On 24 July, the temporary 10% US import surcharge was replaced by longer-term tariffs of 10% or 12.5%, set country by country, and the cheap flat rate for postal parcels disappeared. Here is the new system, what it costs per parcel, and what to do now. No customs knowledge assumed.
Updated 18 October 2026: the new US postal entry rules moved from 22 October 2026 to 20 January 2027. Duty rates have not changed since 24 July.
1. On 24 July, the temporary 10% surcharge was replaced: most parcels to the US now pay an extra 10% (UK-made) or 12.5% (China-made and most others) on top of the standard tariff, with no expiry date this time. 2. The flat 10% postal rate is gone: postal parcels now pay the same duty as courier parcels. 3. Duty is charged when the parcel arrives, not when the order is placed, so collect it at checkout now.
Rule zero: every parcel pays duty, at the border
The $800 duty-free threshold ("de minimis") ended in August 2025, and Congress has made its removal permanent from 2027. A $30 t-shirt now pays duty like a $3,000 pallet.
Two mechanics follow from this, and they drive everything else in this guide.
Duty is charged when the parcel crosses the border, not when the order is placed. US customs applies whatever rate is in force on the day of arrival. A parcel sold on 20 July that clears customs on 26 July pays the 26 July rate.
If you did not collect the duty from your customer, it becomes your cost. Either your customer gets a bill at the door (and often refuses the parcel), or your carrier pays customs and invoices you, usually with an admin fee on top.
The new tariffs apply to parcels entering the US from 24 July. If you are not collecting duties at checkout yet, start now.
The two ways a parcel clears US customs
A parcel still clears US customs through one of two channels, but as of 24 July they no longer differ on duty.
The postal route. Parcels entering the US through the postal network, which is where your parcel goes if you ship with Royal Mail (or another national post), and which our Teleship Postal service also uses, paid a flat 10% of value until 24 July: no product codes, no origin maths. That rate ended on 24 July and was not replaced. Postal parcels now owe the same duty stack as courier parcels; the channel still differs on paperwork and process, not on price.
The commercial route. Parcels cleared as commercial shipments, with couriers like DHL, UPS and FedEx or with Teleship Standard DDP, our fast and cost-effective service reaching US customers in 3 to 7 days, pay the full duty stack below.
Up to four charges, added together
On the commercial route, what applies depends on the product's tariff code and its country of origin, meaning where it was made, never where you shipped it from. A UK merchant sending China-made goods from a UK warehouse pays China rates.
- 1Standard US tariff (MFN)Everyone pays this
The baseline rate per product type; look yours up in the US tariff schedule. Clothing runs high (cotton t-shirt: 16.5%), gadgets and plastics low (3–5%), some electronics zero.
- 2The older China tariffs (Section 301, since 2018)Goods made in China
An extra 7.5–25% for most covered products, in place since 2018. Check the USTR search tool. Note: "Section 301" is the law, not one tariff. These China-only duties and the new layer 4 tariff below are two separate actions under the same law, and China pays both.
- 3Metal and auto tariffs (Section 232)Steel · aluminium · copper · autos
Taxed on the full product value in tiers since April 2026: essentially-all-metal products (pipes, wire, sheet) pay an extra 50%; products substantially made of metal, above 15% of weight (cookware, tools, hardware), pay 25%; listed industrial and grid equipment is capped at an all-in 15% until end-2027; metal content of 15% or less of weight escapes Section 232 entirely. UK-origin products with UK-melted metal get reduced rates (50%→25%, 25%→15%). In plain terms: a mostly-metal product like a steel saucepan pays 25% extra on its whole price, even though it is "kitchenware" to you; a product with only a little metal in it (15% of its weight or less) pays nothing under this layer. Cars and parts have their own rates. See CBP's guidance. Section 232 goods skip layer 4.
- 4The new 10% or 12.5% tariff (Section 301)Most countries · in force from 24 July
This replaced the old 10% surcharge on 24 July. What you pay depends on where the product was made. UK-made: extra 10%. China-made and most other countries: extra 12.5% (for China, that is on top of the layer 2 tariffs). EU-made: charged net of the standard tariff, so the total is 10%, or just the standard tariff where that is already 10% or more. Japan, Korea and Switzerland get the same net structure at 12.5%. Not covered at all: metal goods already under layer 3, and a list of exempt products in the official notice.
| Product | Made in | Until 24 Jul (postal flat, $100 parcel) | From 24 Jul (any route, $100 parcel) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton t-shirt | UK | $10 | $26.50 (16.5% MFN + 10% S301) |
| Cotton t-shirt | EU | $10 | $16.50 (MFN alone, already above 10%) |
| Kitchen gadget | China | $10 | $40.90 (3.4% + 25% China + 12.5% S301) |
| Kitchen gadget | UK | $10 | $13.40 (3.4% + 10% S301) |
| Kitchen gadget | EU | $10 | $10.00 (topped up to 10% total, net of MFN) |
| Steel cookware | UK | $10 | MFN + 25% on full value (232; exempt from S301) |
Same $100 product value in every row. Rules in force from 24 July 2026; figures illustrative.
