Sourcing comparison · Crude Oil & Petroleum
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 | $6,594 |
| $250,000 | $32,969 |
| $1,000,000 | $131,875 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →Buyers comparing Iraq and Iran for crude oil & petroleum are really comparing two very different duty stacks. Switch the origin from Iraq (12.6%) to Iran (0.1%) and an importer reclaims about $13,188 for every $100,000 purchased. Unlike freight or FX, the duty rate is set by which country's stamp the goods carry — a choice made at the contract, not at the port. What follows is the layer-by-layer comparison, the trade context behind each rate, and how the gap grows with volume.
Consider what each country's goods actually face at the border. A Iraq origin attracts a 0.1% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 12.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its crude oil & petroleum, an effective 12.6% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. On the Iran side, Customs applies a 0.1% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty on its crude oil & petroleum, an effective 0.1% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Processing and harbor fees apply identically whichever country ships the goods ($49.74 here), confirming the saving is pure duty, not fee. The arithmetic difference between the stacks is $1,318.75 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 $3,297 on a $25,000 order and $13,188 on $100,000 of annual volume. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $3,297 of avoidable duty on each one.
Classified in HTS chapter 2709, 2710, crude oil & petroleum spans products like Crude oil, Gasoline, Diesel fuel, Jet fuel, Fuel oil, Naphtha, and Lubricating oils. The US imports crude oil & petroleum at scale, so the origin mix for this category is unusually sensitive to tariff policy. In practical terms, crude petroleum, refined petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, and petrochemical feedstocks. Iraq (Middle East) sends the United States largely crude oil petroleum, natural gas lng, and chemicals industrial compounds. Iraq trades without a special US agreement, so column-1 rates and every surcharge apply to its crude oil & petroleum in full. Iran, in Middle East, ships the US mainly crude oil petroleum, natural gas lng, and chemicals industrial compounds. With no preferential deal in force, Iran crude oil & petroleum faces the standard rates plus any applicable surcharge. Shared Middle East routing keeps logistics roughly comparable and leaves the duty gap as the decisive number. Iran clears this category at a structurally lower rate than Iraq, an edge that persists across order cycles rather than a spot-price blip. With the US running its highest average tariff in decades, concentrated exposure to one high-duty origin is now a measurable annual cost rather than an abstract risk.
Anchor your own volume to these tiers: $6,594 at $50,000, $32,969 at $250,000, $131,875 at $1,000,000, and about $13,188 at $100,000. All values are calculated, not assumed — the engine applies the current published rates to identical goods and reports the 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. Read the $13,188 as a transition budget — if re-sourcing to Iran costs less than the annual saving, it pays back inside a year. Diligence on Iran is commercial, not regulatory: supplier capacity, MOQ, tooling and re-qualification cost — the duty advantage itself is already settled above. Lock the comparison to a quote date; a surcharge added or lifted can change the ranking between negotiation and purchase order. Use the Tariff Savings Finder to test your real numbers and see alternatives beyond Iran.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from Iraq to Iran saves an estimated $13,188 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 12.6% to 0.1%. 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.
Iran-origin crude oil & petroleum is assessed a 0.1% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, for an effective 0.1% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Iraq carries an effective 12.6% rate versus 0.1% for Iran. 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 .
