5 per unit. At an effective duty rate of around 23%, that is roughly $1.15 per unit in duty alone — money gone before referral fees, FBA fulfillment fees or PPC enter the picture. On a $24.99 listing that is real margin, and on thin-margin products it is the difference between a launch and a loss. Use the duty figure from this tool as your landed-cost input, then open our free Amazon FBA Calculator to model referral fees, FBA fulfillment, storage and your true net profit.

When to trust an estimate — and when to call a broker

This calculator gives you a fast, defensible estimate using representative duty rates by product category. That is exactly what you need to screen product ideas and compare suppliers. But the only authoritative duty figure comes from your product's precise 10-digit HTS code, confirmed by CBP or a licensed customs broker. Get a professional classification before you place a large purchase order, or whenever your product could fall into a high-duty or specially-tariffed category — textiles, footwear, steel or aluminum goods, and certain furniture all carry rates that a category-level estimate can only approximate.