Importing into the US: the bond, the agencies and the tariff stack

The United States is the destination where the tariff page and the reality diverge most. Buyers look up a duty rate, find a reasonable-looking number, and later meet the rest of the stack — additional tariff measures on China-origin goods, agency requirements the base rate never mentioned, and a state law that regulates the label. None of this is hidden; it is just spread across more moving parts than most destinations use. Here is the structure, in the order it will meet you.

The setup: importer of record and the bond

US imports run through an importer of record with a customs bond — the financial guarantee that duties and penalties will be paid. A licensed customs broker arranges both, and for a recurring import business a continuous bond typically replaces single-entry bonds. The decisions mirror the EU setup questions: who imports, who is liable, whose name accumulates the compliance record. US customs also runs formal duty-recovery and penalty regimes against the importer of record specifically — undervaluation or misclassification lands on the name on the entry, which is one more reason the declared classification should be your broker's confirmed call, not the supplier's suggestion.

The tariff is a stack, not a rate

For China-origin goods especially, the effective duty is layered: the base rate for the HTS code (the US extension of the HS heading system), plus any additional tariff measures in force for that code and origin, plus antidumping or countervailing duties where they apply to the product family. Three buyer consequences:

• Quote-time diligence is code-level. Two neighbouring codes can differ not just in base rate but in which additional measures attach — the classification boundaries carry more money here than almost anywhere.
• Origin is a claim you must be able to support. With measures keyed to origin, customs scrutiny of transshipment and origin claims is real; the certificate-of-origin discipline from the clearance guide is enforced practice, not paperwork theatre.
• The stack moves. Measures are added, adjusted and litigated; a landed cost computed last year is not this year's. Have your broker pull the current stack for your exact code, then run it in the calculator — and re-run it when the order is real.

Small-parcel imports deserve a special note: the low-value duty-free treatment that direct-to-consumer models leaned on has been tightened for China-origin goods — if your model assumed it, price the change before it prices you.

The agencies that can hold your shipment

US customs enforces other agencies' rules at the border. Which agency owns your product decides your file:

• FDA — anything that touches food (kitchenware), skin or health, with its own registration and entry-review mechanics.
• CPSC — consumer products broadly and children's products strictly: third-party testing at accepted labs and a children's product certificate are the cost of the category.
• FCC — anything with electronics that radiates (chargers, cables and radio devices).
• USDA/APHIS and Lacey — wood, plant and agricultural materials, which reaches furniture under HS 9403 (see the furniture guide) through timber declarations.

The buyer's pattern is the standing one: identify the owning agency per product, collect the reports and registrations before the deposit, and write them into the order. An agency hold costs storage by the day while the paperwork catches up.

The state layer

Uniquely among this site's destination guides, the US adds a state layer: California's Proposition 65 warning regime is the famous one, reaching most consumer categories with labelling obligations keyed to chemical exposure, and state-level packaging and product rules exist beyond it. If you sell nationally, you comply with the strictest state you ship to — a question to put to your compliance advisor per category, not a detail to discover in a demand letter.

The order of operations

Broker and bond first; classification and the current tariff stack for your code second; agency mapping and testing third — all before the deposit, per the pillar sequence; origin documentation and inspection before shipping; the file kept where the importer of record can produce it. Tariff measures and agency rules move frequently — confirm the current stack and requirements for your exact product and code with your licensed customs broker before you commit. To scope a product, describe it and where in the US you sell, and get the code questions, the agency map and the cost lines in one brief.