Sourcing comparison · Candles & Home Fragrance
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 | $13,188 |
| $250,000 | $65,938 |
| $1,000,000 | $263,750 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →The cheapest factory for candles & home fragrance is no longer always the cheapest landed cost — tariffs have reshuffled the math. The effective rate falls from 38% on China shipments to 13% on Germany shipments — close to $26,375 per $100,000 of imports each year. 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 duty layers tell the whole story of the gap. From China, the entry is assessed a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 25% Section 301 surcharge, and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its candles & home fragrance, an effective 38% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Shipped out of Germany, the product is hit with a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its candles & home fragrance, an effective 13% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. China carries the 25% Section 301 China duty, a punitive layer that compounds on top of the ordinary tariff and has no equivalent on the Germany side. Section 122 adds a reciprocal duty that one origin escapes via a bilateral deal — a meaningful but expiring factor in the current gap. The $49.74 in processing and harbor fees is the same on both sides, leaving the duty layers as the only mover of the gap. That leaves a $2,637.50 gap on every $10,000 of goods, driven entirely by the 25% spread in effective duty rate. Across a year that is roughly $6,594 on a $25,000 purchase order and about $26,375 on a $100,000 program. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $6,594 of avoidable duty on each one.
The category, HTS 3406, 3307, takes in Scented candles, Pillar candles, Tea lights, and Incense sticks among other candles & home fragrance. The US imports candles & home fragrance at scale, so the origin mix for this category is unusually sensitive to tariff policy. From Asia-Pacific, China's top US-bound categories include consumer electronics, computers servers, and clothing garments. With no preferential deal in force, China candles & home fragrance faces the standard rates plus any applicable surcharge. From Europe, Germany's top US-bound categories include passenger vehicles, industrial machinery, and pharmaceuticals. Germany trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its candles & home fragrance. Spanning Asia-Pacific and Europe, the two lanes differ in freight and transit, so weigh those against the duty saving. A switch to Germany still hinges on capacity, certification and lead time, but the duty advantage is the part that is already quantified. 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 $26,375 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $13,188, $65,938, and $263,750 at $50,000, $250,000, and $1,000,000. The numbers come straight from the landed-cost engine, with product cost and shipping fixed across both origins to isolate the tariff difference. 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 Germany charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the Germany 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 candles & home fragrance has shifted repeatedly through the year. Model your exact volume and compare further origins in the interactive Tariff Savings Finder. One origin still carries the Section 122 surcharge, due to expire mid-2026; the ranking can shift once it lapses.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from China to Germany saves an estimated $26,375 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 38% to 13%. 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.
Germany-origin candles & home fragrance is assessed a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, for an effective 13% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
China carries an effective 38% rate versus 13% for Germany. The gap is driven mainly by the 25% Section 301 surcharge that applies to Chinese-origin goods and stacks on top of every other layer.
Possibly. One of these origins currently carries the Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, which is scheduled to expire in mid-2026. The Tariff Savings Finder lets you toggle a post-expiry view to see whether the ranking shifts once that surcharge is removed.
Tariff rates from Tax Foundation, USITC, and Penn Wharton Budget Model. Last verified May 13, 2026.
