Import duty on cotton, yarn, fabric and garments

Three things to know before you read a single rate

What each market charges duty on

The most commonly skipped question, and the one that makes two percentages incomparable.

United States: The transaction value. Essentially FOB.

International freight and insurance are excluded from the duty base. So a 16.5 per cent US rate is charged on a smaller number than a 12 per cent European rate on the same shipment, and the two percentages are not directly comparable.

European Union: The customs value, which is a CIF-type value.

Transaction value plus transport, loading and insurance to the point of introduction into the Union. Import VAT is then charged on the customs value PLUS the duty, so VAT compounds on duty.

United Kingdom: The customs value, the same CIF-type basis.

Plus the incidental expenses of importation to the first UK destination. Import VAT at 20 per cent is charged on customs value plus duty. Duty is a real cost; VAT is recoverable by a VAT registered importer, so for most trade buyers it is cash flow rather than cost.

The Gulf: CIF, written into the GCC Common Customs Law.

Duty is collected once, at the first GCC point of entry, at the destination state’s rate. Routing Saudi bound goods through Dubai does not buy you the Emirati rate. Saudi VAT is 15 per cent and Emirati VAT is 5 per cent, both charged on customs value plus duty.

The American extra layer, and the dates it changed

20 February 2026: The reciprocal tariffs ended Ended

Executive Order 14389 ended the additional duties imposed under the emergency economic powers act, including the reciprocal tariff order. The order says they shall no longer be in effect and, as soon as practicable, shall no longer be collected. Section 232 and section 301 duties were expressly kept alive. This is the number this page used to refuse to print, and the reason it now does not appear at all: it is not a disputed rate, it is a rate that no longer exists.
Tariff heading: formerly heading 9903.02, still printed in the schedule
Executive Order 14389, 91 FR 9437 (opens in a new tab)

24 February 2026: A flat 10 per cent surcharge replaced them Ended

Proclamation 11012 imposed a temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent on all articles, under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, for 150 days from 12:01am eastern on 24 February. Textiles were not among the exceptions. It was charged on top of the base rate.
Tariff heading: 9903.03.01
Proclamation 11012, 91 FR 9339 (opens in a new tab)

24 July 2026: The surcharge lapsed on its own published end date Ended

The proclamation ran through 12:01am eastern on 24 July 2026 unless extended by an Act of Congress. We found no extension. Note that the schedule still prints heading 9903.03.01 at plus 10 per cent with nothing marking it as finished, which is why a rate read off the schedule needs a date beside it.
Tariff heading: 9903.03.01
Proclamation 11012, paragraph 1, 91 FR 9339 (opens in a new tab)

24 July 2026: The forced labour tariffs began the same morning In force

Following section 301 investigations into 60 economies, opened in March 2026 and determined in June, the United States charges an extra 10 or 12.5 per cent on goods from each of them. 10 per cent where the economy prohibits imports made with forced labour, has committed to do so, or has a partial regime; 12.5 per cent otherwise. It applies to goods entered on or after 12:01am eastern on 24 July, with an exception for goods already loaded and in transit that were entered before 28 July. This is the layer in force today and the one your landed cost has to carry.
Tariff heading: headings 9903.05.20 to 9903.05.84
USTR notice, 91 FR 47318, and the memorandum at 91 FR 47717 (opens in a new tab)

Cotton, yarn and fabric

Raw cotton, not carded or combed, 5201. The US line is quota managed. Free, 1.5 cents, 4.4 cents and 31.4 cents per kilogram all exist in the same heading and which one you get depends on quota status and timing, not on the cotton. 31.4 cents is the over-quota "Other" rate and is the one to assume until a broker says otherwise. Read at 5201.00.05, .12, .14, .18, .22, .24, .28, .34, .38, .55, .60 and .80.

Cotton, carded or combed, 5203. The US heading also carries 5 per cent lines at 5203.00.05 and .10 and 4.3 per cent at .50.

Cotton yarn, 85 per cent or more cotton, 5205. The US rate climbs with the count, which is the only tariff on this page that behaves the way a spinner thinks. Coarse unbleached 5205.11.10 is 3.7 per cent; fine 5205.15.20, 5205.26, .27 and .28 are all 12 per cent. THE UK AND THE EU DIVERGE HERE: the same yarn is 4 per cent into the Union and free into Great Britain.

