US Import Duties Explained: What UK and International eCommerce Sellers Need to Know in 2025 and 2026

TL;DR

US import duties changed more in 2025 than in the previous two decades combined. A 10% baseline tariff now applies to goods from most countries, China-origin products carry stacked charges, and the $800 de minimis threshold ended on 29 August 2025. Every UK seller shipping to American customers now pays duty on every parcel. This guide covers current rates, the landed cost maths, and the practical moves that protect your margin.

Key Takeaways

Before you dive into the detail below, here's the short version you can act on today.

• MFN rates apply by default, and the 10% reciprocal baseline stacks on top for most trading partners.
• Section 301 tariffs target Chinese goods, and combined rates on some products passed 100% at their spring 2025 peak.
• Section 232 covers steel and aluminium, now at 50% for most origins while the UK holds at 25%.
• Your HTS code sets your rate of duty, so a classification error flows straight through to your margin.
• The de minimis exemption no longer protects sub-$800 shipments, whatever the country of origin.

Keep these five points in mind as you read on, since the rest of this guide unpacks exactly how each one affects your bottom line.

What Are US Import Duties and Why Do They Matter Now

Tariffs sat in the background of eCommerce planning for most of the past decade. Rates stayed low, small parcels slipped through duty-free, and few sellers ever needed a customs broker. That changed fast in 2025. US import duties now shape pricing, fulfilment choices, and even product design for anyone selling into the American market, so the basics deserve ten minutes of your attention.

Import Duties vs Tariffs: The Distinction

People use the two terms interchangeably, and in everyday eCommerce that causes no harm. Both describe a tax the US government charges on goods arriving from abroad, and official paperwork calls them customs duties. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects the money at the port of entry, applying a percentage to the declared value of each shipment.

The difference matters most when you read official documents. A tariff is the rate that sits in the law, while a duty is the amount you actually pay on a given entry. If you run a UK brand expanding into the US market through platforms like Shopify, the duty bill lands on whoever acts as the importer of record, which usually means you or your fulfilment partner.

Also worth knowing: your buyer never sees any of this unless you want them to. You decide whether to absorb the charge, build it into your retail price, or pass it on at checkout. Each option changes your conversion rate and your margin in different ways, which is why this guide keeps returning to the numbers.

Who Sets the Rates and How

Three bodies control most of what happens to your shipment. The US International Trade Commission (USITC) publishes the Harmonised Tariff Schedule, the master list of tariff rates for every product category. CBP enforces those rates at the border and collects the money. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) investigates trade practices and administers the actions aimed at specific countries, including China.

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Congress holds the constitutional power over tariffs, and yet the executive branch has pushed almost every recent change through executive orders. That explains why the 2025 tariff changes arrived so quickly: three separate layers within five months, with no new legislation behind any of them. It also explains why rates can move again just as fast in 2026.

The US Tariff Framework: MFN, Section 301, Section 232, and Reciprocal Tariffs

Think of the US system as layers rather than a single rate. Your product starts with its baseline charge, then collects extras depending on where it comes from and what it contains. Four layers matter for eCommerce sellers, and they stack on top of each other.

Most-Favoured-Nation Rates

The most-favoured-nation (MFN) rate is the default charge for imports from fellow World Trade Organisation members, applied whenever no special measure exists. Rates run from 0% on many electronics and books up to 37.5% on certain footwear, and the simple average across all product lines sits close to 3.4%.

Textiles, apparel, and footwear occupy the expensive end, often between 10% and 32%. Machinery, most tech products, and plenty of raw materials sit at or near zero. Your baseline depends entirely on classification, so two similar items can face very different charges, and that quirk becomes useful later when we talk about tariff engineering.

Section 301 Tariffs on Chinese Goods

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 lets the USTR punish unfair trade practices with targeted duties. The first China list arrived in 2018 at 25% across broad swathes of industrial and consumer goods, and coverage has grown several times since. A 2024 review added steep increases on electric vehicles, semiconductors, and lithium-ion batteries.