Two lessons: merchants who priced on the postal flat rate just saw their duty cost jump overnight, and origin now decides everything: the same gadget pays $40.90 from China, $13.40 from the UK and $10.00 from the EU. The EU's net-of-MFN treatment now beats the UK across the board, because the UK's 10% stacks on top of the standard tariff while the EU's counts it.
US import duty calculator
Enter the parcel value, where the product was made and what it is: the calculator adds up the duties a UK or EU parcel owes when it enters the US today. The US charges no import VAT, so the "import tax" on a parcel is this customs duty, plus small processing fees.
The flat postal rate ended on 24 July; postal parcels owe the same duties as commercial ones. Illustrative estimate under the rules in force from 24 July 2026. Excludes anti-dumping duties, US sales tax, brokerage and the textile mechanism. The older China tariff shown is the typical rate for that product family (25% for most goods, 7.5% for clothes and shoes, 0% for phones and laptops; custom products assume 25%); the exact ten-digit code decides, and some kitchen and household codes sit at 7.5%. Section 232 per the April 2026 tiers. Not customs advice.
Charge this at checkout, automatically.
Teleship adds the duty for every product and destination to your checkout, and you pay it with the label, so your US customer pays nothing at the door.
Why six-digit HS codes are not enough
This is the part most merchants get wrong, so it is worth taking slowly. Product codes are layered like a postcode. The first six digits, the international HS code, are identical everywhere: 6404.19 means "footwear, rubber or plastic soles, textile uppers, not sports" in London or Los Angeles. The US duty, though, is set by the ten-digit HTS code, and the last four digits are American.
UK commodity codes are also ten digits, so it is tempting to reuse them. Don't. Digits seven to ten are national, and each country splits differently. Under 6404.19 the UK splits by where the shoe is worn (slippers vs other, both a flat 16%); the US splits by price and construction. The same string exists in both tariffs with different meanings:
Feed a UK code into a US duty calculation and you are quoting from the wrong rulebook. And within the US schedule the splits are worth real money: 6404.19.20 pays 37.5% where 6404.19.90 pays 9%. Same first six digits, four times the duty. Deckers, the maker of UGG boots, fought in US federal court for years to move its boots from the 37.5% code to the 9% one, and lost.
The checkout consequence: with six-digit or UK codes, your duty calculation guesses the breakout; US customs charges the true ten-digit rate. Guess low and you undercollect, paying the gap plus carrier fees on every order. Guess high and you lose sales to merchants who classified properly. The fix is unglamorous but decisive: classify your US-bound catalogue to the full ten digits, once, properly. The Teleship app classifies your whole catalogue to ten-digit US HTS codes in bulk, in one place, so your checkout charges the real rate.
What changed on 24 July
1. The temporary surcharge was replaced, not just removed. The US finalised the new tariffs on 23 July and they apply to parcels entering from 24 July: an extra 10% on UK-made goods (and 16 other countries), an extra 12.5% on China-made goods and most of the rest. For UK goods the headline burden is unchanged, 10% swapped for 10%; for the 12.5% tier it rose by 2.5 points. The real change is permanence: unlike the surcharge, these have no built-in expiry. By law they come up for review after four years, but they can be renewed indefinitely, and the 2018 China tariffs, still in force eight years on, show how that usually goes. This is the new normal, not another stopgap.
2. The flat postal rate is gone. Section 122 lapsed at its 150-day statutory limit, taking the 10% surcharge and the flat postal 10% with it, and the final action published no successor: postal parcels now owe the same duties as commercial ones. The one advantage postal keeps for now is paperwork. From 20 January 2027 (moved from 22 October 2026; CBP announced the delay on 14 October), postal parcels that owe Section 232 or 301 duties, which since 24 July means most goods made in the UK and China, or that carry goods regulated by a partner government agency (PGA) such as the FDA or CPSC, need an electronic informal entry called Entry Type 13: the 10-digit HTS code, country of origin, value, duty rate and duty owed. A parcel without one goes to formal entry. So that is a grace period, not a permanent perk.
3. EU-made goods came out ahead. The new tariff on EU goods is charged net of the standard tariff: an EU product pays 10% in total where its standard tariff is below 10%, and just the standard tariff where it is 10% or more. That is less than the 15% all-in rate EU goods paid from 1 to 23 July, and it stays inside the EU-US deal's 15% ceiling by design. UK-made goods get no such treatment: the UK's 10% is added on top of the standard tariff, which is why a low-tariff product now costs more in duty from the UK than from the EU.
