China tariffs on clothing are two numbers stacked together — a base MFN rate (about 16.5% on a cotton hoodie, HS 6110.20.20) plus a separately-published Section 301 rate that changes without notice. We write both into every quote before you pay a deposit.
We are Renrui Textile, a garment factory in Suzhou city of China. So many buyer often sent the E-mail to talk with us about the import duties from China to the USA if they place the bulk order to us what the tariff on their order is going to be, and we’ve learned the honest answer is longer than they want it to be — because the real answer is two numbers stacked on top of each other, and one of them has moved more than once since we started writing quotes this year.
If you check with the freight forwarders and they only send a tidy percentage list but it seems to be useless for you. If you check with us, and you will get the number tied to your actual HS code and your actual production date — because we’re the ones who have to write it on your quote before you send a deposit, not the ones trying to get you to book a container.
The duty on a cotton hoodie isn't one number — it's two, stacked
When our customer forwarded us a quotation list from other supplier with a single line — “duty: 12%” — we knew exactly what had been left out. The base MFN rate on a cotton hoodie (HS 6110.20.20) is closer to 16.5%, and even that is never the whole bill.
A base MFN (Most Favored Nation) rate, set by whichever HTS subheading your product actually falls under — search by the code, not the product name, because customs doesn’t care what you call it. “Hoodie” and “sweatshirt” can land in different subheadings depending on the knit.
A Section 301 tariff stacked on top — country-specific, separately published, and the layer that’s actually shifted under us mid-quote before.
We will check hts.usitc.gov website by ourselves before each time when we quote hoodie — not because we don’t know our own product’s code by now, but because the rate attached to it has moved before, and printing yesterday’s number on today’s quote is how a factory loses a customer’s trust in one invoice. The Section 301 rate is published and updated by the Office of the United States Trade Representative at ustr.gov — that page, not a blog post, is current the day you read it.
Anchor these two to the real official pages when the post goes live: hts.usitc.gov (HTS lookup) and ustr.gov (Section 301 actions/lists). Do not link a third-party “tariff guide” site as the authority — that undercuts the entire point of this article.
Why every "current tariff rate" you read online is already out of date
We pulled five tariff guides while writing this, published within weeks of each other. One said 7.5%. Another said a new country-specific rate had just replaced a temporary global tariff, putting the combined number in the low-to-mid teens. One said combined duty on Chinese apparel runs “well above 30% in most cases.” All three were right — for the week they were published, for the HS code they happened to be talking about. None of them were talking about your order.
That’s the actual lesson, and it’s also why we stopped printing a fixed percentage in our own marketing a while back: the rate moves at any time, sometimes inside the gap between your deposit and your ship date. A number we can’t stand behind on the day the container clears isn’t a number worth printing.
A worked example: 300 pcs custom hoodies, FOB vs. DDP
Numbers are easier to trust when you can see where they came from, so here’s one built off our own published pricing instead of a hypothetical.
| Order detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Product | Standard 280gsm pullover hoodie, custom dye, printed logo, woven label |
| Quantity | 300 pcs (one colourway) |
| FOB unit cost at this volume | $3.00–$4.00/pc (our published 300–499pc tier) |
| FOB total | $900–$1,200 |
| HS code | 6110.20 (cotton hoodie/sweatshirt) |
| Base MFN duty | ~16.5% of declared value for HS 6110.20.20 (verify current rate at hts.usitc.gov for your exact code) |
| Section 301 add-on | Varies — check the current list at ustr.gov before you budget; this is the layer that has moved the most in 2026 |
Add duty on top of the FOB total, then add international freight, US customs brokerage, and last-mile delivery, and you get your landed cost per piece — the number that actually decides your margin, not the FOB price on the quote. Two ways this plays out once the container’s by sea.
Route 1 — FOB, you handle customs
We quote it as FOB price for you, and then you need pay the sea freight, duty, and brokerage separately once your goods clear a US port. You keep the pen on which forwarder and which broker you use — and you also keep three separate invoices to reconcile before you actually know your per-piece cost. If your broker files the wrong HS code, you find out after the container’s already sitting in a bonded warehouse, not before.
