Sourcing comparison · Sporting Goods
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 →A sporting goods importer's margin increasingly turns on a single field on the entry: country of origin. At 38%, China sits well above Thailand's 13%; on $100,000 of annual buying that difference is around $26,375. 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.
Start with the two duty stacks side by side. Shipped out of China, the product is hit with a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 25% Section 301 surcharge, and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its sporting goods, an effective 38% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Thailand-made goods carry a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its sporting goods, an effective 13% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. The 25% Section 301 surcharge is the structural reason China loses this comparison: it is additive, China-specific, and shows no sign of lapsing. Section 122 adds a reciprocal duty that one origin escapes via a bilateral deal — a meaningful but expiring factor in the current gap. Because the MPF and HMF ($49.74 combined) track customs value rather than origin, they wash out of the comparison entirely. The arithmetic difference between the stacks is $2,637.50 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 $6,594 for $25,000 and about $26,375 for $100,000 a year. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $6,594 of avoidable duty on each one.
Within HTS 9506, 9507, sporting goods includes Exercise bikes, Treadmills, Gym equipment, and Bicycles. Because sporting goods 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 trades without a special US agreement, so column-1 rates and every surcharge apply to its sporting goods in full. Thailand's trade profile leans toward consumer electronics, auto parts components, and rubber, and it sits in Asia-Pacific. Thailand has no agreement to soften the stack, so its sporting goods carries the full column-1 plus surcharge load. With both origins in Asia-Pacific, freight lanes and transit times are broadly similar, so duty is the cleanest variable to compare. A switch to Thailand still hinges on capacity, certification and lead time, but the duty advantage is the part that is already quantified. US tariff policy in 2026 is unusually fluid, with effective rates on many categories changing several times a year — a reason to treat any origin comparison as a live calculation rather than a fixed sheet.
Where Thailand is a viable supplier, expect roughly $26,375 at $100,000, rising to about $65,938 at $250,000 and $263,750 at $1,000,000 as volume grows. Every figure is produced by the same tariff engine behind the site's calculators, holding FOB value, freight and insurance constant so only the duty effect of origin shows through. 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 Thailand is smaller than the duty saving, the switch still wins on net landed cost. Before acting, confirm the Thailand 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. 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 Thailand saves an estimated $26,375 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 38% to 13%. 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.
Thailand-origin sporting goods is assessed a 3% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, for an effective 13% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
China carries an effective 38% rate versus 13% for Thailand. 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.
