Model how import tariffs hit your margin, profit, and pricing — in real time.
Last reviewed: 2026-05
Landed cost / unit
$13.00
Was $11.50 pre-tariff
+$1.50 (+13%)
Margin / unit (new)
$11.75
Was $13.50 pre-tariff
−$1.75 / unit
Monthly profit Δ
−$687
vs pre-tariff baseline
−10.2%
Break-even price
$21.00
to maintain pre-tariff profit
+$0.00 vs current
Cost composition: before vs after tariff
Where each dollar of unit cost goes
Monthly profit: pass-through scenarios
How profit changes as you pass more cost to customers (factoring elasticity)
Profit waterfall
From pre-tariff profit to your current scenario
Margin % vs price
Your margin curve at different selling prices
Scenario comparison
Five strategies, ranked by monthly profit. Highlighted row matches your current pass-through setting.
Strategy
Pass-through
New price
Units / mo
Revenue
Profit
Margin %
Δ vs pre-tariff
Could a different supplier country save you money?
Landed cost per unit by origin (your supplier price + tariff + shipping), assuming you could source the same product elsewhere. Sorted lowest to highest.
Tariff sensitivity: how exposed are you?
Monthly profit if the tariff rate were different. The dot marks your current rate — flatter curves mean less exposure.
Annual cumulative profit projection
Pre-tariff baseline vs current scenario over the next 12 months. The gap is your annual tariff cost.
Live tariff rates by country pair
Effective average tariff rates for general merchandise across major trade corridors, including MFN base, Section 301, Section 232, FTA reductions (USMCA, KORUS, CPTPP, EU-Japan EPA), and known anti-dumping where common.
Always verify your specific HTS code with USITC — country averages can be off by 10-30 percentage points for specific product categories like apparel, footwear, steel, aluminum, or electronics.
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2025–2026 tariff volatility notice. US tariff policy has shifted significantly through reciprocal-tariff actions, Section 232/301 amendments, and ongoing trade negotiations. The rates below are illustrative averages reviewed monthly, but actual rates for your specific HTS code can change via Federal Register notice within days.
Always click the "Verify ↗" link on any row before using it for a real sourcing decision. We're not liable for stale data.
Avg US import rate
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Across all origins in dataset
Highest US rate
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Lowest US rate
—
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Trade corridors
—
In dataset
Origin
Destination
Product category
HTS chapter
Effective rate
Notes & trade programs
Source
Data as of —. Rates are illustrative — for HTS-code-specific accuracy on the day you ship, verify with the official source for your destination country (links below).
Data sources & methodology
Rates in this table are compiled from publicly available government and intergovernmental data, then averaged across representative HTS codes within each category. Numbers reflect the effective tariff — MFN base + Section 232 / Section 301 add-ons + FTA reductions where applicable.
Where category-specific data isn't shown, the table defaults to the country-pair "General merchandise" average. For your specific HTS code, consult the official source for your destination country:
BIS — Bureau of Industry & Security ↗Commerce Department bureau that handles Section 232 national security tariff investigations on steel, aluminum, and derivatives.
If you import goods, tariffs are one of the biggest variables hitting your unit economics — and one of the most poorly understood. This guide explains what tariffs are, how they're calculated, and how to think about them strategically when you're running a small business with thin margins and limited pricing power.
What is a tariff?
A tariff is a tax that a government charges on imported goods. It's typically expressed as a percentage of the customs value (what you paid your supplier). When your shipment clears customs, you pay the tariff before you can take delivery. There's no avoiding it for products in scope — it lands directly in your cost of goods sold.
Tariffs come in three main flavors. The Most Favored Nation (MFN) rate is the baseline duty for a given Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code. Special program rates reduce or eliminate that baseline if your goods qualify under an FTA like USMCA, KORUS, or CPTPP. Add-on tariffs (like Section 301 on Chinese goods or Section 232 on steel and aluminum) layer on top of the MFN rate for political or strategic reasons.
How tariffs affect a small business specifically
Large retailers can absorb tariff cost increases by squeezing suppliers, hedging through scale, or accepting margin compression across hundreds of SKUs. Small businesses usually can't. Here's how the impact typically lands:
Margin compression hits faster. A 25% tariff on a product with 40% gross margin can wipe out 6-10 margin points overnight.
Pricing power is limited. If you sell on Amazon, eBay, or against bigger competitors, raising prices to recover tariff costs often loses more revenue than you gain.
Cash flow tightens. Tariffs are paid at customs clearance — weeks or months before you sell the goods. That ties up working capital you might not have.
Supplier switching is hard. Moving production from a high-tariff origin (China) to a low-tariff one (Vietnam, Mexico) sounds simple. In practice, qualifying a new supplier takes 6-18 months, and minimum order quantities lock you in.
Example: e-commerce seller importing from China
You import housewares at $10/unit. With a 25% tariff and $1.50/unit shipping, your landed cost is $14. You sell at $25, so margin is $11/unit. If a Section 301 add-on raises the effective tariff to 50%, your landed cost jumps to $16.50 and margin drops to $8.50 — a 23% hit. Spread across 1,000 monthly units, that's $2,500/month in lost profit.
Example: apparel boutique sourcing from Bangladesh
Apparel HTS codes carry some of the highest US tariffs — often 15-30%. A boutique importing $20 dresses faces $3-6 in tariff per unit, before shipping. If demand is moderately price-elastic, even a small add-on can break the unit economics. Many small apparel sellers have shifted toward Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia in response.
