Last updated: 16 September 2026
Quick answer. Landed cost is what the goods cost once they are in your warehouse: value, freight, insurance, duty, import taxes and clearance. Classification, customs value and origin decide the duty; every one of those must be confirmed in the official customs sources for your market, not from a supplier's quotation. Verify before you commit tooling.
Editorial position: China Custom Parts is an independent sourcing knowledge site. This page publishes no duty rate, no percentage and no tariff classification number — not for any country and not for any product. Duty positions change, and a number copied from a website is worthless in an audit. What this page gives you is the cost build-up, the calculation method, and the official entry points where you or your customs broker confirm the figures for your product, your origin and your market.
Landed cost is the total you pay before the goods can be sold or used, and it is usually higher than the invoice because the invoice stops at a port. Build it from the bottom up, line by line, using a formula rather than a rule of thumb:
Landed cost per unit = (goods value + international freight + insurance + duty + import taxes + clearance and handling + onward delivery + contingency) ÷ number of saleable units
Each line behaves differently, and each has a different owner. This is the part most importers get wrong: they negotiate the goods value and treat everything below it as fixed, when most of the remaining lines are controllable.
| Cost line | What it covers | Who normally controls it | How to verify it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods value | The price of the goods themselves, per the agreed trade term | Buyer and seller | Your contract and purchase order |
| International freight | Main carriage by sea, air or rail, plus terminal and documentation charges | Buyer or seller, depending on the trade term | Freight quotation, or the seller's cost if the term includes carriage |
| Cargo insurance | Cover for loss or damage in transit | Buyer or seller, depending on the term | Insurance certificate or policy |
| Duty | The customs duty on the imported goods, determined by classification, customs value and origin — plus any trade-remedy measure that applies to your product and origin | The law; determined by the customs authority | The official nomenclature, valuation rules and trade-remedy registers of the importing market |
| Import taxes | Value added tax, goods and services tax, or excise that applies on import; whether it is recoverable depends on your registration status | The tax authority | The official VAT or excise guidance of the importing market |
| Clearance and handling | Customs brokerage, entry filing, terminal handling, inspection or examination costs, storage if the container is held | Buyer, and partly the port and the broker | Your broker's schedule of charges |
| Onward delivery | Inland transport from the port or airport to your warehouse | Buyer, unless the term is a delivered term | Carrier quotation |
| Contingency | Re-work, re-inspection, deferred release, demurrage or detention, exchange-rate movement | Buyer | Your own risk assessment, not a supplier's assurance |
The important structural point: the invoice price is the only line you negotiate directly with the supplier, and it is the only line that is not determined by law. Everything from duty downwards is set by the importing jurisdiction and by the logistics chain, and it has to be researched rather than assumed.
In the European Union, the Commission states the calculation plainly: to establish the amount of duty payable when trading goods, three factors must be accounted for — the customs tariff to be applied, the value of the goods and the origin of the goods — and the resulting amount is normally a percentage of the customs value. The same three variables drive the determination in other markets, even where the administrative machinery differs.
Classification. Customs officials classify goods into codes within the applicable nomenclature. This is a legal determination about the goods as they are, including their composition, function and the way they are presented. A supplier's suggestion about how to classify your product is a commercial opinion, not a determination. If your product could reasonably fall in more than one place, the classification is worth resolving with the authority before you commit tooling.
Value. In the EU framework there are several valuation methods, applied in a fixed order, and transaction value is the main one: the total amount paid or payable for the imported goods, subject to specified additions and deductions. Which costs are added — freight, insurance, royalties, tooling, the value of materials you supplied free of charge — depends on the rules of the importing market and on the trade term in your contract, which is why the same invoice can produce different customs values under different terms.
Origin. Origin determines the economic nationality of the goods and therefore whether a preferential rate applies; rules of origin distinguish preferential from non-preferential origin. Origin is not the same as the country of shipment, and it is not always the country where the goods were assembled. If your supply chain sources components from more than one country, or if you buy from a trader who ships from a third market, confirm the origin that will be declared — in writing — before you rely on any preferential treatment.