Polyester staple yarn, 85 per cent or more, single, 5509.21. The European cell was empty until 3 September 2026. It was not assumed from the British one, because the two have diverged on cotton yarn; it was read, and on this polyester line they agree.

Polyester staple yarn mixed mainly with cotton, 5509.53. The highest yarn rate into the United States on this page. A poly cotton blend yarn is dearer to land there than either pure cotton yarn or pure polyester yarn, which is not intuitive and is worth knowing before a blend is specified.

Woven cotton, 85 per cent or more, not over 200 g/m2, 5208. The US range turns on yarn number and finish, so a six digit code cannot price it. Classify to ten digits before quoting.

Denim, woven cotton over 200 g/m2, 5209.42. The one raw material line where all three markets land within half a point of each other.

Duty the other way: into Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and China

Bangladesh. A 100 per cent export-oriented factory imports its inputs duty free under a bonded warehouse licence, so the rates above are what a buyer selling into the home market pays. And the customs duty is only the first layer: Bangladesh stacks supplementary duty, VAT and advance income tax on top, which is why the "with every import tax counted" figures in the notes are two and three times the headline rate.

Pakistan. Exporters import inputs duty and tax free under the Export Facilitation Scheme, with one exception big enough to reshape the trade: FBR removed raw cotton, cotton yarn and grey cloth from the scheme in August 2025, by notification SRO 1435(I)/2025, so those three pay the rates above plus sales tax at the standard 18 per cent even when an exporter imports them. Other inputs, processed and dyed fabric among them, remain eligible. Re-checked 26 August 2026: the exclusion survived the 2026-27 budget and stands, and the spinning and export lobbies are still fighting over it, so confirm the day’s position with a clearing agent. Two smaller layers: the rates above are the customs duty alone, and a commercial importer pays import sales tax and advance income tax on top. In 2026-27 none of these lines carries the additional customs duty, which now starts at the 20 per cent slab, and the only regulatory duty on them is the 2 per cent on polyester filament yarn.

India. Inputs for an export order come in without duty under Advance Authorisation, which an exporter applies for on the government’s own DGFT portal before the inputs land. We have read that the scheme exists and where it is administered, not the policy text itself, so confirm the input-output norms and the bond with a customs broker before a costing depends on it. And the India column is the basic customs duty alone: whatever else India charges on an import we have not read, so treat that column as a floor rather than as the landed number.

China. Under processing trade, inputs that will be re-exported after processing enter bonded, duty and VAT free. Cotton itself runs a quota: 894,000 tonnes a year at 1 per cent, and a sliding scale duty above that, so the price of imported cotton in China depends on quota access as much as on the world price.

Where each figure came from, read 26 August 2026: Bangladesh from the National Tariff FY 2025-2026 (opens in a new tab) on customs.gov.bd, which also publishes the with-every-tax figures quoted in the notes; Pakistan from the FBR Customs Tariff FY 2026-27, First Schedule (opens in a new tab), re-read 26 August 2026 together with the additional customs duty and regulatory duty notifications for the year, SRO 1063(I)/2026 and SRO 1064(I)/2026; China from the World Bank WITS, the China tariff schedule (opens in a new tab), whose latest year China has reported is 2023, and the cotton quota from the USDA's China cotton report; India from the same database, the India tariff schedule (opens in a new tab), reported rates for 2023, read 25 August 2026, and the basic customs duty only. Rates change at every budget: confirm the line with a clearing agent on the day.

Garments

T-shirts of man made fibres, knitted, 6109.90. The European and British line here is 6109 90 20 00, which covers wool and fine animal hair as well as man made fibres, and both charge 12.00 per cent on it, the same as on the cotton tee above. So the fibre penalty is an American effect and not a general one: 32 per cent against 16.5 per cent in the United States, and no difference at all in Europe or Britain. The same shirt in cotton is 16.5 per cent for the United States, so changing a polyester tee to cotton for that market is worth more than most price negotiations, and changing it for Europe or Britain is worth nothing in duty. Read 4 September 2026, later than the date above the table.

