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 | $2,638 |
| $250,000 | $13,188 |
| $1,000,000 | $52,750 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →For US importers of construction equipment, country of origin has quietly become the biggest line item you can actually negotiate. Sweden's 11.5% effective rate undercuts Japan's 16.5% by enough to free roughly $5,275 a year at $100,000 of 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 duty layers tell the whole story of the gap. From Japan, the entry is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 15% negotiated bilateral rate on its construction equipment, an effective 16.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Sourced from Sweden, the goods face a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its construction equipment, an effective 11.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. 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 $527.50 gap on every $10,000 of goods, driven entirely by the 5% spread in effective duty rate. Multiply across your volume and it is near $1,319 for $25,000 and about $5,275 for $100,000 a year. On a $25,000 purchase order that is about $1,319 of duty difference — the kind of figure that shows up directly in a quarter's gross margin.
Within HTS 8425, 8426, 8427, 8428, 8429, 8430, 8431, construction equipment includes Excavators, Bulldozers, Tower cranes, and Forklifts. Because construction equipment moves in volume, even a modest per-unit duty gap aggregates into a number that decides sourcing strategy. From Asia-Pacific, Japan's top US-bound categories include passenger vehicles, auto parts components, and industrial machinery. A bilateral deal swaps Japan's Section 122 surcharge for a negotiated rate, reshaping how its construction equipment stack is built. From Europe, Sweden's top US-bound categories include industrial machinery, passenger vehicles, and pharmaceuticals. Sweden trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its construction equipment. Spanning Asia-Pacific and Europe, the two lanes differ in freight and transit, so weigh those against the duty saving. For a buyer committed to Japan, Sweden is a concrete diversification target whose tariff math is settled and whose remaining diligence is commercial. Because surcharges have stacked rates well above their statutory base, country of origin has become a first-order cost driver for construction equipment rather than a footnote.
The headline is $5,275 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $2,638, $13,188, and $52,750 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 Sweden charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the Sweden 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 construction equipment 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 Japan to Sweden saves an estimated $5,275 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 16.5% to 11.5%. 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.
Sweden-origin construction equipment is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, for an effective 11.5% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Japan carries an effective 16.5% rate versus 11.5% for Sweden. The gap comes from differences in the base, Section 122, Section 232 and bilateral rates that apply to each origin.
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.
