Sourcing comparison · Industrial Machinery
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 →Sourcing industrial machinery is now a tariff decision as much as a supplier decision. At 12.5%, South Korea sits well above Italy's 10%; on $100,000 of annual buying that difference is around $2,638. The importers who win this cycle are the ones treating country of origin as a number to optimise, not a given. What follows is the layer-by-layer comparison, the trade context behind each rate, and how the gap grows with volume.
Start with the two duty stacks side by side. A South Korea origin attracts a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its industrial machinery, an effective 12.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. From Italy, the entry is assessed a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its industrial machinery, an effective 10% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Because the MPF and HMF ($49.74 combined) track customs value rather than origin, they wash out of the comparison entirely. That leaves a $263.75 gap on every $10,000 of goods, driven entirely by the 2.5% spread in effective duty rate. Across a year that is roughly $659 on a $25,000 purchase order and about $2,638 on a $100,000 program. 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.
Within HTS 84, industrial machinery includes CNC machine tools, Injection molding machines, Industrial robots, Food processing equipment, Textile machinery, Printing presses, and Pumping systems. Demand for industrial machinery is broad and price-sensitive, which is exactly why a duty wedge of this size reshapes who can supply the US market competitively. For budgeting purposes: tariffs on industrial machinery raise capital expenditure costs for US manufacturers, potentially slowing factory modernization and automation investment. South Korea (Asia-Pacific) sends the United States largely consumer electronics, passenger vehicles, and steel iron products. South Korea trades under a bilateral arrangement that sets a fixed rate on industrial machinery alongside the standard duty layers. Italy (Europe) sends the United States largely industrial machinery, passenger vehicles, and pharmaceuticals. Italy trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its industrial machinery. Moving between Asia-Pacific and Europe changes more than duty, so treat the tariff saving as one input among several. For a buyer committed to South Korea, Italy is a concrete diversification target whose tariff math is settled and whose remaining diligence is commercial. 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: $1,319 at $50,000, $6,594 at $250,000, $26,375 at $1,000,000, and about $2,638 at $100,000. Every figure is produced by the same tariff engine behind the site's calculators, holding FOB value, freight and insurance constant so only the duty effect of origin shows through. 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 $2,638 as a transition budget — if re-sourcing to Italy costs less than the annual saving, it pays back inside a year. Diligence on Italy 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 Italy.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from South Korea to Italy 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.
Italy-origin industrial machinery is assessed a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 10% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
South Korea carries an effective 12.5% rate versus 10% for Italy. 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 .
