US import duty by country of origin: a 2026 sourcing heat map

A US importer asks: "What's the duty rate on this product?" The honest answer is: "Tell me the country of origin first." In 2026, the same product can carry a 0% rate from one country and a 45% rate from another. Country of origin is now the primary input to landed cost — more impactful than the HTS classification itself for most consumer goods.

This post maps the duty differential by country of origin for US imports across the major sourcing destinations.

The four origin-dependent layers

MFN baseline — applies to all WTO members. Identical rate regardless of which WTO member origin.

FTA preference — 0% (or near-zero) for goods qualifying under USMCA, KORUS, US-Singapore, US-Australia, US-Israel, or other active FTAs.

Section 301 — applies only to China origin, on the listed HTS sub-headings.

IEEPA reciprocal — country-specific rate ranging from 0 (FTA partners and exempted countries) up to elevated rates for designated non-reciprocal partners.

Effective duty rate by country of origin (consumer goods basket)

Using a representative basket — apparel, footwear, electronics, homeware — here is the approximate effective duty rate by origin. Specific products vary widely; the pattern is what matters.

The FTA partner advantage

Goods qualifying under USMCA, KORUS, US-Singapore, US-Israel, or US-Australia FTAs enter at 0% MFN, 0% IEEPA reciprocal (for countries with FTA carve-outs), and 0% Section 301 (Section 301 is China-only).

The catch is qualifying — meeting the rules of origin (RoO) for the relevant agreement. RoO are product-specific. The most consequential are USMCA's: yarn-forward for apparel, regional value content of 75% for autos plus labour-content provisions, and tariff-shift rules for electronics.

For products that can meet RoO, USMCA Mexico is structurally the lowest landed-cost destination. For products that cannot (most apparel actually fails the yarn-forward test in practice), USMCA preference is unavailable and Mexico-origin imports pay full MFN.

The Section 301 effect

For consumer goods, Section 301 is the primary differentiator between China and other Asian sourcing locations. The List 4A 7.5% rate applies to most apparel, footwear, sporting goods, and lower-tier consumer electronics. The List 3 25% rate covers furniture, household items, and many electronics.

Result: Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh — none subject to Section 301 — became preferred sourcing destinations after 2018. The "China + 1" strategy of major US importers became "non-China primary" for many consumer goods categories.

The IEEPA reciprocal layer in 2025 partially closed that gap. Vietnam still has lower total duty than China, but no longer a 25-point lower duty.

Country deep dives — Mexico

USMCA-qualifying goods enter at 0%. Non-qualifying goods enter at MFN + 0% IEEPA. The key question is RoO: can your product meet USMCA's substantial transformation requirements?

For autos and electronics, the answer is generally yes if final assembly occurs in Mexico with appropriate component sourcing. For apparel, the yarn-forward rule is restrictive — Mexican apparel has to use US, Canadian, or Mexican yarn and fabric. This excludes most Asian-fabric supply chains.

Mexico's tariff advantage is genuine but narrowest for apparel and broadest for autos, electronics, and machinery.

Country deep dives — Vietnam, India, Bangladesh

Vietnam has bilateral trade agreements but no FTA with the US. Imports pay full MFN plus IEEPA reciprocal (~10% as of April 2026). The advantage over China is solely the 7.5–25% Section 301 differential. For apparel and footwear in particular, Vietnam has built deep production capacity. Supply chain reliability is high.

India is structurally favoured for sectors with a domestic raw-material base (textiles starting from Indian cotton, pharmaceuticals using Indian APIs). The absence of Section 301 plus a moderate IEEPA reciprocal rate makes India one of the lower-cost origins for these baskets. For sectors dependent on imported inputs, India's structural advantage is smaller.

Bangladesh is a major US apparel supplier, particularly for woven garments. Duty-free access under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) was suspended in 2013 for non-trade reasons and has not been restored. Bangladesh competes on labour cost rather than tariff preference.

Country deep dives — EU, UK, Japan

EU and UK origin goods pay MFN + IEEPA reciprocal. There is no Section 301 layer. For premium brands and specific industrial inputs (German machinery, Italian apparel, French luxury goods), this is the cost picture importers absorb. For commodity goods, EU and UK origin is rarely competitive.

Japan has tariff-rate quota arrangements on Section 232 (steel/aluminium) and pays MFN + IEEPA. Japan's role is primarily in autos, machinery, and specific electronics where the brand and quality command price premium.

Practical sourcing decision framework

For any product you're sourcing, the decision now requires a layered cost comparison.

For each candidate origin, calculate total landed cost = FOB price + freight + insurance + (MFN × CIF value) + (Section 301 × CIF value, if China origin) + (Section 232 × CIF value, if applicable) + (IEEPA reciprocal × CIF value) + (AD/CVD × CIF value, if applicable) − (FTA preference × CIF value, if qualifying) + non-tariff costs.

The answer is product-specific and origin-specific. There is no universal "China is X% more expensive" rule because the stack depends on which HTS line the product falls into.

Implications for catalogue management

1. Tag every SKU with country of origin and HTS code at the product master level — this needs to flow through to commercial documents, customs forms, and landed cost calculations.

2. Maintain origin-specific pricing if your COGS varies by source. Many sellers price uniformly across origins, leaving margin variability unmanaged.

3. Review the origin mix annually. The 2024–2026 changes invalidated several prior sourcing decisions; future changes will continue to do so.

Tip: for products imported from multiple origins, customs requires that each shipment declare the actual origin of those specific units. Stating "China" on a shipment that is actually Vietnamese (or vice versa) is fraud.