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Electric Bike Import Duty (HTS 8711.60): Four Tools, Four Invoices, One Schedule Line

Computed from ExportSonar's machine-readable copy of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (23,193 lines, USITC export generated 2026-10-19) cross-checked against our Chapter 99 remedy pipelines; every figure in this guide is reproducible from those datasets.

Ask four tariff websites what an electric bike costs at the US border and you will get four different numbers. On the same day we checked — 2026-10-14 — one tool priced a Chinese e-bike at 7.5%, one at 12.5%, one at 25%, and one at 37.5%. Same code, same origin, same week. Someone is quoting a retired rate, someone is missing a live one, and the importer pays either way: brokers do not refund deposits because a calculator was optimistic. This guide arbitrates the dispute the only way that holds up — against the schedule lines themselves — and then prices the correct stack at three invoice sizes so you can see what each error costs.

The family, enumerated: 8711.60 in our extract

Source: our machine-readable HTS extract, all records under 8711.60 verbatim. Special column empty on every line — with the base already Free, no preference program has anything to give.

Three lines, all Free. The heading around them is friendlier than most vehicle chapters too: of the 20 lines under heading 8711, only the six combustion-engine lines above 500 cc carry duty at all (2.4%), and the entire heading posts a uniform 10% Column 2 rate for the shortest list of non-NTR partners. So where does a 37.5% effective rate come from? Not from the schedule's Chapter 87 columns — from the Chapter 99 overlay that every one of those competing tools has to assemble by hand.

The layer cake: two live Section 301 actions on one bicycle

Chapter 99 provisions are separate legal authorities that stack on the customs value. For Chinese-origin e-bikes, two are live simultaneously:

• 9903.88.02 — U.S. note 20(d), +25%. The China trade-remedy action our pipeline tracks as 7,045 exposed eight-digit lines, this one filed under basis note 20(d). It hits 8711.60.00 directly, alongside 8711.10.00, 8711.50.00 and 8711.90.01 — four of the four motorized-cycle families in the heading, and 188 exposed lines across chapter 87 overall.
• 9903.05.31 — U.S. note 52, +12.5%. The forced-labor action effective July 24, 2026 (Federal Register 2026-15181): “articles the product of China” take the applicable subheading rate plus 12.5%, excepting only products described in 9903.05.85–.92. Because it postdates the familiar China lists, older content simply does not know it exists.

Add them to the Free base and the arithmetic is 0% + 25% + 12.5% = 37.5%. If your broker advises the note-52 action does not reach your facts (the Annex II exclusion set is still being parsed industry-wide), the conservative floor is the 25% path alone — but that is a decision to make with counsel, not a default to assume.

Arbitrating the four answers

Source: competitor pages retrieved 2026-10-14 (URLs in the audit trail, docs/drafts/DRAFTS-INVENTORY.md); schedule facts from data/hts.json, data/section301_origin.json and data/trade_remedy.json in our repository.

The instructive part is that all four tools are “right” about something. The base is Free — true. A 25% China action exists — true, and it was the whole story for years. A 12.5% forced-labor action exists — true, since July 2026. Each tool froze its snapshot at a different date and none of them tells you which layer you are looking at. That is precisely the failure mode a per-line, timestamped dataset prevents: when every assertion carries its retrieval date, disagreement becomes diagnosable instead of mysterious.

What the correct stack costs: three worked invoices

Priced on customs value, ocean entry, formal entry, China origin, using the FY2027 fee schedule (MPF 0.3464% of value, floor $34.58, cap $670.86, effective 2026-10-01; HMF 0.125%):

Source: base rate from data/hts.json line 8711.60.00; action rates from data/section301_origin.json (9903.88.02) and data/trade_remedy.json (9903.05.31); fee parameters from data/entry_fees.json (FY2027). Air freight drops the HMF column.

Now put the four competing answers back over the middle invoice. On $25,000.00 of goods, the 7.5% quote implies $1,875.00 of duty; the 12.5% quote $3,125.00; the 25% quote $6,250.00; the full stack $9,375.00. The spread between the cheapest and the correct answer is $7,500.00 — comfortably more than most fulfillment software subscriptions, which is why the arbitration problem is worth a page of your time. Run your own value through the duty calculator to see the stack applied to your actual invoice.

