2026 US tariff changes, and what they cost you
Six measures are doing most of the damage to importer margins this year, and three of them moved in the last eight weeks. Each page below sets out what changed, who it hits, a worked cost example with real arithmetic, and what is still unsettled. Where a figure is contested or in litigation we say so rather than guessing.
Moved most recently
The Section 122 global surcharge expired on 24 July 2026 and Section 301 forced labour duties took its place the same morning. Section 338 duties on selected Canadian goods followed on 22 August. If your landed cost model has not been touched since the spring, it is wrong in both directions: some layers came off in February, and new ones went on in July.
The six that matter
Ordered by how directly they hit a small or mid sized e-commerce importer.
The $800 de minimis exemption is suspended: what US importers pay now
Every parcel entering the United States is now dutiable, whatever it is worth. CBP made the suspension indefinite by regulation in June 2026, and Congress has already legislated the permanent repeal.
Read the detail →The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs: refunds, deadlines and what survived
A 6 to 3 decision wiped out the reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs and opened one of the largest refund exercises US customs has ever run. Section 232 and Section 301 duties were left standing.
Read the detail →Section 301 forced labour tariffs: 10% or 12.5% across 60 economies
The temporary Section 122 surcharge expired on 24 July 2026 and a permanent looking Section 301 layer took its place the same morning, priced by how seriously USTR judged each economy polices forced labour.
Read the detail →What Chinese goods actually cost to import in 2026: the duty stack after IEEPA
The phrase "reciprocal tariff rate for China" no longer describes anything that exists. Here is what a Chinese origin shipment is actually assessed today, layer by layer.
Read the detail →Section 338 duties on Canada: 50% on a product list far wider than cars and cheese
Three July proclamations revived a 1930 statute that had sat unused for most of a century, and the annexes reach a long way past the motor vehicles, alcohol and dairy in their titles.
Read the detail →Section 232 metals now hit full customs value, not metal content
The rate change made the headlines. The valuation change did the damage. A derivative article that used to be dutiable on its metal content alone is now dutiable on the whole invoice.
Read the detail →Outside the US
This hub tracks US measures. Two European changes move landed cost by a comparable amount and are covered in full elsewhere on the site.
The EU abolished its €150 duty relief and put a €3 charge in its place
The relief ended on 1 July 2026. A temporary €3 duty per item now applies to low value distance sales, billed to the seller rather than the shopper, and is scheduled to run to 1 July 2028.
Read the detail →EU countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles, and the way out of them
Anti-subsidy duties of 7.8% to 35.3% still stand on top of the 10% car tariff, but a producer that agrees a minimum import price with the Commission ships free of them.
Read the detail →Dates already on the calendar
Measures and deadlines that are real and dated but do not have a page of their own yet. Every one of these has a fixed date attached, which makes them plannable in a way the litigation does not.
CBP set 22 October 2026 as the compliance date for the new postal informal entry process covering mail merchandise valued at $2,500 or less. Anyone still moving goods through international mail should have entry data ready before then.
178 product exclusions from the 2018 China action remain valid until 10 November 2026. Whether they are extended again is a live question for fourth quarter purchasing.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminates the $800 administrative exemption as a matter of law from 1 July 2027 and adds civil penalties for misuse, closing off a regulatory reinstatement.
The 15% transitional rate, the 10% US metal content rate and the country preferences created in June 2026 all run out on 31 December 2027, after which covered products revert to the higher baseline tiers.
How these pages are kept honest
Tariff pages age badly, and a stale rate is worse than no rate because somebody will price a purchase order against it. Three rules keep this hub usable. First, every page carries the date its claims were last checked, printed on the page rather than buried in a changelog. Second, where a measure is in litigation or where a figure comes from trade advisories rather than from CBP guidance, the page says so in the status block instead of presenting a single confident number. Third, worked examples label their assumed duty rates as illustrative, because the only rate that governs your shipment is the one attached to your own 10 digit classification.
This is a reference site rather than a customs broker. Use it to understand what changed and roughly what it costs, then confirm the specifics with your broker or with the published tariff schedule before money moves.
Common questions
Which US tariff changes are actually in effect right now?
As of 28 August 2026 the measures with live cost impact are the indefinite suspension of the $800 de minimis exemption, the Section 301 forced labour duties of 10% or 12.5% across 60 economies, the Section 232 metals tariffs assessed on full customs value, the surviving Section 301 China lists, and the Section 338 duties on selected Canadian goods. The IEEPA reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs were struck down in February 2026 and are no longer collected.
Why do tariff trackers disagree with each other so much?
Three reasons. Some have not been updated since the February 2026 Supreme Court ruling removed an entire layer. Some quote trade weighted averages across a whole country, which is not the rate any single shipment pays. And some blend measures that rest on different statutes, which matters because a court can strike one down without touching the others.
How often is this page checked?
Each page carries its own verification date and we re-check the underlying measures on a fixed cadence, more often when a court date or an expiry is approaching. Nothing on this hub is written from memory, and where a figure is contested or pending we say so on the page rather than picking a number.
Put a number on it
Run your own product and origin through the calculator to see duty, VAT and landed cost together.
Sources cited across these pages: bis.gov, budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu, cbp.gov, congress.gov, federalregister.gov, hts.usitc.gov, ustr.gov, whitehouse.gov. Every measure page lists the specific notice it rests on. Hub last verified 28 August 2026 (2026-08-28). Estimates only. Verify with your customs authority or a licensed broker.