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Then 2025 stacked more on top. Duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) piled onto the Section 301 base, and combined China tariffs on some goods passed 145% in spring 2025. Truce agreements in May and November of that year brought totals down sharply, though rates still shift with each round of negotiation, so check the current position before every large order.

Section 232 Tariffs on Steel and Aluminium

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows tariffs on national security grounds. Steel faced a 25% tariff back in 2018, with aluminium at 10%. Both moved in 2025: aluminium rose to 25% in March, then steel and aluminium jumped to 50% in June for most countries.

The UK secured an exception. Under the US-UK trade deal framework announced in May 2025, British steel and aluminium held at 25% rather than 50%. The measure also covers derivative products, so goods that merely contain steel or aluminium components can attract the charge on their metal content. Check your bill of materials before you assume this layer skips you.

Reciprocal Tariffs and the 2025 Framework

April 2025 brought the biggest single change. An executive order introduced reciprocal tariffs under IEEPA, starting with a 10% baseline on nearly every trading partner and adding higher country-specific rates for economies running big trade surpluses with the US. The press quickly labelled them Trump tariffs, and the name stuck.

Enforcement moved just as fast. CBP began collecting the new layers at every port, and its eCommerce guidance confirms the August 2025 suspension of duty-free treatment for all sub-$800 shipments. If you sell direct to American consumers, that suspension changed your economics more than any headline rate did.

The UK sits at the 10% baseline, one of the lowest positions in the framework. One caution before you build plans around any of this: the Supreme Court heard arguments in late 2025 on whether IEEPA actually authorises these measures, and a ruling against them would reshape the whole structure. Keep an eye on the tariff news, because this layer could change again.

How to Calculate Your Landed Cost

Sellers ask how to calculate import duty more than any other tariff question, and the honest answer is that the maths turns out simple once you know your inputs. Landed cost means the full amount it takes to get one unit from your supplier to a US warehouse or customer, duty included. Get this number wrong, and every price you set downstream is wrong too. The paperwork side matters just as much as the maths, and our guide to export documentation covers what needs to travel with every shipment.

The Four Components of Landed Cost

Four inputs make up the figure. First comes the product value, meaning the transaction value you paid your supplier, which CBP uses as the base. Second comes the import duty itself: your rate of duty multiplied by that product value. Third come the customs fees, chiefly the Merchandise Processing Fee, which gets its own section below.

The fourth input covers freight and insurance for the journey. Add the four together, divide by unit count, and you have your per-unit cost delivered to America. Run the calculation before you commit to a purchase order, then run it again whenever a rate changes, because 2025 proved that rates can change overnight.

Using HTS Codes to Find Your Duty Rate

Every product entering the US takes a ten-digit classification from the Harmonised Tariff Schedule. The first six digits follow the international HS standard used worldwide, while the final four are US-specific and pin down your exact duty rate. That classification decides everything downstream, from the base charge to whether the China measures or the metals measures apply.

You can search the schedule free of charge through the official USITC tariff lookup tool. Type a product description, work through the chapter structure, and read the general rate column for your item. An import duty calculator gives a quick estimate, and yet nothing replaces checking the actual code yourself.

Bulk shipping changes the picture as well. Sellers who import in volume to a US fulfilment centre spread the fixed costs of entry across hundreds of units, which can help reduce per-unit exposure compared with posting single parcels across the border. The worked example below shows how the pieces fit together for a British shipment.

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Two warnings before you rely on your own classification. Small errors carry penalty risk, since CBP treats misclassification as the importer's responsibility even when it happens by accident. New importers usually come out ahead by paying a customs broker a modest fee to classify goods properly and file entries, rather than learning through penalty notices.

The Merchandise Processing Fee and Other Charges

The Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) applies to most formal entries at 0.3464% of the entered value. It carries a minimum of $32.71 and a cap of $634.62 per entry. On the worked example above, the percentage calculation gives $34.64, which clears the minimum, so that amount applies.