Origins that really are Free — and the one that is not

Strip China out and the tools converge: Vietnam, India, Mexico, Germany and most trading partners ride the Free base with no Chapter 99 overlay, which is why several of them honestly print “Free.” Two caveats keep that comfort honest. First, substantial processing in China (motor, battery pack, controller) keeps the goods “the product of” China even when shipped from a third country — origin follows where the merchandise was grown, produced or manufactured, not where it was loaded. Second, the 10% Column 2 rate is the ceiling for any partner that loses NTR treatment; the PNTR revocation debate makes that hypothetical worth monitoring rather than dismissing, as our Column 2 exposure map explains line by line.

The 250-watt question

Buyers routinely ask whether a low-power model clears cheaper. Within 8711.60 the split is purely statistical: .50 for output not exceeding 250 W, .90 for everything else, identical Free/10% columns. Where power does move money is the boundary of the heading itself — pedal-assist bicycles that stay under the vehicle definitions, sit-down scooters, and conversion kits each have their own lines, and the mechanics of how a Chapter 99 addition rides on top of whatever base applies are the subject of our stacked tariffs explainer. When in doubt, classify the machine first and let the overlays follow; the ten-digit suffix logic is covered in our statistical suffix guide.

Watch the line while the lawyers argue

Every figure in this page was computed from versioned data files with retrieval timestamps, and every one of them can move: the Chapter 99 layer is litigated, annexed and amended on rolling deadlines, and a single Federal Register notice can flip the correct answer from one competitor's number to another's. Subscribers monitoring 8711.60 get an email the moment any column shifts or a new provision reaches the family; batch classification and CSV exports live on the pricing tiers, and new accounts start at the signup page. The underlying data page for the heading is at heading 8711. Four tools disagreed this week; the schedule, read completely, does not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the US import duty on electric bikes under HTS 8711.60?

The base rate is Free: every line of heading 8711.60, With electric motor for propulsion, reads Free in the general column of the schedule. Origin changes everything after that. Goods that are the product of China currently carry two additional Section 301 duties — 25% under Chapter 99 provision 9903.88.02 (U.S. note 20(d)) and 12.5% under 9903.05.31 (U.S. note 52, the forced-labor action effective July 24, 2026) — for a combined 37.5% on top of the Free base. Countries without normal-trade-relations treatment fall to the 10% Column 2 rate.

Why do tariff calculators disagree about the electric bike duty from China?

Because each tool prices a different subset of the legal layers, and the layers changed during 2026. In our side-by-side, one tool showed only the 25% China action, one showed only the newer 12.5% forced-labor action, one quoted a retired 7.5% List 4A rate, and one stacked both actions correctly to 37.5%. Stale fee parameters add further noise: one competitor still displayed prior-year Merchandise Processing Fee bounds ($32.71/$634.62) instead of the FY2027 figures ($34.58/$670.86).

Do Section 301 duties stack on top of a Free base rate?

Yes. Additional duties in Chapter 99 are computed on the customs value regardless of what the underlying schedule line says, so a Free base does not shield the shipment. On a $10,000.00 customs value, the 25% China action adds $2,500.00 and the 12.5% forced-labor action adds another $1,250.00 — $3,750.00 of duty on a line whose own column reads Free. The statute writes both provisions as the applicable subheading rate plus the additional percentage.

Does the 250 W statistical suffix change the duty on an e-bike?

No. The family splits into 8711.60.00.50 (output not exceeding 250 W) and 8711.60.00.90 (Other), and both statistical lines inherit the same legal rate: Free in the general column, 10% in Column 2. The suffix moves reporting statistics, not money. Rate effects only appear when you leave the family — the neighboring combustion-engine headings charge 2.4% on the six paid lines above 500 cc.

What fees besides duty apply when importing an e-bike into the US?

Formal entries pay the Merchandise Processing Fee of 0.3464% of value with a $34.58 floor and a $670.86 ceiling (FY2027 adjusted, effective October 1, 2026), and waterborne shipments add the Harbor Maintenance Fee of 0.125%. On a $10,000.00 ocean entry that is $34.64 plus $12.50 in fees on top of any duty. Shipments valued at $2,500 or less may qualify for informal entry, where MPF becomes a small flat fee instead of a percentage — one reason per-shipment quotes vary even when the duty rate itself is agreed.