Sourcing comparison · Construction Equipment
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 | $15,298 |
| $250,000 | $76,488 |
| $1,000,000 | $305,950 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →A construction equipment importer's margin increasingly turns on a single field on the entry: country of origin. At 39%, China sits well above Taiwan's 10%; on $100,000 of annual buying that difference is around $30,595. For a category this exposed to surcharges, the sourcing map is effectively a pricing map. The breakdown below itemises both duty stacks so the figure is auditable, not asserted.
Start with the two duty stacks side by side. Sourced from China, the goods face a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 25% Section 301 surcharge, and a 12.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its construction equipment, an effective 39% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Taiwan-made goods carry a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its construction equipment, an effective 10% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. The decisive layer is Section 301: a 25% surcharge that applies only to China-origin goods and sits on top of every other duty, which is why China routes run expensive across so many categories. 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. Subtract one stack from the other and $3,059.50 per $10,000 shipment separates the two origins. That same per-dollar gap is about $7,649 on a $25,000 order and $30,595 on $100,000 of annual volume. Scaled to a single $25,000 PO, the gap is near $7,649, repeated on every reorder.
Within HTS 8425, 8426, 8427, 8428, 8429, 8430, 8431, construction equipment includes Excavators, Bulldozers, Tower cranes, Forklifts, Concrete pumps, Road pavers, and Mini excavators. Construction Equipment is a high-turnover category where landed-cost discipline separates the importers who hold margin from those who don't. Construction equipment tariffs raise capital costs for US contractors and infrastructure projects, potentially delaying or reducing scope of construction activity. China's trade profile leans toward consumer electronics, computers servers, and clothing garments, and it sits in Asia-Pacific. China trades without a special US agreement, so column-1 rates and every surcharge apply to its construction equipment in full. Taiwan (Asia-Pacific) sends the United States largely semiconductors chips, computers servers, and consumer electronics. Taiwan trades under a bilateral arrangement that sets a fixed rate on construction equipment alongside the standard duty layers. With both origins in Asia-Pacific, freight lanes and transit times are broadly similar, so duty is the cleanest variable to compare. The recommendation is filtered to feasible suppliers, so Taiwan appears because it plausibly makes construction equipment, not merely because its rate is low. 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.
Where Taiwan is a viable supplier, expect roughly $30,595 at $100,000, rising to about $76,488 at $250,000 and $305,950 at $1,000,000 as volume grows. 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. If any price premium from Taiwan is smaller than the duty saving, the switch still wins on net landed cost. Before acting, confirm the Taiwan supplier classifies under the same HTS heading, can meet your volume and certifications, and faces no product-specific exclusion or quota that shifts the duty. Lock the comparison to a quote date; a surcharge added or lifted can change the ranking between negotiation and purchase order. Open the Tariff Savings Finder to rank every feasible origin for your specific volume.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from China to Taiwan saves an estimated $30,595 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 39% 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.
Taiwan-origin construction equipment is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 10% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
China carries an effective 39% rate versus 10% for Taiwan. 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.
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 .
