Sourcing comparison · Aircraft & Parts
Tariff & fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier.
| Annual import value | Estimated duty & fee savings / year |
|---|---|
| $50,000 | $1,319 |
| $250,000 | $6,594 |
| $1,000,000 | $26,375 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →The cheapest factory for aircraft & parts is no longer always the cheapest landed cost — tariffs have reshuffled the math. Brazil carries roughly 12.5% in duties and fees against 10% for Mexico, a spread worth near $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. Origin is one of the few cost levers a US importer controls outright, and it has rarely mattered more. Below, each tariff layer is laid out for both origins, with the saving scaled to several order sizes.
The gap is easiest to see by walking each origin's tariffs in turn. On the Brazil side, Customs applies a 12.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its aircraft & parts, an effective 12.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Shipped out of Mexico, the product is hit with a 10% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its aircraft & parts, an effective 10% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Two charges are origin-blind — the MPF and HMF, together $49.74 on this entry — which is why the entire difference lives in the duty layers. The arithmetic difference between the stacks is $263.75 per $10,000 entry, all of it in the duty layers since the processing fees are origin-blind. That same per-dollar gap is about $659 on a $25,000 order and $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. On a $25,000 purchase order that is about $659 of duty difference — the kind of figure that shows up directly in a quarter's gross margin.
The category, HTS 8801, 8802, 8804, 8805, 8807, takes in Commercial jets, Business aircraft, Helicopters, UAVs/drones, Jet engines, Avionics, and Landing gear among other aircraft & parts. Because aircraft & parts moves in volume, even a modest per-unit duty gap aggregates into a number that decides sourcing strategy. Commercial aircraft, helicopters, private planes, drones, aircraft engines, avionics, landing gear, and all components for aircraft maintenance and manufacture. From South America, Brazil's top US-bound categories include steel iron products, crude oil petroleum, and fresh produce. Brazil has no agreement to soften the stack, so its aircraft & parts carries the full column-1 plus surcharge load. A North America supplier, Mexico concentrates its US exports in passenger vehicles, auto parts components, and consumer electronics. USMCA lets compliant Mexico aircraft & parts skip the duty stack other origins pay (USMCA 0%, except Section 338 annex goods), provided rules of origin are satisfied. Different regions — South America versus North America — mean shipping economics deserve a look beside the tariff math. For a buyer committed to Brazil, Mexico is a concrete diversification target whose tariff math is settled and whose remaining diligence is commercial. US tariff policy in 2026 is unusually fluid, with effective rates on many categories changing several times a year — a reason to treat any origin comparison as a live calculation rather than a fixed sheet.
The headline is $2,638 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $1,319, $6,594, and $26,375 at $50,000, $250,000, and $1,000,000. The comparison is generated by running the same inputs through the tariff engine for each origin, which keeps everything but the duty layers equal. These figures reflect tariff and fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier. Subtract any per-unit premium Mexico charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the Mexico option: match the HTS classification, get a quote that itemises duty apart from freight, and check for any antidumping or countervailing order on your item. Re-run the figures close to your decision: the duty landscape for aircraft & parts has shifted repeatedly through the year. Model your exact volume and compare further origins in the interactive Tariff Savings Finder.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from Brazil to Mexico saves an estimated $2,638 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 12.5% to 10%. The saving scales linearly with volume. These figures reflect tariff and fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier.
Mexico-origin aircraft & parts is assessed a 10% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 10% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Brazil carries an effective 12.5% rate versus 10% for Mexico. The gap comes from differences in the base, Section 232 and bilateral rates that apply to each origin.
Tariff rates from Tax Foundation, USITC, and Penn Wharton Budget Model; retaliatory and industry data from the ITA Foreign Retaliations Database and U.S. Census Bureau (NAICS). Last verified .
