US imports of Hats and other headgear, knitted or crocheted

US imports under HTS 6505 at a glance

Between March and July 2026, US importers entered $823 million of hats and other headgear, knitted or crocheted under HTS heading 6505, from 53 of the 55 origin countries covered here and across 37 ten-digit tariff lines — roughly $165 million a month of customs value under a single four-digit heading.

Chapter 65 covers headgear and parts thereof; heading 6505 is one of its larger entries by value, which is why the duty treatment below is worth checking line by line.

Who exports hats and other headgear, knitted or crocheted to the United States

Vietnam is the largest origin with $229 million, or 27.8% of the heading, with Mexico at 23.1% and China at 18.2%. The top three take 69.1% between them — enough concentration to matter when one origin's duty treatment changes, but not so much that a buyer has no alternative to qualify.

Mexico sits near the top of the table, and the duty numbers reflect it: Mexico entered 99.4% of its value free of duty. Cargo that qualifies under USMCA and is claimed correctly at entry pays nothing; cargo that does not qualify, or that is never claimed, pays the ordinary rate. The certification is the whole difference.

What importers actually paid in duty

Duty treatment is split. 76.2% of the entered value was dutiable and the rest came in free, usually under a trade agreement or a duty-free provision in the tariff schedule. CBP collected $140 million in all, an effective 22.4% on the dutiable value and $17.06 per $100 of goods once the free entries are counted.

The spread between origins is real. Among origins with at least 2% of the heading, China paid the most duty relative to value — $40.06 per $100 — while Mexico paid $0.09. On a $250,000 purchase order that gap is about $100,000 in duty alone, which is worth pricing into a sourcing decision rather than discovering on the entry summary.

The 10-digit lines under heading 6505

37 ten-digit lines carried trade under this heading in the period. The largest, 6505.00.80.90 (not in part of braid), took 32.3% of the heading at $266 million. 6505.00.80.15, 6505.00.60.90 and 6505.00.20.60 follow. Rates diverge between those lines, so the classification your broker files is worth checking against the goods rather than carried over from the last entry.

What the duty stack looks like

The rate on an entry is not one number. It is a stack: the general (column 1) rate for the 10-digit line, less any trade-agreement preference the goods qualify for, plus whatever additional duties apply to that product and origin, all applied to the customs value declared. The $17.06 per $100 above is what that stack averaged across every entry in this heading — a benchmark, not a quote.

For the origins carrying the most volume, the per-country breakdowns go a level deeper: Vietnam (6505.00.80), China (6505.00.80) and Bangladesh (6505.00.80). To price a specific shipment, put your 10-digit code and country of origin into the tariff simulator.

What this means for your next shipment

The practical sequence is: confirm the 10-digit line against the actual goods, confirm origin under the substantial-transformation rules rather than the shipping address, then price the duty on that pair. Airlift USA moves the cargo and coordinates classification and entry filing through our licensed broker network, so the code agreed at booking is the one on the entry.

For the operational side rather than the tariff side, see the E-commerce Ready Consumer Goods guide for how this cargo moves, the Vietnam to USA lane for transit times and ports and the heading index to compare against the rest of chapter 65.