Sea freight adds the Harbour Maintenance Fee at 0.125% of cargo value, with no cap. Both fees sit outside your tariff line, so an item with a 0% rate still generates charges at the border. Budget for them separately and your projections stay honest, and if the paperwork side feels unfamiliar, our guide to customs clearance for UK importers walks through what CBP expects at entry.

The De Minimis Change: What It Means for eCommerce Sellers

No single change in 2025 hit small eCommerce brands harder than the end of de minimis. If your model relied on posting individual parcels to American customers, this section explains what you lost and what to do about it.

What the $800 Exemption Was

Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 allowed goods valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free, with no formal entry filing and minimal paperwork. Congress raised the threshold from $200 to $800 in 2016, and parcel volumes exploded on the back of it. By early 2025, CBP processed around four million of these shipments every day.

Direct-to-consumer brands built entire businesses on the exemption. A UK seller could dispatch a £40 order straight to a customer in Texas and pay nothing at the border. That structure worked beautifully right up until the moment it stopped working at all.

What Changed in 2025

China and Hong Kong lost the exemption first, on 2 May 2025, as part of the measures aimed at Chinese eCommerce platforms. Then an executive order went further: from 29 August 2025, no country qualifies. CBP now collects duty on every commercial parcel regardless of value, and postal shipments face charges tied to the IEEPA rate of the origin country.

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The pain concentrates on dropshippers and low-price direct-to-consumer brands, where a 10% or higher charge on a $30 parcel wipes out a thin margin. Cost modelling stopped being optional for low-value products. Every parcel now attracts duty at the border, so the sums have to work at the individual order level, not just the container level.

Practical Implications for UK Sellers

Start with your delivered-duty-paid pricing. DDP models built before August 2025 assumed most orders entered free, so those price points need a fresh calculation. Per-unit economics change most on orders under $100, where the fixed costs of entry processing weigh heaviest against the product value.

You see the strategic shift most clearly in fulfilment decisions. Holding stock inside the US turns hundreds of small taxable entries into one bulk import, cleared once at a predictable cost. Inventory positioning has become a tariff strategy in its own right, and sellers who treat it that way have reported steadier margins through the 2025 turbulence.

Tariffs by Country: Where Rates Stand in 2025 and 2026

Tariff rates now vary sharply by origin, which makes tariffs by country the first thing to check when you plan sourcing or expansion. Here is the position for the partners that matter most to UK and international sellers, current as of early 2026.

China

US import tariffs hit Chinese goods harder than any other origin. Section 301 duties stack with the IEEPA charges and the reciprocal baseline, and combined rates peaked above 145% on some categories in spring 2025 before truce agreements pulled totals back down. The small parcel exemption disappeared for China months before the rest of the world lost it.

For sellers sourcing from Chinese factories, country of origin now dominates the cost equation. Some businesses have shifted final assembly to third countries, though CBP applies its substantial transformation rules strictly, and relabelling alone changes nothing except your legal exposure.

UK, EU, and Other Major Trade Partners

The UK landed one of the better outcomes. The 10% baseline covers most British goods, the trade framework kept metals at 25% instead of 50%, and a quota lets 100,000 UK-built cars enter each year at 10% rather than the 25% automotive rate. The EU settled at a 15% ceiling for most goods under its July 2025 agreement.

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MFN treatment still applies wherever no special measure exists, so plenty of product lines move at low single-digit rates even now. That said, negotiations continue on both sides of the Atlantic, and the UK position could shift again if the deal framework expands. A monthly check against a reliable tariff tracker keeps your assumptions current.

Most-Affected Product Categories

Steel and aluminium top the list, at 50% for most origins and 25% for the UK, with derivative goods caught on their metal content. Consumer electronics from China face the Section 301 stack plus the IEEPA layers, while the same goods from the UK often pay just the 10% baseline on top of a 0% line.

Apparel and textiles hurt regardless of origin because their baseline charges start high, often between 10% and 32% before anything extra applies. Automotive parts carry both Section 232 tariffs and Section 301 exposure depending on material and origin. If your catalogue touches any of these categories, classification review belongs at the top of your to-do list.

