Import Duty Calculator: Estimate Landed Costs Before Shipping

Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods run from 7.5% to 100% across roughly 10,000 HTS code lookup. The Supreme Court's February 20, 2026 ruling invalidated IEEPA tariffs and restructured the duty stack in ways that will catch unprepared compliance teams off guard (USTR, 2026). The rate your finance team plugged into landed cost calculations models six months ago is quite possibly wrong — use an import duty calculator to stay current. The gap between what you're estimating and what CBP expects at entry is where enforcement cases start.

Key Takeaways:

• Section 301 tariffs remain fully in force: 7.5% to 100% on ~10,000 HTS lines across four lists (USTR, 2025)
• The February 20, 2026 Supreme Court ruling struck down IEEPA tariffs; refund eligibility for duties paid in 2025 remains unresolved (Congress.gov, 2026)
• Current duty stack for most Chinese goods: MFN rate + Section 301 (7.5%–100%) + Section 232 if applicable + 10% Section 122 global tariff
• 178 Section 301 product exclusions remain active, extended through November 10, 2026 (USTR.gov, November 2025)
• Semiconductors under HTS 8541/8542 carry a 50% Section 301 rate as of January 2025; EVs face 100% (Federal Register, 2025)

Current china tariff rates: The full duty stack

Most compliance teams still think about china import tax to US as a single number. It isn't. It's at least three numbers added together, and for certain product categories it's four. The baseline is the MFN duty rate your product has always carried. On top of that sits a Section 301 tariffs surcharge ranging from 7.5% to 100% depending on which list your HTS code falls under. Then the 10% Section 122 global tariff that applies across all trading partners. Steel and aluminum add Section 232 on top of all that. For detailed guidance on EU tariffs, see our guide to EU and UK trade compliance.

Before February 20, 2026, IEEPA tariffs were layering another 10-20% over those Section 301 rates. The Supreme Court removed that layer. Whether importers who paid IEEPA duties through 2025 can recover any of it remains genuinely unresolved. The Court explicitly left the refund question open (Congress.gov, 2026).

Here is what the post-ruling rate stack looks like for a product on Section 301 List 3:

For semiconductors on List 4A, the Section 301 rate alone sits at 50% (Federal Register, 2025). Electric vehicles from China face 100%. Medical devices, solar cells, and batteries saw stepped increases across 2025 and 2026 under the statutory review that carried over between administrations.

Compliance teams that updated landed cost models for the IEEPA escalation and haven't recalculated since February 20 are now quoting contracts and filing entries against a duty structure that no longer exists. That's a pricing error and an import compliance exposure simultaneously.

Section 301 tariffs: Four lists, different rates, one expensive mistake

Section 301 tariffs are additional import duties under the Trade Act of 1974, triggered by a USTR determination that China's practices on intellectual property and technology transfer are unreasonable and discriminatory (USTR). They add on top of the MFN rate, not replace it. That's the mistake importers make most often in their first year managing China sourcing.

The four lists have different rates and different exclusion histories. Getting the wrong list wrong isn't a rounding error:

List 4B (proposed for ~$160B in goods) was suspended under the Phase One deal and never took effect. This is the one that routinely surprises teams: categories that were supposed to be on List 4B never got hit with Section 301 duties at all. If your landed cost model assumed List 4B coverage, you've been overestimating your duty exposure.

The exclusion system is where significant money stays unclaimed. Over 1,100 product-specific exclusions were granted during the original investigation. Most expired. As of March 2026, 178 remain active through November 10, 2026, following the October 2025 US-China trade framework (USTR.gov, November 2025). Claiming one requires HTSUS codes 9903.88.69 or 9903.88.70 at entry, and the product description match against the exclusion language has to be exact. An exclusion for "electric motors, single-phase, less than 1 HP" covers exactly that and nothing else. CBP's ACE system handles the matching automatically, but only if your classification and product description actually correspond to the exclusion text. If they don't, you pay full duties and typically don't find out until a post-entry audit.

The february 2026 scotus ruling: Operational impact for importers

IEEPA’s ruling changed the duty stack but left Section 301 completely intact. The Court found the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs, invalidating tariff actions taken from April 2025 onward under IEEPA authority (Congress.gov, February 2026). Section 301 operates under the Trade Act of 1974 and was upheld by the Federal Circuit in September 2025. It was never part of the legal challenge.

What this means in practice: companies paying elevated IEEPA-era rates on Chinese goods between April 2025 and February 2026 may have overpaid. At peak escalation, US-China average tariff rates ran roughly 34% on the US side (Congress.gov, 2026), not counting product-specific exemptions. For more context, see our guide on Free Tariff Calculator: 25 import duty Questions Answered. For a company processing 150 shipments per month from China, the overcharge over that ten-month window is not a rounding error.

No CBP refund mechanism exists yet. Importers filing protests or post-summary corrections today are doing it blind, without confirmation that there's a process on the other end. The 180-day liquidation protest window on every affected 2025 entry is running regardless. Pull your April through December 2025 China entries now, identify the ones that carried IEEPA duty components, and get protests filed before liquidation closes the door. Q2 earnings reviews are not the right time to discover you missed the window.