Route 2 — DDP, one number, no customs handling
We quote delivered duty paid instead: freight, duty, brokerage, and last-mile are already folded into one number before you approve the order. You’re not adding up three invoices to find your real cost, and if this is your first time clearing a container through US customs, you never have to learn how on this order — we’ve already done it on someone else’s. This is the version most private label orders go with, because it turns your landed cost into one number you can put straight into your own retail math.
DDP isn’t automatically cheaper. You’re paying us to hold the customs risk instead of holding it yourself, and if you already have a broker and a freight rate you trust, FOB can win. Ask for both numbers on the same quote. Most suppliers will only hand you one — usually whichever is easier for them to write.
The same two-layer math applies whether you’re pricing a custom sweatpants order or a hoodie run — the HS code changes, the stacking logic doesn’t.
What we actually put on your written quote
This is the part that made us write this article in the first place. Most sourcing content — ours included, until a customer called us out on it two quotes ago — says “budget roughly X% for duty” and stops there. A range isn’t a number you can put in a spreadsheet and defend to your own buyer.
On your quote, before you pay a deposit, you get:
- The base MFN rate for your HS code
- The Section 301 rate in effect as of your production date, not the date you first asked — that’s the date the rate that actually applies gets locked in
- The combined rate, written as one line — Combined duty: [rate]%, as of [production date] — tied to your order value, not a range
- A DDP quote next to the FOB quote, so you can compare the all-in number instead of doing your own duty math on the back of the invoice
If a sourcing guide handed you a duty percentage without asking your HS code or your production date, that number was a guess wearing a suit. Ours is arithmetic against your actual purchase order.
A landed cost calculator you can use on any quote — not just ours
We have this open in a browser tab every time we build a quote — not a polished internal tool, just a spreadsheet with the same ten rows below. Copy it into your own and run it against any supplier’s FOB number, not only ours.
| Line item | Your number | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| FOB unit cost | ____ | Supplier’s quote |
| Order quantity | ____ | Your PO |
| FOB total | = unit cost × quantity | Calculated |
| Base MFN duty rate | ____% | hts.usitc.gov, by your HS code |
| Section 301 rate | ____% | ustr.gov, current list |
| Combined duty amount | = FOB total × (MFN% + 301%) | Calculated |
| Freight (ocean/air) | ____ | Your forwarder’s quote |
| Customs brokerage fee | ____ | Your broker’s quote |
| Landed total | = FOB total + duty + freight + brokerage | Calculated |
| Landed cost per piece | = landed total ÷ quantity | This is your real cost |
No email required to use it. If you’d rather hand us your quantity and target garment and let us fill in both the FOB and DDP rows ourselves, that’s what the quote request on our hoodie page is for.
FAQ
The answer is No — it depends on the HS code, and garment type changes the code more often than people expect. Knit versus woven, cotton versus a synthetic blend, hoodie versus jacket can all land under different subheadings with different base rates and different Section 301 list assignments. Check by code, not by the name on your spec sheet.
Yes, and it’s happened on orders we’ve quoted. That’s why our written number is dated to your production date, not the day you first emailed us — quoting off a rate that was true when you asked but not when you shipped is how buyers get an invoice they didn’t budget for, and it matters most on a low-MOQ first order where the margin is already tight.
Not automatically — see the FOB vs. DDP section above. Ask for both on the same quote and compare them for your actual order instead of assuming one is always cheaper.
Both layers of your import duties from China to the USA are published openly. hts.usitc.gov for the base HTS rate — search by code, not product name. ustr.gov for current Section 301 actions and lists. Both are free, no login.
Generally your declared FOB purchase value, not your retail price. If you need this confirmed for a specific filing, that’s a question for your customs broker or cbp.gov — we’ll tell you what we know, but we’re not the ones signing your entry summary.
We don’t calculate it ourselves. We quote the rate published at hts.usitc.gov and ustr.gov as of your production date, and you can check both against our number before you pay a deposit. If our rate doesn’t match the official page on that date, don’t order.
Sources referenced in this article
These are the same pages Renrui Textile checks before writing any US quote.
- U.S. International Trade Commission — HTS lookup: hts.usitc.gov
- Office of the U.S. Trade Representative — Section 301 actions: ustr.gov
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection — import valuation guidance: cbp.gov
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