Cotton jerseys, pullovers and cardigans, knitted, 6110.20. The US heading drops to 5 per cent at 6110.20.10 where the garment is 36 per cent or more flax by weight. In Europe and Britain the line splits by wearer: 6110 20 91 00 is men's and boys', 6110 20 99 00 women's and girls', and both read 12.00 per cent on 3 September 2026.

Men's cotton woven shirts, 6205.20. The US heading drops to 8.7 per cent at 6205.20.10 for certified hand loomed and folklore products, which is a real route for some Pakistani and Indian makers and is almost never claimed.

About the Saudi column. Read on 3 September 2026 from ZATCA's own tariff export, line by line, with the effect date each line prints. The 5 per cent common external tariff of the GCC customs union is real, and it is what Saudi Arabia charges on the fibre, yarn, fabric and garment lines above, but bed linen, blankets, quilts, pillows and rugs sit on national lines that read 8 to 15 per cent. Every Saudi line in these tables also carries procedure code 21, a SABER conformity certificate at import. The Emirates: 5 per cent, confirmed in practice but not read at source. Dubai Trade's lookup sits behind a login and Dubai Customs publishes no tariff page we could reach, so we have never opened the Emirati schedule itself. Five per cent is the Gulf customs union's common rate, and our own commercial check on a Dubai import found 5 per cent being charged. Use it as the working figure and still confirm your line with a broker: it is a rate we have seen charged, not a schedule we have read. The lookup tools are at the foot of this page. The same applies to the Saudi column in the home textile table below.

Home textiles

The four things this table is actually telling you. One, filled goods are a different chapter and a much lower rate in Europe and Britain: a duvet is 2 per cent into the UK, its cover 12. Two, fibre choice moves the duty and it moves it in opposite directions in different markets, so a cotton blanket is 6 per cent into Britain and a synthetic one 12, while the United States charges 8.4 and 8.5 for the same pair. Three, trim moves the American rate and nothing else does: an untrimmed cotton comforter is 4.4 per cent and the same comforter with piping is 12.8. Four, man made fibre woven pile rugs enter the United States free of duty, which is the single largest market to market gap anywhere on this page.

The mistake that costs the most. Every one of these is a made-up textile article, so the origin rules on the rest of this page apply to them in full. A quilt cut and sewn in one country from fabric woven in another does not get a European preference, exactly as a shirt does not. Read the rules of origin section below before you price a bed linen programme, not after.

Read 1 September 2026. United States from the USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule (opens in a new tab), the Column 1 General rate on each statistical line, taken through the official export endpoint rather than the search page. European Union from the Northern Ireland online tariff (opens in a new tab), which publishes the EU Common Customs Tariff under the Windsor Framework, third country duty against ERGA OMNES. United Kingdom from the UK online tariff (opens in a new tab), the same measure. Where an American heading splits into several rated lines the range is printed and the commonest line is named, because printing one number there would hide the decision that sets it.

Bangladesh's zero rate has a published end date

Garments from Bangladesh enter the EU and the UK duty free today because Bangladesh counts as a least developed country. That status ends on 24 November 2026, and both schemes keep the zero rate for three more years after it, so the duty-free terms run to late November 2029 (the end date is our arithmetic from the published three year rule; the rules publish the duration, not a Bangladesh-named date). What comes after depends on which arrangement Bangladesh qualifies for next: the EU's GSP+ would keep clothing at zero, its standard tier would put most garments at 9.6 per cent, and the full rate is 12 per cent. The UK's next tier keeps garments duty free. For an order shipping before 2029 nothing changes; for a programme priced beyond it, the after-2029 duty is a real scenario to cost.

Read 24 August 2026 from the UN least developed country portal (opens in a new tab) (the graduation date), the EU's new GSP regulation, article 17 (opens in a new tab) (the three year rule), the UN assessment for Bangladesh (opens in a new tab) (the 9.6 and 12 per cent figures), and the UK scheme's tier guidance (opens in a new tab).

Rules of origin: where a zero rate is won or lost

If you have never imported anything, read this part twice. Everything above is published and checkable. This is the part that is decided by paperwork, and it is where a zero rate is won or lost.

A worked example

Two more things that decide a claim

Chapter 63 is not chapter 61

Bed linen and towels sit in chapter 63, and several schemes that allow single transformation for garments do not allow it for made-ups. A maker who qualifies on T-shirts can fail on the pillowcases in the same container. Check the rule for the chapter, never for the supplier.

