Sourcing comparison · Personal Care Products
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 →If your personal care products currently ships from South Korea, the duty bill is worth a second look. South Korea carries roughly 12.5% in duties and fees against 10% for Germany, a spread worth near $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. Unlike freight or FX, the duty rate is set by which country's stamp the goods carry — a choice made at the contract, not at the port. Below, each tariff layer is laid out for both origins, with the saving scaled to several order sizes.
The gap is easiest to see by walking each origin's tariffs in turn. From South Korea, the entry is assessed a 5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 7.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its personal care products, an effective 12.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. A Germany origin attracts a 5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its personal care products, 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 $263.75 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 $659 for $25,000 and about $2,638 for $100,000 a year. 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.
The category, HTS 3303, 3304, 3305, 3306, 3307, takes in Skincare, Cosmetics, Haircare, Perfume, Toothpaste, Soap, and Razors among other personal care products. Demand for personal care products is broad and price-sensitive, which is exactly why a duty wedge of this size reshapes who can supply the US market competitively. European personal care products from bilateral deal countries faced reduced S122 rates before the surcharge lapsed to 0% on July 24, 2026; some now face a reduced forced-labor Section 301 rate under the same bilateral framework instead. 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 applies on personal care products entries alongside the base and Section 232/301 layers, now that Section 122 has lapsed to 0%. 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 personal care products. Different regions — Asia-Pacific versus Europe — mean shipping economics deserve a look beside the tariff math. For a buyer committed to South Korea, Germany is a concrete diversification target whose tariff math is settled and whose remaining diligence is commercial. Sourcing diversification has shifted from resilience theatre to margin necessity, and a documented second source like Germany is how buyers act on it.
For $100,000 a year of personal care products, the move from South Korea to Germany is worth about $2,638, scaling to $1,319 at $50,000, $6,594 at $250,000, and $26,375 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 South Korea incumbent and a vetted Germany source, then compare landed cost with the duty gap held constant. Time the switch with the policy calendar in mind — the post-Section-122 picture can favour a different origin entirely. Run your own volume — and a post-Section-122 view — through the interactive Tariff Savings Finder.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from South Korea to Germany 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.
Germany-origin personal care products is assessed a 5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 5% 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 Germany. 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 .
