Sourcing comparison · Marine Vessels & Parts
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 →If your marine vessels & parts currently ships from Japan, the duty bill is worth a second look. The effective rate falls from 16.5% on Japan shipments to 11.5% on Germany shipments — close to $5,275 per $100,000 of imports each year. For a category this exposed to surcharges, the sourcing map is effectively a pricing map. Read on for the full stack comparison, the policy reasons behind the gap, and a scaling table for your own volume.
The duty layers tell the whole story of the gap. Japan-made goods carry a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 15% negotiated bilateral rate on its marine vessels & parts, an effective 16.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Shipped out of Germany, the product is hit with a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its marine vessels & parts, an effective 11.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. The reciprocal Section 122 charge is the most volatile element of this comparison, set to expire and therefore worth modelling in both states. 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. That same per-dollar gap is about $1,319 on a $25,000 order and $5,275 on $100,000 of annual volume. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $1,319 of avoidable duty on each one.
marine vessels & parts — Container ships, Bulk carriers, Yachts, and Recreational boats and similar goods — falls under HTS 8901, 8902, 8903, 8904, 8905, 8906, 8907. The US imports marine vessels & parts at scale, so the origin mix for this category is unusually sensitive to tariff policy. A Asia-Pacific supplier, Japan concentrates its US exports in passenger vehicles, auto parts components, and industrial machinery. For Japan, a negotiated bilateral rate stands in for Section 122, changing the math on marine vessels & parts entries. A Europe supplier, Germany concentrates its US exports in passenger vehicles, industrial machinery, and pharmaceuticals. Germany trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its marine vessels & parts. Moving between Asia-Pacific and Europe changes more than duty, so treat the tariff saving as one input among several. 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.
For $100,000 a year of marine vessels & parts, the move from Japan to Germany is worth about $5,275, scaling to $2,638 at $50,000, $13,188 at $250,000, and $52,750 at $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. Treat the annual saving as the ceiling on switching cost: as long as moving to Germany costs less than that, the change is accretive. Request parallel quotes from your Japan incumbent and a vetted Germany source, then compare landed cost with the duty gap held constant. Re-run the figures close to your decision: the duty landscape for marine vessels & parts has shifted repeatedly through the year. Run your own volume — and a post-Section-122 view — through 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 Germany 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.
Germany-origin marine vessels & parts 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 Germany. 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.
