Landed cost calculator for Amazon FBA sellers buying from China

Landed cost calculator for Amazon FBA sellers importing from China: product, freight, stacked duties, MPF, HMF, broker and prep, with a worked example.

Landed cost per unit is the total of product cost, freight and insurance, customs duties and stacked tariffs, CBP fees, broker and filing charges, US delivery and FBA prep, divided by the number of sellable units. For a first order from China in September 2026 the duty stack alone is often 20% to 55% of the product price, and since de minimis ended on 29 August 2025 there is no shipment size small enough to avoid it. This guide gives the formula, explains each line, works a dated example and sets out a spreadsheet layout you can reuse.

Every dollar figure in the example is illustrative. The duty and fee rates are correct as of 3 September 2026 and are dated; check them against the linked CBP, USTR and USITC pages on the day you order.

The formula

Landed cost per unit = (Product cost + Freight + Insurance + Duties + CBP fees + Broker and filing + US delivery + FBA prep) / Sellable units

Where:

• Product cost is the invoice price for the goods under your Incoterm (EXW, FOB, CIF), plus any tooling or molds you paid separately.
• Freight is origin charges, ocean or air freight, and destination terminal charges, whichever are not already inside the product price.
• Duties = Customs value x (HTS base rate + Section 301 list rate + Section 301 forced-labor rate + Section 232 rate, as applicable).
• CBP fees = merchandise processing fee (MPF) and, for ocean, harbor maintenance fee (HMF).
• Sellable units is the quantity ordered less an allowance for defects, samples and damage.

Each line explained

Product cost and customs value

Duty is computed on customs value, which for an arm's-length purchase is transaction value: "the price actually paid or payable" for the goods when sold for export to the United States, plus statutory additions such as assists (molds, tooling, artwork you supplied), packing and selling commissions (19 CFR 152.103). International freight and insurance are not part of customs value, but only if the invoice itemizes them; a single CIF price with no breakdown gets valued in full. That is why the invoice matters: Commercial invoice requirements for US customs.

Freight and insurance

Get an all-in quote from origin pickup to your US delivery address, with origin, ocean or air, destination terminal, and trucking shown separately. Ocean LCL is priced per cubic meter, FCL per container, air per chargeable kilogram. Cargo insurance is optional but cheap relative to the duty exposure.

The duty stack for products of China (as of 3 September 2026)

Goods subject to Section 232 are excluded from the forced-labor duty; everything else from China gets it. Antidumping and countervailing duties are a separate product-specific layer. The mechanics of finding each layer are in How to find the HTS code for my product.

CBP fees

The MPF minimum bites on small orders: any ocean or air entry with a customs value under about $9,700 pays the minimum. HMF does not apply to air freight (19 CFR 24.24 covers cargo "loaded on or unloaded from a commercial vessel").

Broker, ISF, bond

A licensed customs broker charges an entry fee, an ISF filing fee for ocean shipments, and either a single transaction bond per entry or an annual continuous bond. These are commercial prices; get a written quote. What each of them is, and when a continuous bond pays for itself, is in Customs bond, ISF 10+2 and hiring a broker.

US delivery and FBA prep

Port or airport pickup, trucking to a prep center or directly to the Amazon fulfillment center on your shipment plan, and prep (poly bags, FNSKU labels, bubble wrap, carton labels) either at the factory or in the US. Amazon will not act as importer of record and will not pay duties, so a shipment cannot arrive at a fulfillment center with charges owing.

Worked example (illustrative, dated 3 September 2026)

Product: plastic drawer organizer, classified 3924.90.56 (other household articles of plastics), General rate 3.4%, on Section 301 List 4A (heading 9903.88.15, 7.5%), subject to the forced-labor duty (heading 9903.05.31, 12.5%). Not a Section 232 article. Order: 1,000 units at $4.20 FOB Shenzhen, ocean LCL to Los Angeles, then trucked to a prep center.

Duties and CBP fees come to $1,021.63, or 14.2% of landed cost; the product itself is 58%. The same math on a $9.00 backpack of man-made fibers (4202.92.31: 17.6% base, List 3 at 25%, forced labor 12.5%, total 55.1%) adds $4.96 of duty per unit before a single fee, which is why the HTS code needs to be settled before you accept the factory's quote.

If you allow 2% for defects and samples, divide by 980 sellable units instead: $7.35 per unit.