Cumulation can rescue a claim, but not with any fabric

Most schemes let materials from certain named partner countries count as if they were made in the exporting country. The groups are written into the regulations and China is in none of the ones that matter here. Regional fabric often can be cumulated where Chinese fabric cannot, so the question to ask a mill is not only where the cloth came from but whether that origin is inside your buyer's cumulation group.

The paperwork is not optional and is not retrospective by default

Every scheme has its own proof: a registered exporter statement, a movement certificate, an origin declaration. If the proof is wrong or missing the importer pays the full rate, not the supplier. Some claims can be made after the event, more slowly and sometimes not at all. Arrange the evidence before the goods ship.

Preferences change, and they have changed recently

Several of the schemes touching Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Türkiye moved during 2025 and 2026, in both directions. Nothing on this page names a current preference rate, because a preference rate has a shorter shelf life than the base rate beside it. Read your own origin's position off the destination country's own tariff tool on the day, using the links at the foot of this page.

Everything else charged at the border

Duty is rarely the whole bill, and two of these are large enough to change a decision. Of the rules below only the European VAT rates were read by us at source, from the Commission's own database on 3 September 2026; the rest are here so nothing is missing from your list, and every one should be confirmed with your broker before it goes in a quotation.

United States

VAT: None

There is no federal VAT or GST at the US border. State sales tax can arise later on the domestic sale and is not collected by customs, so it is not part of the landed cost.

Merchandise Processing Fee: 0.3464% of entered value

With a floor and a ceiling per entry, so it is charged per ENTRY and not per line. Consolidating shipments into one entry caps it. Confirm the current floor and ceiling with your broker: they were revised for the US fiscal year starting October 2025 and revise again in October 2026.

Harbor Maintenance Fee: 0.125% of cargo value, uncapped

Ocean freight through a listed US port only. Not on air, truck or rail. Because it has no ceiling, on a high value ocean shipment it costs more than the capped processing fee.

Cotton research and promotion assessment: About 1.2 to 1.6 cents per kilogram

Charged per kilogram by ten digit line on imported cotton and cotton containing goods. Small, real, and routinely left out of a first landed cost. Look up your own line rather than using a single figure: the schedule runs to hundreds of them.

European Union

Import VAT: Netherlands 21%, Germany 19%, France 20%, Italy 22%, Spain 21%; any other member state at least 15%

Charged on the customs value PLUS the duty PLUS the incidental costs of importation, so it compounds on duty. The five rates were read on 2026-09-03 from the Commission's Taxes in Europe Database, situation on 1 July 2026, one member state at a time: none of the five puts clothing, bed linen, towels, yarn or fabric on a reduced rate, and the 7 per cent the database prints first for Spain is the Canary Islands, outside the EU VAT area. The other twenty two member states were not read; 15 is the floor the VAT Directive sets, not their rate. A VAT registered importer recovers it; an unregistered buyer bears it.

Processing or harbour fee: None at Union level

There is no European equivalent of the US processing and harbour fees. Terminal handling, broker fees and national surcharges are commercial charges and belong in the freight line of your costing, not the duty line.

United Kingdom

Import VAT: 20%

On customs value plus duty. Postponed VAT accounting lets a registered importer declare and reclaim on the same return, which turns it into a paper entry rather than a payment.

Import VAT on young children’s clothing: 0%

Britain zero rates young children’s clothing and footwear, on measurement based rules. Babies’ garments will normally qualify. There is no zero rate for bed linen, towels, yarn or piece goods: those are 20 per cent. Worth checking before you assume a childrenswear landed cost.

The Gulf

Import VAT: 15% Saudi Arabia, 5% United Arab Emirates

Charged on customs value plus duty, so it compounds. Recoverable by a VAT registered importer in both.

Free zones: Duty deferred, not reduced

A Gulf free zone sits outside the customs zone, so goods can enter and leave again without duty. Moving them into the local market is an import and pays the tariff in force that day. The free zone is a cash flow and logistics instrument, not a tariff instrument.

Saudi Arabia

SABER and SASO conformity certification: Per product and per shipment

Textiles and apparel need both a product certificate and a shipment certificate. Without them the consignment is stopped at the border. This is a mandatory cost and a hard shipment blocker, entirely separate from duty, and it is the single most common reason a first Saudi shipment fails.