What this means for you, per order
If you priced on postal rates, your duty cost just jumped. A merchant selling China-made goods was paying 10% by post; the same parcel now owes around four times that. Your margins need to survive the true rate for your codes and origins, starting with entries today.
If your checkout charges duties, the numbers must reflect the new rates now. Charge too little and you pay the difference on every order. Charge too much and you lose the sale.
If your customer pays duty at the door, expect more refused parcels. Bigger surprise bills mean more refusals, chargebacks and return shipping that you fund.
If your codes stop at six digits, you are already mispricing. The coming rate changes only widen the gap between a guessed rate and the real one.
What to do?
- Start collecting duties and taxes at checkout now, if you have not already. The new rates apply to parcels entering the US from 24 July.
- Classify your US-bound catalogue to ten-digit US HTS codes and record where each product is made. UK commodity codes will not do the job.
- Re-price top sellers at the new rates, not the old postal flat rate, and check the margin holds.
- Shipping by post? Get your product data ready for 20 January 2027. From then, postal parcels owing Section 232 or 301 duties, or carrying FDA- or CPSC-regulated goods such as cosmetics, supplements, food or children's products, need full electronic entry data (Entry Type 13): 10-digit HTS code, origin, value and duty. Teleship can help you get ready.
- Shopify merchants: turn off postal duty pricing at Settings → Taxes and duties → Duties and import taxes → Manage → Use postal duty rates into the United States. The flat postal 10% it charges no longer exists; left on, you undercollect the full stack on every parcel.
- Show duties upfront at checkout so nothing is added at the door.
How Teleship handles this
When the rules move, your store should not have to. Connect once and Teleship does the hard work, fully automated:
- →Two services, one integration, both cheaper than Royal Mail. Teleship Standard DDP, our fast commercial service (3 to 7 days to the US, and the cheapest of the lot), or Teleship Postal on the postal route. Choose per order; we apply the right duty treatment for each automatically.
- →Ten-digit US HTS classification in bulk, across your whole catalogue, in one place. This is what captures the correct duty rate for every product, instead of six-digit guesses that leak margin.
- →Duties and taxes collected upfront at checkout, live per product, origin and route, updated as regulations change. The price your customer sees is the price they pay: no surprises at the door, fewer refused parcels.
- →Importer of Record services for US and EU entry.
Teleship runs natively on Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento; all platforms on our integrations page.
What comes next
The nearest date on the calendar is now 20 January 2027, when the new postal entry rules start (CBP moved them from 22 October 2026). Postal parcels that owe Section 232 or 301 duties, or that carry goods an agency like the FDA or CPSC regulates, will need an Entry Type 13 filing with ten-digit HTS codes, origin and duty, or face formal entry. A separate CBP proposal published on 8 October 2026 would extend the same data requirements to nearly every mail parcel; comments close on 7 December 2026. If you ship by post, use the extra three months to get your product data right, and talk to us: Teleship can help.
Beyond that, this is not the last move. A second US investigation, into 16 economies accused of excess manufacturing capacity, is still open with no decision announced, and could bring more tariffs. The new 10% and 12.5% tariffs are also being challenged at the US Court of International Trade by 25 states and several importers; the duties are still collected, and any refund would depend on what the court orders. A special scheme letting some clothing imports in at reduced rates still has details to land. And the EU is disputing whether the new duties are allowed under its 15% deal, which has its own exit clauses.
We will keep this post and the examples above updated as those pieces move. For now, the rates on this page are the rates: run your own parcels through the calculator with the entry date set to "On/after 24 Jul".
Eight terms, translated
MFN (Most Favoured Nation). The standard US tariff for a product type. The baseline everyone pays, before anything else is added.
HS code. The first six digits of a product code, identical worldwide.
HTS code. The full ten-digit US version of the code. The last four digits are American, and they set the actual US duty.
Country of origin. Where the product was made. Never where you shipped it from.
Section 232. US tariffs on steel, aluminium, copper and cars, and on products made from them.
Section 301. A US trade law used for country-specific tariffs. Two separate actions matter here: the 2018 tariffs on China-made goods, and the new 2026 tariffs on 60 countries. China pays both.
De minimis. The old rule letting parcels under $800 enter the US duty-free. Abolished in 2025; every parcel now pays.
Entry Type 13. The electronic informal entry CBP will require for many postal parcels from 20 January 2027, carrying the 10-digit HTS code, origin, value and duty owed.
General information as at 18 October 2026, not legal or customs advice. Duty figures are illustrative; confirm your rates with a qualified adviser.