Transport
Freight forwarder
Arranges the journey — booking cargo space, consolidating shipments, and coordinating the carrier from factory to destination port or airport. They move boxes; they do not clear them through customs.
Scope note: this page covers commercial imports of clothing into the United States. Import rules change frequently — including trade measures that affect duty rates and exemptions — so confirm current requirements with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and your customs broker before shipping. CBP's own guide, Importing into the United States, is the authoritative starting point.
Who does what
Three roles get confused constantly. Knowing which is which is half the battle:
Clearance
Customs broker
Licensed by CBP to prepare and file your entry, classify goods, and calculate duties owed. A good broker is worth their fee many times over on a first shipment — but hiring one does not transfer your legal responsibility for the entry.
Responsibility
Importer of record
The party legally responsible for the import: duties, taxes, and compliance with US law. For most start-ups that is your own company — which means the errors are yours even when the paperwork was someone else's.
Price terms: Incoterms, in one paragraph
The "price" your factory quotes usually means a point in the journey, defined by Incoterms — the ICC's standard trade terms. "FOB" (free on board) means the factory delivers the goods onto the ship at the origin port and your costs and risk start there; "EXW" (ex works) means you take over at the factory door; "DDP" (delivered duty paid) means the seller carries everything to your door, duties included. The same goods at the same quality can be quoted at wildly different "prices" depending on the term — always ask which term a quote is based on before comparing it with another, and never confuse who pays freight with who bears risk if the container is lost.
Duties and classification
Imported goods are classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and the classification — driven by the product's construction, fiber content, and details like knit vs. woven — determines the duty rate. There is no single "apparel duty rate": rates vary by product type and fiber, and they change with trade measures that have been shifting frequently in recent years. Two rules protect a start-up:
- Classification is a compliance decision, not a shopping decision. Your broker classifies from what the goods actually are. Picking a friendlier code to chase a lower rate is a compliance problem, not a bargain.
- Additional measures may apply. Beyond base duties, some goods face additional tariffs or fees depending on origin and current trade policy — confirm the total with your broker at quote stage, not at the port.
- The old low-value exemption is gone. The $800 de minimis exemption that once let small shipments enter duty-free has been suspended for all countries since August 29, 2025, and CBP made the suspension indefinite by regulation in June 2026 (current CBP guidance). Small brands cannot assume small shipments slip through duty-free anymore.
Build the landed cost first
Landed cost is everything one unit costs by the time it reaches your warehouse — and it is the only number that belongs on your cost sheet. The checklist:
Product & tooling
Factory price per unit, plus sampling and any tooling spread across the run.
Freight & handling
Ocean or air, forwarder fees, destination charges, and drayage from the port. Our container load calculator helps you plan how much fits per shipment.
Duties, fees & brokerage
Duty at your HTS classification, the merchandise processing fee, brokerage, and customs bond costs where they apply.
Domestic leg & buffer
Delivery to your warehouse, plus a contingency for the delays almost every first shipment enjoys. Run the full picture with our landed cost calculator.
Plan the calendar, then add buffer
Production, freight, and customs each consume weeks, and they run in sequence. A first import commonly runs several months end-to-end — and the delays that hurt are rarely the ocean crossing; they are the missing document at clearance and the holiday backlog at the port. Work backward from the season you need to sell in, and build the schedule with the production timeline (T&A calendar) guide. Inspect before the goods ship: a third-party inspection at the factory is far cheaper than a container of unsellable inventory discovered at your door — see the quality inspection (AQL) guide.
For the cash side — deposits, balance payments, freight, duty, and when customer money arrives — map the whole cycle with the import cash flow planner, and pair it with the funding options in our start-up funding guide.
"The delays that hurt are rarely the ocean crossing — they are the missing document at clearance."