Sourcing comparison · Paper & Packaging
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 | $13,188 |
| $250,000 | $65,938 |
| $1,000,000 | $263,750 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →Buyers comparing China and Canada for paper & packaging are really comparing two very different duty stacks. Switch the origin from China (37%) to Canada (12%) and an importer reclaims about $26,375 for every $100,000 purchased. Two suppliers can quote the same factory price and still land at very different costs once Customs is done. The sections that follow show where every dollar of the difference comes from.
Consider what each country's goods actually face at the border. Shipped out of China, the product is hit with a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 25% Section 301 surcharge, and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its paper & packaging, an effective 37% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. From Canada, the entry is assessed a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, and a 10% negotiated bilateral rate on its paper & packaging, an effective 12% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Because Section 301 adds 25% to China entries and nothing to Canada, that single measure accounts for most of the gap between the two stacks. The Section 122 layer here is the reciprocal surcharge introduced in 2026; because it expires mid-year, the ranking it produces is worth re-checking after it lifts. 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 $2,637.50 per $10,000 shipment separates the two origins. Across a year that is roughly $6,594 on a $25,000 purchase order and about $26,375 on a $100,000 program. At order level, $25,000 of goods carries roughly $6,594 more duty from China than from Canada.
The category, HTS 47, 48, 49, takes in Corrugated cardboard, Kraft paper, Coated printing paper, and Paper bags among other paper & packaging. Because paper & packaging moves in volume, even a modest per-unit duty gap aggregates into a number that decides sourcing strategy. China's trade profile leans toward consumer electronics, computers servers, and clothing garments, and it sits in Asia-Pacific. China has no agreement to soften the stack, so its paper & packaging carries the full column-1 plus surcharge load. Canada's trade profile leans toward crude oil petroleum, passenger vehicles, and lumber wood products, and it sits in North America. USMCA lets compliant Canada paper & packaging skip the duty stack other origins pay, provided rules of origin are satisfied. Spanning Asia-Pacific and North America, the two lanes differ in freight and transit, so weigh those against the duty saving. Canada is surfaced as a credible alternative, not just the cheapest line — it is among the origins a US buyer of paper & packaging could realistically qualify. Sourcing diversification has shifted from resilience theatre to margin necessity, and a documented second source like Canada is how buyers act on it.
Anchor your own volume to these tiers: $13,188 at $50,000, $65,938 at $250,000, $263,750 at $1,000,000, and about $26,375 at $100,000. 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. Read the $26,375 as a transition budget — if re-sourcing to Canada costs less than the annual saving, it pays back inside a year. Diligence on Canada is commercial, not regulatory: supplier capacity, MOQ, tooling and re-qualification cost — the duty advantage itself is already settled above. The saving is current today; given the pace of 2026 revisions, verify it again at contract signing. Use the Tariff Savings Finder to test your real numbers and see alternatives beyond Canada. 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 China to Canada saves an estimated $26,375 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 37% to 12%. 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.
Canada-origin paper & packaging is assessed a 2% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, and a 10% negotiated bilateral rate, for an effective 12% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
China carries an effective 37% rate versus 12% for Canada. The gap is driven mainly by the 25% Section 301 surcharge that applies to Chinese-origin goods and stacks on top of every other layer.
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.
