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 | $4,220 |
| $250,000 | $21,100 |
| $1,000,000 | $84,400 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →For US importers of textiles & fabrics, country of origin has quietly become the biggest line item you can actually negotiate. The effective rate falls from 26% on India shipments to 18% on Indonesia shipments — close to $8,440 per $100,000 of imports each year. The importers who win this cycle are the ones treating country of origin as a number to optimise, not a given. Read on for the full stack comparison, the policy reasons behind the gap, and a scaling table for your own volume.
Both stacks share the same customs valuation, so the comparison is apples to apples. On the India side, Customs applies a 8% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and a 18% negotiated bilateral rate on its textiles & fabrics, an effective 26% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. A Indonesia origin attracts 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. 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. Processing and harbor fees apply identically whichever country ships the goods ($49.74 here), confirming the saving is pure duty, not fee. Net the two and the duty-and-fee difference is $844.00 on a single $10,000 shipment — the 8% effective-rate gap in dollars. Multiply across your volume and it is near $2,110 for $25,000 and about $8,440 for $100,000 a year. A buyer placing $25,000 orders sees about $2,110 of avoidable duty on each one.
Within HTS 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, textiles & fabrics includes Cotton fabric, Polyester fabric, Wool cloth, and Silk fabric. 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. A Asia-Pacific supplier, India concentrates its US exports in pharmaceutical ingredients, generic drugs, and clothing garments. India's bilateral deal substitutes a set rate for the reciprocal surcharge, a structurally different stack for textiles & fabrics. A Asia-Pacific supplier, Indonesia concentrates its US exports in clothing garments, footwear, and consumer electronics. Indonesia trades without a special US agreement, so column-1 rates and every surcharge apply to its textiles & fabrics in full. Because both sit in Asia-Pacific, a switch barely changes the freight picture and mostly changes the duty bill. A switch to Indonesia 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.
The headline is $8,440 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $4,220, $21,100, and $84,400 at $50,000, $250,000, and $1,000,000. All values are calculated, not assumed — the engine applies the current published rates to identical goods and reports the 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. Subtract any per-unit premium Indonesia charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the Indonesia option: match the HTS classification, get a quote that itemises duty apart from freight, and check for any antidumping or countervailing order on your item. Because rates move, treat this as a point-in-time read and re-check before committing — especially around the mid-2026 Section 122 expiry. Model your exact volume and compare further origins in the interactive Tariff Savings Finder. 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 India to Indonesia saves an estimated $8,440 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 26% 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.
Indonesia-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).
India carries an effective 26% rate versus 18% for Indonesia. The gap comes from differences in the base, Section 122, Section 232 and bilateral rates that apply to each origin.
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.