Where you cannot resolve a question yourself, official advisory channels exist. In the United States, customs import specialists at the port of entry can discuss commodity-specific requirements and advisory duty information, and an importer can request a written ruling on the classification and rate of duty for its merchandise, following the procedures in the Customs Regulations; earlier rulings are searchable in the customs rulings database, where value, origin marking and preference matters are also addressed. That is the route to certainty, and it is available before you place the order.
Use these to get the answer that legally counts. None of them is reproduced here as a figure, and none should be replaced by a supplier's assurance.
| Market or scope | Official entry point | What you use it to check |
|---|---|---|
| Global nomenclature | WCO, Harmonized System overview | What the HS is: a multipurpose international product nomenclature developed by the World Customs Organization, used by economies worldwide as the basis for their customs tariffs and for trade statistics |
| United States — tariff schedule | US International Trade Commission, Harmonized Tariff Schedule | The published schedule of classifications and the general notes; the site also carries material specific to China tariffs |
| United States — tariff and trade data | USITC DataWeb | The Commission's public interface to official U.S. import and export statistics, with the tariff database, annual tariff data and staged future tariff rates alongside the nomenclature search |
| United States — classification advice and rulings | U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Tips for New Importers and Exporters | How to describe merchandise for classification, how to request a binding ruling, and how to search earlier rulings |
| United States — trade remedies | CBP Trade Remedies page | CBP's enforcement of trade-remedy measures for duties and quotas on imported goods, and its antidumping and countervailing duty responsibilities |
| United States — Section 301 | USTR, Section 301 tariff actions and exclusion process | The exclusion process and the review channels; USTR lists China-related Section 301 activity as several parallel proceedings rather than one measure |
| United States — refunds of duties collected under IEEPA | CBP, IEEPA duty refunds | How a valid refund is requested through the customs environment, and the regulation governing liquidation and offsetting of over- and under-payments |
| European Union — duty and origin for your product | European Commission, Access2Markets | Conditions to trade a product, including rules of origin |
| European Union — tariff measures, classification and valuation databases | European Commission, Online services and databases for customs | The official databases for measures relating to tariffs and commercial and agricultural legislation, binding tariff information decisions, classification information and tariff quotas |
| European Union — how the duty is calculated | European Commission, Calculation of customs duties | The three factors, the valuation methods, and the link to rules of origin |
| European Union — trade defence | European Commission, trade defence and the official investigations database | Whether an anti-dumping, anti-subsidy or safeguard measure exists for your product |
| Your import declaration | Your licensed customs broker, and the customs authority in your market | The classification, value and origin that will actually be filed, and the resulting duty and tax |
Two practical rules about these sources. First, verify all three variables together — a correct classification with the wrong origin still produces the wrong duty. Second, verify before tooling and before you quote your own customer: a duty or trade-remedy question answered late can turn a profitable order into a loss, and a trade-remedy measure can apply to a product regardless of what your supplier's other customers are paying.
This page publishes no rate, so what follows is deliberately limited to two kinds of statement that stay useful even when the numbers move: dates that tell you when a position was last changed, and entry points that tell you where the current figure lives. Both were verified in the official sources on 16 September 2026.
United States — Section 301: the exclusion position is time-boxed. USTR published a notice on 1 December 2025 whose determination was to extend the 178 current product exclusions, and the notice states that the extensions run "through 11:59 p.m. eastern daylight time on November 9, 2026". Separately, USTR published a notice on 6 May 2026 commencing the second statutory four-year review of the two Section 301 actions taken in the technology-transfer investigation — the actions that took effect on 6 July 2018 and 23 August 2018. The first step of that review is notification and the collection of continuation requests from domestic industries that benefit from the actions, and USTR set two windows for those requests: 7 May to 5 July 2026 for the first action, and 24 June to 22 August 2026 for the second. A review is a process, not an outcome; the second phase is announced in later notices.
