Sourcing comparison · Spices & Seasonings
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 →A spices & seasonings importer's margin increasingly turns on a single field on the entry: country of origin. Switch the origin from Brazil (14%) to Mexico (11.5%) and an importer reclaims about $2,638 for every $100,000 purchased. Where a competitor's margin erodes on the same tariff, a buyer who re-sources keeps the difference. What follows is the layer-by-layer comparison, the trade context behind each rate, and how the gap grows with volume.
Consider what each country's goods actually face at the border. Sourced from Brazil, the goods face a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 12.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its spices & seasonings, an effective 14% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Mexico-made goods carry a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its spices & seasonings, an effective 11.5% 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. That same per-dollar gap is about $659 on a $25,000 order and $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $659 of avoidable duty on each one.
The category, HTS 0904, 0905, 0906, 0907, 0908, 0909, 0910, takes in Black pepper, Cinnamon, Ginger, Turmeric, Paprika, Curry powder, and Cumin among other spices & seasonings. Demand for spices & seasonings is broad and price-sensitive, which is exactly why a duty wedge of this size reshapes who can supply the US market competitively. Spices carry very low MFN tariffs, and Section 122 lapsed to 0% on July 24, 2026 and adds nothing regardless of origin; negligible tariff impact on food industry costs. Brazil, in South America, ships the US mainly steel iron products, crude oil petroleum, and fresh produce. With no preferential deal in force, Brazil spices & seasonings faces the standard rates plus any applicable surcharge. Mexico (North America) sends the United States largely passenger vehicles, auto parts components, and consumer electronics. Through USMCA, qualifying Mexico spices & seasonings enters duty-free (USMCA 0%, except Section 338 annex goods), collapsing the special-tariff layer to nothing. Moving between South America and North America changes more than duty, so treat the tariff saving as one input among several. The recommendation is filtered to feasible suppliers, so Mexico appears because it plausibly makes spices & seasonings, not merely because its rate is low. Sourcing diversification has shifted from resilience theatre to margin necessity, and a documented second source like Mexico is how buyers act on it.
Where Mexico is a viable supplier, expect roughly $2,638 at $100,000, rising to about $6,594 at $250,000 and $26,375 at $1,000,000 as volume grows. 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. If any price premium from Mexico is smaller than the duty saving, the switch still wins on net landed cost. Before acting, confirm the Mexico supplier classifies under the same HTS heading, can meet your volume and certifications, and faces no product-specific exclusion or quota that shifts the duty. Lock the comparison to a quote date; a surcharge added or lifted can change the ranking between negotiation and purchase order. Open the Tariff Savings Finder to rank every feasible origin for your specific volume.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from Brazil to Mexico saves an estimated $2,638 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 14% 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.
Mexico-origin spices & seasonings is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 11.5% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Brazil carries an effective 14% rate versus 11.5% for Mexico. 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 .