How UK eCommerce Sellers Can Respond

None of this is cause for panic, and plenty of UK brands grew their US revenue through 2025 regardless. The sellers who cope best treat tariffs as a cost input to manage rather than a reason to retreat. Three areas deserve your attention, and each one compounds the others.

Tariff Engineering and Classification Review

Start by reviewing every classification with a licensed broker. Products often fit more than one plausible code, and the legally correct choice sometimes carries a lower charge than the one you have used for years. Small changes to materials or configuration can move an item into a cheaper line, a practice known as tariff engineering, provided the classification stays honest.

Country of origin rules deserve equal care. Origin follows where substantial transformation last happened, not where you shipped from, so routing Chinese goods through a third country changes nothing on its own. Get origin wrong, and the penalties outrun any duty you saved along the way. We cover the same substantial transformation logic from a UK-EU angle in our guide to rules of origin, and the underlying principle carries over here.

Inventory and Fulfilment Strategy

Holding stock in America sidesteps cross-border charges on every individual order. You pay duty once on the bulk import, then domestic delivery carries no tariff at all. Bonded warehouses can delay the duty payment until goods leave the facility, which may help cash flow on slower-moving lines.

Sellers on Amazon can handle FBA prep inside the US and skip the repeated import admin. Also look at 3PL networks with sites on both sides of the Atlantic, since multi-country positioning lets you route each order from whichever location produces the better delivered cost. Sellers running this setup have reported smoother peak seasons and fewer customs surprises.

Pricing and Margin Adjustments

Shipping terms decide who pays at the border. Under DDP you pay and the customer sees a clean price; under DAP the customer pays and often refuses the parcel when the courier demands money on the doorstep. Most consumer brands stick with DDP for that reason, which means duty belongs inside your cost of goods before you set a single retail price.

Build hedged projections rather than single-point estimates, because rates moved four times in 2025 alone. A spreadsheet with a base case, a tariff-rise case, and a tariff-cut case takes an hour to build and may save you from repricing your whole catalogue in a panic later. Then keep monitoring, since the regulatory picture will keep shifting through 2026.

Conclusion

US import duties went from background noise to a board-level topic in eighteen months. The 10% baseline, the stacked charges on Chinese goods, and the end of duty-free small parcels together rewrote the economics of selling into America. The sellers who come out ahead know their codes, their true delivered costs, and their fulfilment options.

Treat this guide as a starting point rather than the final word, because rates will keep moving through 2026. Check your classifications, rebuild your cost models, and revisit where your inventory sits. Do those three things and the tariff story becomes a manageable line item instead of a threat to your US ambitions.

FAQ

What is the import tariff rate in the US?

Most goods pay their MFN rate plus a 10% reciprocal baseline. Chinese goods carry extra Section 301 and IEEPA layers on top.

Which countries does the US have tariffs on?

Nearly all of them. A 10% baseline covers most partners, with higher rates for the EU, China, and others without settled deals.

Are the 25% tariffs currently in effect?

Yes. Section 232 metal duties remain live, rising to 50% for most countries in June 2025 while the UK stayed at 25%.

Did China put tariffs on the US in response?

Yes. China imposed retaliatory duties on US goods in 2025, though both sides cut rates after the truce agreements later that year.

What is the de minimis exemption and has it changed?

It let sub-$800 parcels enter duty-free. That ended for all countries on 29 August 2025, so a US fulfilment centre now pays off.

How do I find the HTS code for my product?

Search the USITC Harmonised Tariff Schedule by description, or ask a licensed broker to classify your goods and confirm the rate.

Can I use a US fulfilment centre to reduce my tariff exposure?

Yes. Bulk imports plus local dispatch can lower per-unit costs. A 3PL partner helps you manage cross-border logistics as tariffs rise.

Should UK sellers change their US pricing?

Often, yes. Model duty into your cost base first, then review our Shopify international expansion guide before you reprice.