What that means commercially: an exclusion or a review milestone is a dated input, not a permanent one. If your costing model assumes a position that expires, the model is wrong the day after it expires. Treat the expiry date above as a reminder to re-check, and confirm the current position in the USTR page and the customs notices before you price an order that ships after it.
United States — pulling the figures yourself. Beyond the nomenclature itself, the Commission's DataWeb platform is the public interface to official U.S. import and export statistics, and it carries the tariff database, the annual tariff data and the staged future tariff rates. If you need to see how a duty line has moved rather than only what it says today, that is where the series lives.
European Union — checking whether a measure already covers your product. The Commission's investigations register lists the cases in progress by product, origin and measure type. On 16 September 2026 the register included, among others: stainless steel cold-rolled flat products (an expiry review concerning China and Taiwan), pre-stressed wires and strands of non-alloy steel (an expiry review concerning China), hardwood plywood (an anti-circumvention investigation concerning China), hot-rolled flat steel products of iron or non-alloy steel (an expiry review concerning Türkiye), glass beads (an initial investigation concerning China) and glass fibre open mesh fabrics (an anti-circumvention investigation). Those entries are a filter, not a verdict: they tell you which product families other importers' advisors are already tracking, so that you can ask your broker a specific question — does a measure apply to this classification from this origin, and if so in what form — instead of a general one.
None of the six entries above is a rate, and none should be read as one. The register tells you a case exists and what stage it has reached; the measure that applies to your goods is still established by classification, value and origin, in the official sources, for your shipment.
Trade terms allocate tasks, costs and risk between buyer and seller. They do not decide who is liable to the customs authority. The International Chamber of Commerce publishes the authoritative rules: the Incoterms rules are a set of eleven three-letter trade terms reflecting business-to-business practice, first published in 1936, and the most recent version, Incoterms 2020, entered into force on 1 January 2020. The ICC provides a free checklist and flowcharts for choosing a rule, and a wallchart that sets out the obligations, costs and risks of buyer and seller under each of the eleven rules. Buy the rule set from the ICC rather than working from a summary, because the named place and the exact wording change the outcome.
| Term (typical use) | Where risk passes | Carriage and insurance | Import clearance, duty and taxes | What the buyer must still arrange |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOB (sea and inland waterway) | When the goods are on board the vessel at the named port | Buyer arranges and pays | Buyer | Freight booking, insurance, import declaration, duty and taxes, onward delivery |
| CIF (sea and inland waterway) | When the goods are on board the vessel | Seller arranges and pays freight and provides the contractual minimum insurance cover | Buyer | Import declaration, duty and taxes, onward delivery; note that the seller's insurance cover is a minimum, so check whether it matches the value at risk |
| DAP (any mode, named place) | When the goods are placed at the buyer's disposal at the named place, ready for unloading | Seller | Buyer | Import declaration, duty and taxes, unloading |
| DDP (any mode, named place) | When the goods are delivered to the named place and import formalities are completed | Seller | Seller, including duty and import taxes | Confirm who appears as importer of record, and obtain the declaration documents, because the buyer still needs them for its own records |
| "DDU" | Legacy wording, still seen in quotations and older contracts | Varies by contract wording | Usually the buyer | Treat it as ambiguous: "DDU" is not one of the eleven current ICC rules, so ask the seller which current rule is intended and get the answer in writing |
Three cautions apply to every term. First, the term does not transfer statutory liability: in the United States, CBP states that even when a customs broker is used, the importer of record is ultimately responsible for the correctness of the entry documentation and all applicable duties, taxes and fees. Second, a delivered term such as DDP moves the logistics cost to the seller but also moves the margin it will build in — compare the total landed cost, not the invoice price. Third, tax treatment is separate from delivery: whether import VAT or its equivalent is recoverable depends on your business status and your local rules, so treat it as cash flow before you treat it as margin, and confirm the treatment with your accountant rather than with your supplier.