Two that catch first time importers. The American harbour fee has no ceiling while the processing fee has one, so on a high value ocean shipment the uncapped fee is the larger of the two. And Saudi Arabia's conformity certification is not a fee at all, it is a gate: without both certificates the consignment stops at the border regardless of what duty you were prepared to pay.

Check it yourself, and check it on the day

Tariffs change weekly and this page was read on 23 August 2026. If your shipment clears more than a few weeks after that, read the line yourself. All five tools below are free, and four of the five need no account.

United States: USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule (opens in a new tab)

Search the heading, then read the "General" column, which is the MFN rate. Read the chapter 99 headings separately: that is where the extra duties live and they are not shown beside the base rate.

European Union: TARIC consultation (opens in a new tab)

Enter the ten digit code and a simulation date. The line you want is "Third country duty" against ERGA OMNES. If nothing shows, your code is not declarable: TARIC will show you where you are in the tree but no measures.

United Kingdom: UK Integrated Online Tariff (opens in a new tab)

Search the commodity, open it, and read the third country duty. The same page lists every preference the UK grants on that line, which is the fastest way to see whether your origin has one.

Saudi Arabia: ZATCA integrated customs tariff (opens in a new tab)

The page is drawn by script, but the service behind it answers, and every Saudi cell on this page was read from its full tariff export on 3 September 2026. In a browser, type the six digit heading; the Saudi line is twelve digits and the rate and the SABER procedure sit beside it.

United Arab Emirates: Dubai Trade (opens in a new tab)

The tariff lookup sits behind the portal. Your broker has an account. Ask them for the Integrated Customs Tariff line rather than a verbal rate.

Product safety and labelling rules, market by market

A rate tells you what the goods cost to land; these tell you whether they are allowed in at all. Government texts, free to read, linked and never copied. Each one is also on the sources board with the answer it gave when we opened it on 3 September 2026.

United States: 16 CFR 1610, Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles (opens in a new tab)

The flammability test every garment fabric sold in the United States must pass, in the 2025 annual edition on govinfo.gov, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

United States: Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) (opens in a new tab)

The lead, phthalate, tracking label and third party testing rules for children's products, children's clothing included. Opened by us on 3 September 2026: the address answered, but it refuses an automated reader, so the page itself was not read.

United States: Proposition 65, California OEHHA (opens in a new tab)

California's chemical warning law, which reaches textiles through dyes, coatings and trims and applies to anything sold into that state, whatever the port of entry. The address answered on 3 September 2026, behind a bot check, so the page itself was not read.

European Union: Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (opens in a new tab)

The General Product Safety Regulation, which applies from 13 December 2024 and requires a responsible economic operator inside the Union for every consumer product, textiles included. Opened by us on 3 September 2026.

European Union: Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH), consolidated text of 22 June 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Annex XVII of the consolidated REACH text is the list of chemical restrictions that stop a textile at the Union border, azo dyes and nickel among them. This is the consolidated text of 22 June 2026, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

United Kingdom: The Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012 (opens in a new tab)

The fibre naming and composition rule a label on goods sold in Great Britain must satisfy, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

United Kingdom: The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (opens in a new tab)

The fire rule for upholstery cover fabric, fillings and loose covers, which applies to home textiles sold as furnishing and not to clothing or bed linen, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

Saudi Arabia: SASO Purchasing Standards service (opens in a new tab)

Where the number on a SABER certificate becomes the standard itself, opened by us on 3 September 2026; the store it starts is drawn by script, so whether it asks for a login first could not be seen.

The Gulf: Standards Store, GCC Standardization Organization (opens in a new tab)

The Gulf standards adopted across the six states, searchable by number, title or sector, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

Saudi Arabia: SABER Technical Regulations (opens in a new tab)

The list of technical regulations, with a Textile tab, that says whether a product needs a SABER product certificate before it ships; opens in Arabic with an EN switch at the top, opened by us on 3 September 2026.

What to ask a broker rather than a website. Whether an additional or extra duty applies to your origin today. Whether an anti-dumping or countervailing measure touches your producer, which is producer specific and can run to triple digits. What proof of origin your scheme requires and whether your supplier can actually issue it. None of those three are readable off a tariff page and all three can be larger than the rate.