CISO Marketplace · Custody Fulfillment

What it really costs to bring your hardware into the US

European security hardware does not arrive here at its European price. Between the tariff, the customs fee, the broker and the rules governing lithium cells, there is a real and knowable gap — and for a lot of vendors the battery rules alone are why they cannot sell to a US buyer at all. Here is the arithmetic, from an entry we actually brought in.

Scope your US entry → See fulfillment pricing

One real entry, broken down

A shipment of keys, a phone and accessories from Germany, declared at $2,974. Total import charges came to $550.68 — an effective 18.52% on declared value.

Duty
$446.10
15.000%
Merchandise Processing Fee
$33.58
1.129% — at floor
Broker entry-line charge
$54.00
1.816%
Broker disbursement fee
$17.00
0.572%
Total import charges
$550.68
18.516%
Only 15 of those 18.5 points are the tariff The rest is the customs processing fee and brokerage. Around $71 of it is carrier brokerage margin — a cost structure rather than a tax, and one a different broker removes entirely. The difference between “the tariff is 15%” and “landed cost is 18.5%” is exactly the gap that surprises people building a US price.

The rate depends on origin, not on where it ships from

Current as of 20 August 2026, and this moved twice in 2026 — IEEPA was struck down in February and replaced by a Section 122 surcharge, which hit its statutory limit and expired on 24 July. A Section 301 forced-labor tariff replaced it.

European Union

15.0%All-inclusive ceiling
  • Single capped rate under the US–EU framework, effective 1 July 2026.
  • A ceiling, not an additive layer — MFN and Section 301 do not stack on top.
  • The cheapest origin in this supply chain. Worth protecting.

China

37.5%Typical electronics
  • 12.5% forced-labor base plus the Section 301 product rate.
  • Most electronics sit in Lists 1–3 at 25%; List 4A consumer goods at 7.5%.
  • The rate depends on the 10-digit line — the category never settles it.

Vietnam

12.5%Plus MFN, often 0% on phones
  • Same forced-labor tier as China, but no Section 301 product tariff.
  • HS 8517.13 smartphones commonly carry 0% MFN under the ITA.
  • Roughly 25 points cheaper than China for the same class of device.
Your shipment probably carries more than one origin Ours did: German keys, Chinese accessories, a Vietnamese-assembled handset — one waybill, three different rate stacks. Origin is a legal determination about where a product was substantially transformed, not a shipping address, and it is settled per line. Our intake captures HS code and country of origin on every line, and flags any line where the shipping country and the origin country disagree.

Why small shipments are punished

The Merchandise Processing Fee is 0.3464% of entered value, with a floor of $33.58 and a ceiling of $651.50 in FY2026. Our entry paid the floor — and so would an entry of any value up to roughly $9,694.

This is the consolidation argument in one number The fee is identical whether you enter $500 of product or $9,000 of it. On a small shipment the floor alone can exceed the duty. Consolidating vendor inbound into fewer, larger entries is the single cheapest lever available on landed cost, and it is one of the things a US warehouse position buys you.

Batteries: the constraint that is not a tariff

Lithium cells are the reason several European vendors cannot sell their phones and laptops to US buyers at all. None of this is duty — it is transport law, and it bites earlier in the process than customs does.

Documents that must exist

  • UN 38.3 test report and summary per battery model. Most carriers refuse the freight without it.
  • Safety data sheet for the cell.
  • Dangerous goods declaration matched to the correct UN number.
  • CPSC General Certificate of Conformity where a CPSC rule applies.

How it has to move

  • UN 3481 — cells contained in equipment: a laptop or a phone.
  • UN 3480 — standalone cells, barred from passenger aircraft.
  • 30% state-of-charge cap on air-freighted lithium-ion.
  • Class 9 labelling, compliant packaging, IMDG 42-24 on the ocean leg from 1 Jan 2026.

What we handle once it lands

  • Domestic movement falls under 49 CFR, enforced by PHMSA — separate rules from the inbound leg.
  • Any carrier touching battery freight must be PHMSA-registered.
  • Segregated storage for battery stock, with damaged or swollen cells quarantined rather than returned to pick stock.
  • Every SKU is classified on intake — unclassified is a receiving stop, never a default to “no battery”.
The same paperwork unlocks the marketplaces UN 38.3 satisfies the carrier, the customs entry, TikTok Shop and eBay — one document, four gatekeepers. TikTok has required hazmat attributes on all US listings since 7 October 2024, and a listing without them is blocked rather than warned. CPSC eFiling has been mandatory before customs entry since 8 July 2026, with no de minimis escape on value. If you intend to sell on US marketplaces, this is the work that gets you listed.

Who owns the stock, and who pays the duty

These are two separate questions and they are easy to conflate. Title decides whose balance sheet the inventory sits on. Importer of record decides who pays the duty at the border and who carries the liability if a classification is later found wrong.

Model Who holds title Who is importer of record What it means for you
Consignment
How we work 		You. Always. Normally you, as a non-resident importer — or your carrier under a duty-paid incoterm. Your capital stays in your own inventory. We hold, pick, pack and ship it; you keep title until it sells.
Wholesale The distributor, once they buy it. The distributor. You get paid sooner, at a lower price, and lose control of positioning and pricing downstream.
Drop-ship You. You, on every parcel. No US inventory position at all. Every order is an individual export — and every one pays that customs fee floor.
The question consignment does not answer by itself Consignment keeps the inventory on your balance sheet rather than ours, which is the point — but the duty still has to be paid by somebody at the border, before the goods reach the shelf. If a warehouse takes importer-of-record status on goods it does not own, it is fronting roughly 18–19% of declared value on someone else's stock and carrying the classification liability with it. That is why we ask early whether you can act as a non-resident importer, or ship under a duty-paid incoterm. It is the difference between consignment working and consignment quietly becoming a loan.

Where to start

Bring us the product list with HS codes and country of origin per line, the UN 38.3 summary for anything with a cell, and your expected volumes. We will model the landed cost, tell you where the classification risk sits, and quote the fulfillment against it.

Start the intake → Estimate fulfillment cost

The same arithmetic, written for buyers rather than vendors, is published on our own storefront at securitygadgets.shop/import-tariffs — we run this model on our own inventory, not only on our clients'.

Not customs advice. Rates here are working notes, current as of 20 August 2026 and moving repeatedly through the year. Duty owed on any specific shipment depends on its 10-digit HTSUS line, the entry date, and the Chapter 99 provisions live that week. Confirm with a licensed customs broker before filing. Sources: CBP (MPF FY2026; de minimis final rule 24 Jun 2026), USTR (Section 301 lists and four-year review, 89 FR 76581; forced-labor tariff replacing Section 122, 24 Jul 2026), US–EU framework 15% ceiling eff. 1 Jul 2026, PHMSA 49 CFR, UN Manual of Tests and Criteria 38.3, IMDG Amendment 42-24.

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