The Quote That Loses Money
A supplier gives you a price. You add your markup. The number looks good. Then the shipment lands and customs hands you a bill that wipes out the margin — because the quote never included the duties and fees you actually owe.
Landed cost is the fix. It's the total cost of getting a product to your warehouse: product price, freight, and every charge customs adds at the border. The mistake most importers make is stopping at base duty, when base duty is often the smallest part of the stack.
The Full Stack
For US imports, landed cost layers five things on top of your product value:
1. Base MFN duty — the rate in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for your HTS code. Can be Free, a percentage, or a per-unit charge.
2. Section 301 tariff — additional duty on many Chinese goods, now 25–100% after the USTR four-year review increases that took effect September 27 2024, January 1 2025, and January 1 2026. This alone can double your cost.
3. AD/CVD — anti-dumping or countervailing duty if your product is under an active order. Check this before anything else, because the rate can dwarf all other layers.
4. Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) — roughly 0.3464% of the customs value, with a floor and a cap. Small per shipment, but it adds up.
5. Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) — 0.125% on ocean freight shipments.
A 60-Second Walkthrough
Take a $10,000 shipment of stainless steel sinks (HTS 7324.10) from China:
| Layer | Rate | Amount | |-------|------|--------| | Base MFN duty | 0% | $0 | | Section 301 | 25% | $2,500 | | AD/CVD | 0% | $0 | | MPF | 0.3464% | $34.64 | | HMF | 0.125% | $12.50 | | Total duty & fees | ~25.5% | $2,547.14 |
A quote based on product price alone misses the $2,547. That's the difference between a profitable order and a loss — and it took under a minute to find.
Now change one variable. If the same product sat under an AD/CVD order at 100%, the total jumps past $12,500. The stack is sensitive to every layer, which is why calculating it piecemeal by hand is how mistakes happen.
The Fast Way
You don't need a spreadsheet and a tariff schedule bookmark. Enter the product name or HTS code, the goods value, and the country of origin into CVDar's landed cost calculator. It pulls the base rate, applies the current Section 301 tier, checks for AD/CVD, and stacks MPF and HMF — in the time it takes to read this sentence.
For products you check often, a free account keeps search history. Pro adds CSV export so you can drop the numbers straight into your supplier comparison.
Key Takeaways
- Base duty is often the smallest layer — Section 301 and AD/CVD are where the real money is.
- Section 301 on Chinese goods now runs 25–100%, not the old 7.5–25%.
- AD/CVD can push the total past several hundred percent — always check it first.
- The whole stack takes under a minute to calculate if you use the right tool instead of a spreadsheet.