One thing the ruling didn't change: the November 10, 2025 US-China agreement extended the suspension of heightened reciprocal tariffs through November 10, 2026. China also removed retaliatory non-tariff measures imposed since March 2025 and committed to 25 million metric tons of US soybean purchases annually through 2028 (White House, November 2025).

China tariffs on US goods: What beijing's retaliation actually costs

China tariffs on US goods operate on a completely different logic from the inbound china import tax to US. They hit US exporters, not importers, plus Beijing has been working with a structurally smaller base: the US exports roughly one-quarter of what it imports from China, so a tit-for-tat tariff response would run out of ammunition quickly China figured this out and went after non-tariff tools instead.

The October 2025 framework unwound most of those measures. Several US aerospace and semiconductor firms had been on China's unreliable entity list since March 2025, with Chinese purchase orders frozen. Their removal in November 2025 mattered far more operationally than any tariff rate change. For an industrial equipment supplier doing $40M annually in China, being off that list was the actual business impact.

That framework didn't touch China's export controls on critical minerals, rare earths and gallium. Those hit US manufacturers on the input side. Gallium export controls affect roughly 80% of US compound semiconductor production inputs (Commerce Department, 2025). Semiconductor equipment makers, defense electronics suppliers, as well as EV battery producers are sitting on this exposure regardless of how stable the bilateral tariff picture looks through November 2026.

The compliance exposure that doesn't make the front page: for US companies selling into China, the real risk often isn't what tariff rate applies to your product. It's whether your Chinese buyer, distributor, or joint venture partner has appeared on an OFAC list, the BIS Entity List, or a Chinese government sanctions register. Any of those designations makes the transaction a potential violation regardless of the duty rate Counterparty screening across both US and Chinese lists is now basic table stakes for any company with material China revenue.

SMB compliance response: Where most teams are falling short

Post-IEEPA duty restructuring opened a real action window, and most SMB compliance teams are behind on it. The companies that will have problems in 2026 are the ones running HTS classifications and landed cost models that haven't been updated since mid-2025.

Static classification spreadsheets are where this breaks down first. Rates on semiconductors, batteries, plus medical devices moved in steps across 2025 into 2026. A spreadsheet that was accurate during the IEEPA escalation now reflects duty rates that don't exist anymore. Classification is an operational task that needs to run on the same cadence as your procurement cycle, not annually.

Broker dependency is the second gap. Customs brokers file what importers give them. An incorrect HTS code, an imprecise product description, a country of origin that doesn't match CBP's expectation: all of that gets filed as-is The broker isn't liable for classification errors. The importer of record is.

The IEEPA protest window is the one most teams haven't started. No refund mechanism is defined, but that's not a reason to wait. It's a reason to move faster. Every April through December 2025 entry carrying IEEPA duty components has a 180-day protest clock running from its liquidation date. Miss that window and the overpayment is gone.

For companies moving 90+ shipments per month through China, manual tracking across 10,000+ active HTS lines isn't realistic. Platforms like Lenzo that combine live tariff monitoring with ECCN classification let compliance teams catch rate changes before they hit the invoice, rather than after a CBP audit surfaces them.

The tariff picture through November 2026 is more stable than it was a year ago. But the Section 301 investigation into China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sector concluded its public hearing in December 2025, as well as new sectoral designations from that process would add tariff exposure for any company routing cargo through Chinese ports. Stable isn't the same as settled.

FAQ

What is the current section 301 tariff rate on chinese goods?

China 301 tariffs range from 7.5% on List 4A products to 100% on electric vehicles, based on which list your HTS code falls under. These rates stack on top of the standard MFN duty rate and, for most goods, the 10% Section 122 global tariff. As of March 2026, IEEPA tariffs have been struck down by the Supreme Court and are no longer part of the duty calculation.

Did the february 2026 Supreme Court ruling eliminate china tariffs?

No. The ruling invalidated only tariffs imposed under IEEPA authority. Section 301 tariffs carry separate legal authority under the Trade Act of 1974 and were not part of the challenge. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, plus related sectors also remain in full effect.

How do I know if my product qualifies for a section 301 tariff exclusion?

Match your product against the USTR's active exclusion list using product description, not just HTS code. As of March 2026, 178 exclusions remain active through November 10, 2026. The match has to be exact at the item description level. Broad HTS code alignment isn't sufficient. Use HTSUS codes 9903.88.69 or 9903.88.70 at entry to claim eligible exclusions.

What are china's retaliatory tariffs on US goods in 2026?

Following the October 2025 US-China agreement, China suspended retaliatory non-tariff measures imposed since March 2025. Average Chinese tariff rates on US goods ran around 31% at peak escalation (Congress.gov, 2026). Heightened reciprocal rates are suspended through November 10, 2026, but China's export controls on critical minerals and rare earths remain active and are separate from the tariff framework.

The tariff structure on Chinese goods in 2026 rewards teams with live rate data and punishes those running on annual classification cycles. The platform monitors HTS-level rate changes as USTR, Federal Register and CBP guidance updates. That classification gap contributed to Ceratizit USA's $54.4 million False Claims Act settlement in December 2025 for misclassified Chinese-origin goods (DOJ, December 2025).

For more on how HTSUS, HS code, Schedule B, and ECCN differ, see our guide to HTSUS vs Schedule B.

For more on how classification works, see our guide to GRI and tariff classification.