Sourcing comparison · Textiles & Fabrics
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 →Sourcing textiles & fabrics is now a tariff decision as much as a supplier decision. Switch the origin from China (43%) to Thailand (18%) and an importer reclaims about $26,375 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.
Start with the two duty stacks side by side. A China origin attracts a 8% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty, a 25% Section 301 surcharge, and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its textiles & fabrics, an effective 43% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. On the Thailand side, Customs applies a 8% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge on its textiles & fabrics, an effective 18% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Because Section 301 adds 25% to China entries and nothing to Thailand, that single measure accounts for most of the gap between the two stacks. A Section 122 reciprocal surcharge is also in play — a temporary balance-of-payments measure scheduled to lapse in mid-2026, so its weight on this comparison is time-limited. 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. That same per-dollar gap is about $6,594 on a $25,000 order and $26,375 on $100,000 of annual volume. Scaled to a single $25,000 PO, the gap is near $6,594, repeated on every reorder.
textiles & fabrics — Cotton fabric, Polyester fabric, Wool cloth, and Silk fabric and similar goods — falls under HTS 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60. Demand for textiles & fabrics is broad and price-sensitive, which is exactly why a duty wedge of this size reshapes who can supply the US market competitively. 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 textiles & fabrics carries the full column-1 plus surcharge load. Thailand (Asia-Pacific) sends the United States largely consumer electronics, auto parts components, and rubber. Thailand trades without a special US agreement, so column-1 rates and every surcharge apply to its textiles & fabrics in full. Shared Asia-Pacific routing keeps logistics roughly comparable and leaves the duty gap as the decisive number. The recommendation is filtered to feasible suppliers, so Thailand appears because it plausibly makes textiles & fabrics, not merely because its rate is low. The figures here reflect the rules in force today; in a year of frequent revisions, the value is in re-running them as policy moves, which this site is built to do.
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. 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. Read the $26,375 as a transition budget — if re-sourcing to Thailand costs less than the annual saving, it pays back inside a year. Diligence on Thailand is commercial, not regulatory: supplier capacity, MOQ, tooling and re-qualification cost — the duty advantage itself is already settled above. Lock the comparison to a quote date; a surcharge added or lifted can change the ranking between negotiation and purchase order. Use the Tariff Savings Finder to test your real numbers and see alternatives beyond Thailand. 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 43% to 18%. 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 textiles & fabrics is assessed a 8% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 10% Section 122 reciprocal surcharge, for an effective 18% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
China carries an effective 43% rate versus 18% 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.