Strategic options when tariffs change
Most small business owners face the same set of levers when tariffs go up:
Absorb the cost. Lower margin to keep prices steady. Works if competitors are also affected and you have the cash flow to take the hit short-term.
Pass through to customers. Raise prices by some or all of the tariff increase. Works for price-insensitive products (specialty, branded, niche) but loses volume in commodity categories.
Reformulate the product. Reduce unit cost by simplifying packaging, downsizing the product, or substituting components.
Switch suppliers. Move sourcing to a country with lower or no tariff exposure. Usually the highest-effort option but largest long-term payoff.
Apply for an exclusion. Section 301 has had product-specific exclusion programs at various points. Check the USTR website for active exclusion windows.
Use a Foreign Trade Zone or duty drawback. If you re-export some inventory, you can recover duties paid. Also worth exploring: bonded warehouses to defer payment.
The calculator above lets you model option 1 and option 2 directly. Drag the pass-through slider from 0% (full absorption) to 100% (full pass-through) and watch the profit curve. The "best of canned strategies" insight at the bottom of the input panel tells you which works best given your elasticity assumption.
How to use this tariff calculator
The calculator follows a simple logic: it computes your landed cost, then your margin per unit, then projects what happens to monthly profit when you adjust pricing. It uses a constant-elasticity demand model to estimate volume changes when prices move.
Step 1: Set your country pair
Use the country dropdowns at the top of the input panel. Pick your origin (where you import from) and your destination market. The calculator pulls a representative effective tariff rate from our dataset and auto-fills the tariff field. You can override it if you know the specific HTS rate for your product.
Step 2: Enter your costs
Unit cost is what you pay your supplier per unit, FOB. Shipping & duties is everything else needed to land the product in your warehouse — freight, broker fees, port fees. Other variable cost is per-unit overhead like packaging, fulfillment labor, and payment processing.
Step 3: Set price, volume, and elasticity
Enter your current selling price and monthly unit volume. The elasticity slider is the most underestimated input — set it carefully. -1.0 is a reasonable default; use -1.5 to -2.5 for commodity categories with substitutes, and -0.5 to -1.0 for branded or specialty products.
Step 4: Adjust pass-through and read the dashboard
Drag the pass-through slider to test scenarios. Watch the profit waterfall, the pass-through curve, and the scenario comparison table. The break-even KPI tells you what price you'd need to charge to fully recover from the tariff hit, factoring in demand response.
Frequently asked questions about tariffs
What is a tariff in simple terms?
A tariff is a tax that a government charges on goods imported from another country. It's typically a percentage of the import's customs value. So if your goods are worth $10,000 and the tariff rate is 10%, you pay $1,000 to customs before the goods can clear the border.
Who actually pays the tariff?
Legally, the importer of record pays the tariff at the port of entry — that's you, the small business. Economically, the cost gets distributed across the supply chain over time: some absorbed by importers, some passed to consumers, some squeezed back to suppliers. Most empirical studies of recent US tariffs find that 80-100% of tariff cost is ultimately passed to consumers within 6-12 months.
How do I find the exact tariff rate for my product?
Look up your product's HTS code (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) at hts.usitc.gov. The HTS code is product-specific (10 digits in the US) and determines your duty rate. Then check whether any special programs (USMCA, GSP, KORUS) or add-on tariffs (Section 301, Section 232) apply to your country of origin.
Should I absorb the tariff or raise prices?
It depends on your demand elasticity — how sensitive your customers are to price. For inelastic products (specialty goods, brand loyalty, no close substitutes), you can usually pass through most of the tariff with minimal volume loss. For elastic products (commodities, easy substitutes, price-sensitive customers), pass-through causes large demand drops and you may end up worse off than absorbing. The calculator above models both extremes — drag the pass-through slider to see the breakeven point.
What is Section 301?
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 lets the U.S. impose extra tariffs on imports from countries the USTR finds engaging in unfair trade practices. The most-cited use is the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, which have added 7.5% to over 100% on top of the MFN base rate, depending on the HTS code list. Section 301 lists are published in the Federal Register and updated periodically.
What is Section 232?
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 lets the U.S. impose tariffs on imports deemed to threaten national security. It's the basis for the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed on multiple countries in 2018 and renewed since. Section 232 hits steel-, aluminum-, and metal-product-heavy imports especially hard, including many goods from Turkey, Brazil, and India.
Are there ways to avoid or reduce tariffs legally?
Yes, several. (1) Source from a country with a free trade agreement: USMCA for Mexico/Canada, KORUS for Korea, etc. (2) Apply for an exclusion when programs are open. (3) Use Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) or bonded warehouses to defer or reduce duties on re-exported goods. (4) Restructure the product so it qualifies under a different HTS code with a lower rate (this is legal classification, not fraud — be careful and consult a customs broker). (5) Use tariff engineering: small product modifications that move you to a lower-rate HTS code.
Can a small business apply for a tariff exclusion?
Yes, when exclusion windows are open. The USTR has run exclusion processes for Section 301 tariffs at various points. You file a petition arguing your product can't be sourced elsewhere, the tariff causes severe economic harm, or the product isn't strategically important to the policy goal. Approval rates have varied widely. Check ustr.gov for current exclusion windows.
How often do tariff rates change?
Base MFN rates change rarely (multi-year cycles). Add-on tariffs (Section 301, 232, 201) can change quickly via executive action — sometimes within days. FTAs can shift via renegotiation. For US imports specifically, tariff policy has been highly volatile in recent years. We update this site's tariff dataset monthly, but always verify with USITC for HTS-specific, real-time rates.