Import duty on lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery from Germany

Duty on a $10,000 entry of HTS 8428.90.03.90

Priced against measures version 2026-09-03. Estimates for planning only — U.S. Customs and Border Protection determines the final duty on your entry.

How much is the import duty on lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery from Germany?

A shipment of lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery classified under HTS 8428.90.03 and made in Germany currently pays a total of 15.00% in U.S. import duty. That total is built from two lines, not one: the Column 1 general rate of Free (this subheading is duty-free under the normal tariff), plus a Section 232 metals duty of 15.00% charged under Chapter 99. Customers who look up only the base rate in the tariff schedule and stop there are under-budgeting this shipment by 15.00%.

The duty stack, line by line

U.S. duty on this code is assembled from separate legal instruments, each with its own authority. Here is what each line on the entry is:

The base line is HTS 8428.90.03.90 itself at Free, the ordinary most-favoured-nation rate that applies to every origin with normal trade relations with the United States.

HTS 9903.82.10 adds 15.00% under Section 232, the national-security tariff on aluminium, steel and copper articles — it follows the article rather than the country, so changing origin does not remove it (engine label: "Section 232 metals Annex III (15% inclusive, to 31 Dec 2027)").

Worked example: a $10,000 shipment

Take one ocean shipment of lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery with an entered value of $10,000 — the customs value of the goods, before freight and insurance. At 15.00%, the duty is $1,500.00. Of that, $0.00 is the Column 1 duty and $1,500.00 is Chapter 99 additional duty. On top of the duty, the entry attracts a merchandise processing fee of $34.64 and, because it arrives by vessel, a harbor maintenance fee of $12.50. Duty and fees together come to $1,547.14, and the engine puts the landed cost of the goods at $11,547.14.

These are ad valorem rates, so a $100,000 entry of the same goods carries about $15,000 in duty, though MPF is capped per entry. Run your own value, entry date and HTS code through the tariff simulator for the same calculation against the same engine.

What changed, and when

The rate on this code has moved. Priced with an entry date of 15 October 2025, the same shipment would have paid 0% — the Column 1 rate alone, with no Chapter 99 line. Today it pays 15.00%, higher by 15.00 percentage points.

One thing that is often confused with this: IEEPA tariffs are not part of the calculation. The Supreme Court ruled against the IEEPA programme on 20 February 2026, and this engine applies no IEEPA duty on any entry date. Every line above is Section 301, 232, 201 or 122 — separate statutes, unaffected by that ruling.

An entry dated 15 May 2026 prices at 15.00%, the same total as today. The Section 122 balance-of-payments surcharge in force over that window (24 February to 23 July 2026, since expired) did not attach to this code.

MPF, HMF and what else lands on the entry

Duty is not the whole bill to Customs. The merchandise processing fee is ad valorem with a statutory floor and ceiling per entry — $34.64 on this $10,000 example. The harbor maintenance fee is charged on vessel arrivals only, $12.50 here; the same shipment flown in would pay no HMF.

Not in any of these figures: antidumping and countervailing duties, excise taxes, quota charges, bond costs, and the freight and brokerage that make up the rest of your landed cost. AD/CVD is worth checking before you commit to a supplier — it is assessed on the producer and exporter, not just on the HTS code, and it can dwarf the tariff.

U.S. imports of 8428.90.03 from Germany

Between March and July 2026 the U.S. imported $1.7 billion under HTS 8428.90.03 from the 55 origins in this dataset; $405 million of it — 23.9% — came from Germany, making Germany one of the larger suppliers on this subheading. The largest were Mexico (33.2%), Germany (23.9%), Canada (10.3%), China (5.3%) and Italy (4.1%).

Census also reports duty actually collected: entries of HTS 8428.90.03.90 from Germany paid an average effective duty of 14.63% of value over those months. That tracks the 15.00% priced here closely, a good sign the stack above reflects what importers really pay. Treat it as a sanity check on your own numbers, not a forecast of your entry.

Our Heavy Machinery & Industrial Equipment guide covers packing, classification and handling for this cargo type in more depth than a duty page can.

Planning around this number

Classification drives this: the page prices HTS 8428.90.03.90, the largest 10-digit line under 8428.90.03 for Germany by import value, and a neighbouring line in the same subheading can carry different Chapter 99 exposure. Entry date matters as much as origin — the gap between the dates above is a change in law, not in your goods.

Airlift USA does not hold a U.S. customs broker licence — customs entries are handled through our licensed broker network, and the broker of record makes the classification and origin calls. These figures are estimates for planning, produced by the same engine behind our tariff simulator; U.S. Customs and Border Protection determines the final duty on your entry.

The same shipment, priced on three entry dates

What HTS 8428.90.03.90 actually covers

Other lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery (for example, elevators, escalators, conveyors, teleferics) > Other machinery > Other

Questions importers ask about HTS 8428.90.03 from Germany