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 | $10,550 |
| $250,000 | $52,750 |
| $1,000,000 | $211,000 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →Buyers comparing Vietnam and China for spices & seasonings are really comparing two very different duty stacks. Switch the origin from Vietnam (21.5%) to China (1.5%) and an importer reclaims about $21,100 for every $100,000 purchased. For a category this exposed to surcharges, the sourcing map is effectively a pricing map. 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. A Vietnam origin attracts a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 20% negotiated bilateral rate on its spices & seasonings, an effective 21.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. On the China side, Customs applies a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty on its spices & seasonings, an effective 1.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Two charges are origin-blind — the MPF and HMF, together $49.74 on this entry — which is why the entire difference lives in the duty layers. The per-shipment gap comes to $2,110.00 on $10,000 of goods — a clean read on the 20% rate difference. That same per-dollar gap is about $5,275 on a $25,000 order and $21,100 on $100,000 of annual volume. At order level, $25,000 of goods carries roughly $5,275 more duty from Vietnam than from China.
spices & seasonings — Black pepper, Cinnamon, Ginger, and Turmeric and similar goods — falls under HTS 0904, 0905, 0906, 0907, 0908, 0909, 0910. The US imports spices & seasonings at scale, so the origin mix for this category is unusually sensitive to tariff policy. Vietnam (Asia-Pacific) sends the United States largely consumer electronics, clothing garments, and footwear. Vietnam's bilateral deal substitutes a set rate for the reciprocal surcharge, a structurally different stack for spices & seasonings. China (Asia-Pacific) sends the United States largely consumer electronics, computers servers, and clothing garments. China has no agreement to soften the stack, so its spices & seasonings carries the full column-1 plus surcharge load. Shared Asia-Pacific routing keeps logistics roughly comparable and leaves the duty gap as the decisive number. China is surfaced as a credible alternative, not just the cheapest line — it is among the origins a US buyer of spices & seasonings could realistically qualify. Sourcing diversification has shifted from resilience theatre to margin necessity, and a documented second source like China is how buyers act on it.
Anchor your own volume to these tiers: $10,550 at $50,000, $52,750 at $250,000, $211,000 at $1,000,000, and about $21,100 at $100,000. 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. Read the $21,100 as a transition budget — if re-sourcing to China costs less than the annual saving, it pays back inside a year. Diligence on China is commercial, not regulatory: supplier capacity, MOQ, tooling and re-qualification cost — the duty advantage itself is already settled above. Time the switch with the policy calendar in mind — the post-Section-122 picture can favour a different origin entirely. Use the Tariff Savings Finder to test your real numbers and see alternatives beyond China.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from Vietnam to China saves an estimated $21,100 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 21.5% to 1.5%. 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 spices & seasonings is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, for an effective 1.5% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
Vietnam carries an effective 21.5% rate versus 1.5% for China. The gap comes from differences in the base, Section 122, Section 232 and bilateral rates that apply to each origin.
Tariff rates from Tax Foundation, USITC, and Penn Wharton Budget Model. Last verified May 13, 2026.
