# The new US 10% tariff: how to tell if it applies to you

> From 24 July 2026 the US charges an extra duty on goods from India unless your product is on the exemption list. The code your buyer files decides it.

- Source: https://www.lexiplatform.com/articles/markets/us-section-301-forced-labour-tariff-india
- Published: 2026-07-27  ·  Last updated: 2026-08-26
- Next scheduled review: 2026-10-31
- Reviewed by: Dipender Bhamrah
- Publisher: LEXI Platform Pvt. Ltd.

## Does the new US tariff apply to my goods?

Assume yes unless you can show otherwise. The duty applies to most goods from India, and the annexes to the USTR notice list the exemptions rather than the coverage. Your buyer files the US tariff code it is charged on, so they hold your answer.

USTR announced the final action on 23 July 2026, covering 60
economies, and it took effect the following day.

India was set for 12.5% in the June proposal. The lower band went to economies
that ban forced-labour imports, or committed to banning them, or already
restrict them in part, and India announced a ban in July. Worth holding onto,
because it means your rate rests on a policy position rather than on anything
about what you make, and policy positions move.

There are two headline rates across the 60 economies, 10% and 12.5%, and then a
separate wrinkle that changes how either one lands. Most economies in each band
pay it as a flat additional duty, stacked on top of whatever normal duty already
applies. A handful, the EU, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, instead
get the rate applied net of their existing most-favoured-nation duty, so it caps
their total rather than adding to it. India is in the first group: the 10% is
additional, not a cap. That matters for reading a competitor's position, not just
your own — an EU or Japanese supplier at a nominally similar-looking band can end
up paying less in total than an Indian one on a product where MFN duty is
already high, because their rate absorbs the existing duty rather than sitting on
top of it.

## Assume it applies

Everything else is about your product, and here the notice reads the opposite way
round to how these things usually work. The duty covers most goods from those 60
economies. The annexes list what is **left out**.

So failing to find your code in an annex does not clear you. It confirms you are
caught.

## Your buyer holds the answer

The duty is charged on the US tariff code your buyer
declares, not the one you use in India. They are the
importer of record, they file the entry, and the two codes agree
only for the first six digits. Past that they can diverge, which is exactly where
exemption is decided.

One email settles it. Ask which subheading they file you under, and whether a
recent arrival has already been charged. An invoice they have already paid is
worth more than anyone's reading of the notice, yours or ours. Get the reply in
writing.

## Who carries it

On FOB or CIF terms your buyer pays at the border, so nothing reaches your
account this month. What reaches you is a buyer whose
landed cost has risen, weighing you against a supplier somewhere
with a different rate. On delivered terms the duty is yours, and it comes off
shipments you priced before any of this.
([Which terms put it on whom](https://www.lexiplatform.com/articles/pricing/incoterms-who-pays-for-what).)

Before you model the number: US duty is assessed on transaction value, which
generally excludes international freight and insurance. On a CIF invoice the base
is lower than your invoice total.

## The price conversation

It is coming either way, so open it deliberately. Work out the combined figure
first, because the duty stacks on whatever already applied and your buyer is
looking at the total, not at this line.

If the cost is yours, it belongs in the next quote rather than in a later
apology. If it is your buyer's, expect them to ask you to share it, and decide
your answer before they ask.

Two things worth checking while you are in there. A trade agreement may offer a
cheaper route into the same market, which turns on
[whether your goods originate in India under that agreement's own test](https://www.lexiplatform.com/articles/markets/rules-of-origin-qualifying-and-proving-it). And your rivals in
other countries sit on different bands, some of them worse than yours. That is
what will actually move your buyer, and it is knowable.

## Confirming it

Open the notice below and search the annexes for your buyer's subheading. If it
is absent, the duty applies. Their customs broker can do the same in a day.

## Sources

- [USTR fact sheet — Section 301 action on 60 economies over forced-labour import bans](https://ustr.gov/about/policy-offices/press-office/fact-sheets/2026/july/fact-sheet-ustr-section-301-action-response-failure-60-economies-ban-imports-produced-forced-labor) — checked 2026-07-27
- [USTR Takes Action in Forced Labor Section 301 Investigations — the final action](https://ustr.gov/about/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2026/july/ustr-takes-action-forced-labor-section-301-investigations) — checked 2026-07-27
- [Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States](https://hts.usitc.gov/) — checked 2026-07-27