Then put the result where it belongs: recalculate your gross margin on the landed cost rather than on the invoice, and keep the verification record with the purchase file, so that the next order starts from a documented position instead of a memory.
We do not publish duty rates or classifications, and we do not guess them for you. What we do is work backwards from your destination market: which standards and certifications the product needs, which documents the importer will be asked for, and which compliance questions must be settled in writing before production starts.
Open the certification and compliance hub → Start with the standards that apply to your product and market, then confirm duty and origin in the official sources listed above — with your broker, before tooling.
Last updated: 16 September 2026.
Build it as a formula, not a guess: goods value plus international freight, insurance, duty, import taxes, clearance and handling, onward delivery and contingency, divided by the number of saleable units. The invoice covers only the goods value and, depending on the trade term, the carriage. Classification, customs value and origin determine the duty, so verify those three in the official sources for your market before you commit to an order.
In the official sources of the importing market, not on a blog. The United States publishes the Harmonized Tariff Schedule through the US International Trade Commission and provides classification advice, binding rulings and a rulings database through CBP. The European Union provides Access2Markets, the customs databases for tariff measures, binding tariff information and quotas, and the Commission's explanation of how duty is calculated. This page deliberately publishes no rate and no code.
No. The trade term allocates tasks, costs and risk between buyer and seller — under DDP the seller also clears import and pays duty and taxes, under FOB and CIF the buyer does — but it does not change who is liable to the customs authority for the declaration. In the United States, CBP states that even when a customs broker is used, the importer of record remains responsible for the correctness of the entry documentation and all applicable duties, taxes and fees.
Treat it as ambiguous. The current ICC rule set is Incoterms 2020, a set of eleven three-letter trade terms, and "DDU" is not one of them, although the wording still appears in quotations and older contracts. When you see it, ask the seller which current rule is intended, name the place precisely, and get the answer in writing before you agree the price.
All sources retrieved 16 September 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the standards and official pages themselves are the specification.
| Fact used on this page | Source |
|---|---|
| S1 | World Customs Organization https://www.wcoomd.org/en/topics/nomenclature/overview.aspx |
| S2 | U.S. International Trade Commission https://hts.usitc.gov/ |
| S3 | U.S. Customs and Border Protection https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/importer-exporter-tips |
| S4 | U.S. CBP https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/trade-remedies |
| S5 | U.S. CBP https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/trade-remedies/ieepa-duty-refunds |
| S6 | USTR https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investigations/tariff-actions |
| S7 | USTR https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investigations/section-301-china |
| S8 | European Commission（DG TRADE） https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/enforcement-and-protection/trade-defence_en ｜ https://tron.trade.ec.europa.eu/investigations/ongoing |
| S9 | European Commission（DG TAXUD） https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs/common-customs-tariff-cct/calculation-customs-duties_en |
| S10 | European Commission（DG TAXUD） https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/online-services/online-services-and-databases-customs_en |
| S11 | European Commission（DG TRADE） https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/home |
| S12 | International Chamber of Commerce（ICC） https://iccwbo.org/business-solutions/incoterms-rules/ |
| S13 | ICC（S12） https://iccwbo.org/business-solutions/incoterms-rules/ |
| S17 | U.S. International Trade Commission https://dataweb.usitc.gov/ |
| S18 | European Commission（DG TRADE） https://tron.trade.ec.europa.eu/investigations/ongoing |
Independent resource. This page is published by an independent information resource. It is not a factory, broker or marketplace, and no prices, minimum order quantities, lead times or supplier lists are published. Where a figure or a requirement depends on a standard or an official rule, the standard or the official page is the specification — verify the current edition before you commit to a purchase decision. Sources used for this page are listed below and were retrieved on 16 September 2026.