Sourcing comparison · Packaged Foods
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 | $3,165 |
| $250,000 | $15,825 |
| $1,000,000 | $63,300 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →The cheapest factory for packaged foods is no longer always the cheapest landed cost — tariffs have reshuffled the math. France's 10% effective rate undercuts Mexico's 16% by enough to free roughly $6,330 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. 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 Mexico side, Customs applies a 6% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its packaged foods, an effective 16% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Sourced from France, the goods face a 6% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 4% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its packaged foods, an effective 10% 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 $633.00 per $10,000 entry, all of it in the duty layers since the processing fees are origin-blind. Multiply across your volume and it is near $1,582 for $25,000 and about $6,330 for $100,000 a year. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $1,582 of avoidable duty on each one.
The category, HTS 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, takes in Chocolate, Pasta, Canned tomatoes, Soy sauce, Snack foods, Frozen meals, and Condiments among other packaged foods. For packaged foods, where buyers reorder frequently, the duty rate compounds into one of the largest controllable costs on the P&L. Prepared and preserved foods, confectionery, chocolate, baked goods, pasta, canned vegetables, sauces, condiments, and other processed food products. From North America, Mexico's top US-bound categories include passenger vehicles, auto parts components, and consumer electronics. USMCA lets compliant Mexico packaged foods skip the duty stack other origins pay (USMCA 0%, except Section 338 annex goods), provided rules of origin are satisfied. A Europe supplier, France concentrates its US exports in aircraft parts, wine spirits, and pharmaceuticals. France trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its packaged foods. Different regions — North America versus Europe — mean shipping economics deserve a look beside the tariff math. A switch to France still hinges on capacity, certification and lead time, but the duty advantage is the part that is already quantified. Sourcing diversification has shifted from resilience theatre to margin necessity, and a documented second source like France is how buyers act on it.
The headline is $6,330 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $3,165, $15,825, and $63,300 at $50,000, $250,000, and $1,000,000. The comparison is generated by running the same inputs through the tariff engine for each origin, which keeps everything but the duty layers equal. 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 France charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the France 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. The saving is current today; given the pace of 2026 revisions, verify it again at contract signing. Model your exact volume and compare further origins in the interactive Tariff Savings Finder.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from Mexico to France saves an estimated $6,330 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 16% 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.
France-origin packaged foods is assessed a 6% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 4% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 10% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Mexico carries an effective 16% rate versus 10% for France. 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 .
