Clothing tariffs: what the US charges on imported apparel, by country, in October 2026

As of October 15, 2026, the US charges clothing its ordinary tariff rate plus, for most countries, a 10% or 12.5% Section 301 "forced labor" duty that began July 24, 2026. China also still pays an older 7.5% Section 301 duty on most apparel. The fentanyl tariffs and the temporary Section 122 surcharge are over.

The rate by country today

Every garment starts from its "general" or MFN rate in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which the US International Trade Commission publishes. In the current schedule (2026 HTS Revision 21), cotton knit T-shirts under 6109.10.00 carry 16.5%. Man-made fiber T-shirts under 6109.90.10 carry 32%. Women's cotton trousers under 6104.62.20 carry 14.9%, and "other" cotton men's trousers under 6203.42.07 carry 16.6%. The surcharge is added to that base, with exceptions for the European Union and a few other partners.

Under the July 23, 2026 USTR action and CBP's guidance (CSMS 69326983), the surcharge works like this for goods entered on or after 12:01 a.m. EST on July 24, 2026:

• 12.5% on top of the base rate: China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkiye, Hong Kong, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and others on the 12.5% list.
• 10% on top of the base rate: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and seven other economies USTR names.
• EU member states: no additional duty if the product's base rate is 10% or higher, which covers most clothing. If the base is below 10%, the combined rate is lifted to 10%.
• Japan, South Korea and Switzerland: no additional duty at a base of 12.5% or higher, otherwise a combined 12.5%. Taiwan follows the EU's 10% pattern.
• Mexico and Canada: the surcharge does not apply to goods entered duty-free under USMCA.
• CAFTA-DR countries: textile and apparel goods entered duty-free under CAFTA-DR are exempt.

What changed in 2026

Three layers came and went. On February 20, 2026, Executive Order 14389 ended the IEEPA duties, including the China fentanyl order (EO 14195), the reciprocal tariff (EO 14257) and the Canada and Mexico orders. CBP stopped collecting them for goods entered on or after 12:00 a.m. eastern time on February 24, 2026. The order left section 232 and section 301 duties untouched.

That same week a 10% Section 122 surcharge took over. The White House proclamation says "I impose, for a period of 150 days, a temporary import surcharge of 10 percent ad valorem" and sets its end at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on July 24, 2026, unless Congress extends it. Section 122 caps such surcharges at 150 days without an act of Congress. We found no extension, and CBP's trade remedies page, last modified October 1, 2026, lists no Section 122 entry.

Then USTR finished a set of 60 Section 301 investigations into whether economies ban forced-labor imports. It announced the tariffs on July 23, 2026, and they started the next morning. That is why the July 24 date appears twice in this story. The current duty is a different legal instrument from the one it followed, with different exemptions and rates.

China is the stacking case

The China fentanyl duty is gone, so the question of when its reduction expires no longer applies. What remains for China is the older Section 301 program from 2018 and 2019. Most apparel sits on the list USTR created in August 2019, and 6109.10.00 appears in that notice's Annex A. The USITC schedule today shows heading 9903.88.15 at the applicable duty plus 7.5%. USTR's final action on July 23, 2026 adds 12.5% on products of China, and the USITC schedule lists that as heading 9903.05.31, again added to the applicable duty.

CBP's guidance lists the exemptions to the new duty, and none of them removes China's older Section 301 duties. It also says existing antidumping, countervailing and other duties still apply. A cotton T-shirt from China therefore faces 16.5% plus 7.5% plus 12.5%, or 36.5%. Vietnam is 16.5% plus 12.5%, or 29%. Bangladesh and India are 16.5% plus 10%, or 26.5%. Italy is 16.5% because the EU rule adds nothing at that base. Those totals are our arithmetic from the notices, not a figure any agency publishes.

On a T-shirt declared at a customs value of $20, that is about $7.30 in duty from China, $5.80 from Vietnam, $5.30 from Bangladesh or India, and $3.30 from Italy. A USMCA-qualifying shirt from Mexico owes nothing. Duties are charged on the declared customs value, not the shelf price, so the cost on a $60 retail tee is smaller than the percentage suggests.

Who pays

Legally, the importer of record who files the entry owes the duty to CBP. That is usually the brand or retailer, or a customs broker acting for it, not the shopper at the register. Who bears the cost after that is an economics question. In an August 3, 2026 review, Kimberly Clausing and Maurice Obstfeld of the Peterson Institute for International Economics report that studies of the 2025 tariffs imply US buyers, consumers and firms together, bore about 90% of the burden. That research covers imports broadly, not clothing alone.

The importer's bill also changes retroactively. CBP's IEEPA refund page says valid refunds are generally issued within 60 to 90 days of accepting a CAPE declaration, after a filer's CAPE declaration is accepted. Whether a brand passes any of that back to customers is its own decision. Our Levi Strauss Q3 2026 results piece covers one company's accounting of it.

What could still change

The July 23 action says USTR will, when feasible, set up tariff-rate quotas for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, with an initial duration of 3 years. They would let a set volume of textiles and apparel, based on each economy's use of US cotton and textile inputs, enter free of the new duty. Until they exist, the directive keeps the 10% rate on those goods. USTR also said it will decide the TRQ details in a separate notice, so no apparel quota is live as of today.

Two further limits matter. A separate Section 301 investigation into industrial excess capacity, opened in March 2026 against 16 economies, had produced no determination in anything we could find. And the country-specific exemption headings in CBP's guidance for places such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia cover certain products, but we did not map those annexes line by line to apparel codes. A specific garment, fabric or country can differ from the general pattern here.

What we verified, and what to check

The rates above come from the USTR announcement, USTR's final action notice, CBP's CSMS 69326983, the White House proclamation and executive order, and the USITC schedule, all opened on October 15, 2026. Several online calculators give conflicting totals and still describe the Section 122 surcharge as live; we relied on none of them. Before you price a shipment, confirm the 10-digit HTS code, the country of origin and the entry date, because rates attach to all three.