What the end of de minimis changed

Until May 2025 a seller could route small quantities from China direct to customers or to FBA in parcels valued under $800 with no duty and no entry. That path closed for China and Hong Kong on 2 May 2025 and for every country on 29 August 2025 under Executive Order 14324. The suspension was continued by Executive Order 14388 on 20 February 2026 (the day the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs), CBP wrote it into its regulations by interim final rule effective 24 June 2026, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repeals the statutory exemption on 1 July 2027.

For your spreadsheet this means: the fixed costs of an entry (MPF minimum, broker fee, ISF, bond) now apply to every shipment, so a 200-unit test order carries a much higher landed cost per unit than a 1,000-unit order of the same product. Model the order size, not just the unit price.

Spreadsheet layout

One row per SKU per shipment, with these columns:

1. SKU, description, HTS 10-digit, Chapter 99 headings, entry date
2. Units ordered, units sellable
3. Unit price, currency, Incoterm, product cost (converted to USD)
4. Assists (molds, tooling) apportioned to this shipment
5. Freight: origin, main leg, destination; insurance
6. Customs value
7. Rates: HTS base, 301 list, 301 forced labor, 232, AD/CVD (each as a percentage, with the date checked)
8. Duty amounts, one column per layer, and total
9. MPF (with minimum and maximum applied), HMF
10. Broker, ISF, bond
11. US trucking, prep, labeling
12. Total landed, landed per unit, duty share of landed cost

Keep the rate columns as inputs with a "checked on" date next to them. Rates in this space changed at least five times between February 2025 and July 2026.

What moves the number most

• The HTS code and its Chapter 99 lists. A 3.4% base with List 4A is a 23.4% stack; a 17.6% base with List 3 is 55.1%. Nothing else in the sheet moves a per-unit cost that much.
• Order size against fixed entry costs. The MPF minimum, broker fee, ISF and bond are the same for 200 units or 2,000.
• Ocean versus air. Air removes HMF and cuts transit from weeks to days, but freight per unit typically rises several times over for bulky goods.
• Section 232 status. A stainless steel kitchenware line or a wooden shelf can move from the 301 stack to a 232 rate on full value; check the current Chapter 99 notes before ordering anything with steel, aluminum, copper or wood.
• Product cost itself. A 10% discount from the factory is worth less than a 10% duty layer, because the duty layers are all computed on the same price.

What to keep on file

Keep the landed-cost sheet for each shipment with the CBP Form 7501 as filed, the broker's invoice showing duties and fees paid, the freight and insurance invoices, and a note of where you took each rate from (USITC revision number, USTR list, CSMS bulletin number, Federal Register citation) and the date you checked it. Entry records must be kept for 5 years (19 CFR 163.4), and this sheet is what you will use to reconcile any refund, such as the IEEPA refunds CBP is paying through CAPE, against the entry it belongs to.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• CBP, User Fee Table (MPF and HMF rates)
• CBP Dec. 25-10, Customs User Fees To Be Adjusted for Inflation in Fiscal Year 2026, Federal Register, 23 July 2025
• Customs User Fees To Be Adjusted for Inflation in Fiscal Year 2027, Federal Register, 31 July 2026
• 19 CFR 24.23 and 24.24, Merchandise processing fee and harbor maintenance fee (eCFR)
• 19 CFR 152.103, Transaction value (eCFR)
• USITC, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (rates for 3924.90.56, 4202.92.31, 9903.88.15, 9903.88.03, 9903.05.31)
• CBP CSMS 69326983, Guidance: Section 301 Forced Labor Import Duties (24 July 2026)
• USTR, Section 301 tariff actions on China
• CBP CSMS 67834313, Ending Collection of IEEPA Duties (effective 24 February 2026)
• CBP, IEEPA Duty Refunds (CAPE)
• Executive Order 14324, Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries, Federal Register, 5 August 2025
• Executive Order 14388, Continuing the Suspension of Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries, Federal Register, 25 February 2026
• CBP interim final rule, Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption, Federal Register, 24 June 2026
• Proclamation, Strengthening Actions Taken To Adjust Imports of Aluminum, Steel, and Copper (Section 232), Federal Register, 9 April 2026
• Amazon Seller Central forum, Importing 101 for FBA Sellers: Part 1 (Amazon staff post)

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