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 South Korea, the duty bill is worth a second look. South Korea carries roughly 16.5% in duties and fees against 11.5% for China, a spread worth near $5,275 on $100,000 of annual volume. Where a competitor's margin erodes on the same tariff, a buyer who re-sources keeps the difference. Each component of the two stacks is detailed below, alongside what it means for a real sourcing decision.
The duty layers tell the whole story of the gap. On the South Korea side, Customs applies 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. A China origin attracts 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. Part of the spread traces to the Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, a 2026 measure that does not apply uniformly once bilateral deals are accounted for. The Merchandise Processing Fee and Harbor Maintenance Fee are charged on customs value, not origin, so they sit at $49.74 on either stack and never contribute to the gap. Subtract one stack from the other and $527.50 per $10,000 shipment separates the two origins. 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. Marine Vessels & Parts is a high-turnover category where landed-cost discipline separates the importers who hold margin from those who don't. Based in Asia-Pacific, South Korea is best known to US importers for consumer electronics, passenger vehicles, and steel iron products. For South Korea, a negotiated bilateral rate stands in for Section 122, changing the math on marine vessels & parts entries. Based in Asia-Pacific, China is best known to US importers for consumer electronics, computers servers, and clothing garments. Absent a trade deal, China's marine vessels & parts is assessed standard duties and whatever surcharges apply. Shared Asia-Pacific routing keeps logistics roughly comparable and leaves the duty gap as the decisive number. A switch to China 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 South Korea to China is worth about $5,275, scaling to $2,638 at $50,000, $13,188 at $250,000, and $52,750 at $1,000,000. These are engine-computed stacks, not estimates: identical inputs on both sides except country of origin, so the gap is purely a duty result. 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 China costs less than that, the change is accretive. Request parallel quotes from your South Korea incumbent and a vetted China source, then compare landed cost with the duty gap held constant. The saving is current today; given the pace of 2026 revisions, verify it again at contract signing. 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 South Korea to China 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.
China-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).
South Korea carries an effective 16.5% rate versus 11.5% for China. 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.
