What is a specific tariff?

A specific tariff is a fixed money amount charged per physical unit of the imported good - for example 7.7 cents per kilogram for walnuts in shell or $1.104 per kilogram for a dairy line - rather than a percentage of the customs value. In the October 2026 US tariff schedule, 1,690 of 23,193 ten-digit lines carry a purely specific general rate, and another 595 stack a money amount on top of a percentage as compound rates.

How do I calculate duty on a compound rate like $1.104/kg + 14.9%?

Compute both components and add them. For HTS 0402.29.50.00, a 500 kg shipment worth $4,000 owes the specific part 500 x $1.104 = $552 plus the ad valorem part 14.9% x $4,000 = $596, so $1,148 in total - an effective 28.7% rate. Customs applies the same two-step arithmetic on the entry summary; the declared net weight drives the first term.

Which products carry specific or compound duties in the US tariff?

They concentrate in agriculture and labor-intensive goods. Counted by ten-digit lines carrying any dollars-or-cents component in the general rate, the leaders are chapter 07 (edible vegetables, 332 lines), chapter 20 (prepared fruit and vegetables, 168), chapter 04 (dairy, 147), chapter 08 (fruit and nuts, 146), chapter 24 (tobacco, 141), chapter 02 (meat, 124), chapter 91 (clocks and watches, 114) and chapter 62 (woven apparel, 100).

Why does the US use cents-per-kilogram duties at all?

Per-unit rates shield domestic producers from low-priced bulk shipments: when the duty is a fixed sum per kilo, cutting the invoice price raises the duty's share of value instead of lowering it. They also give predictable revenue on commodities whose world prices swing widely. Negotiated partners mostly see these rates waived or reduced through the Special rate column, so the burden lands mainly on suppliers without preferential access.

Do specific tariffs change when prices or inflation move?

No. A specific rate is a fixed dollar figure written into the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, so it does not track inflation or commodity prices; only a formal schedule modification changes it. That is why the effective burden of a 7.7-cent duty grows whenever unit values fall, and shrinks - though never disappears - when prices rise.

How does a compound duty compare with a plain percent rate at different price points?

The money component is worth more on cheap cargo. For the dairy line $1.104/kg + 14.9%, the per-kilo part alone equals 27.6% of value at $4 per kilogram but only 5.5% at $20 per kilogram; adding the constant 14.9% gives effective rates of roughly 42.5%, 28.7% and 20.4% respectively. Quoting a compound line without knowing your per-unit value is guesswork.

Specific and Compound Tariffs: When the US Charges Dollars Per Kilo, Not Just Percent

Updated October 2026. Every figure below is recomputed from our structured extract of the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule; sources are cited inline.

Most importers treat the duty rate as one number: a percent. A meaningful slice of the US schedule does not work that way. Open the wrong line and you owe dollars per kilogram, cents per liter, or a percentage stacked on top of a per-unit charge — and the difference between a good quote and a loss can come down to how many kilos you declared. In our October 2026 extract of the tariff schedule, 1,690 of 23,193 ten-digit lines carry a purely specific general rate and another 595 are compound (money-plus-percent), so 2,285 lines — nearly one in ten — demand arithmetic beyond multiplication by a percent. This guide shows exactly how the three rate forms differ, where they cluster, and how to compute them without surprises.

1. The three rate forms, in the schedule's own words

The HTS general rate column uses three shapes. An ad valorem rate is a percent of customs value (“14.9%”). A specific rate is a money amount per physical unit (“7.7¢/kg”, “$1.104/kg”, “30¢ each”). A compound rate is both at once, joined by a plus sign (“$1.104/kg + 14.9%”). CBP assesses duty on entry summaries using whichever form the line states — and for specific and compound lines, the entered quantity in the stated unit becomes a legal variable in your duty bill.

Rate form in general column	Ten-digit lines	Share of schedule	Example line
Free	8,504	36.7%	—
Ad valorem only (%)	12,110	52.2%	14.9%
Specific only ($/¢ per unit)	1,690	7.3%	7.7¢/kg (walnuts, in shell)
Compound ($ + %)	595	2.6%	$1.104/kg + 14.9% (milk powder)
Other textual rates	294	1.3%	various quota-bound lines

2. Where per-unit duties cluster

Money-based rates are not scattered randomly. They dominate agricultural chapters, where world commodity prices swing and Congress historically protected domestic growers by the ton; and they survive in labor-intensive goods like watches and apparel, where a century-old specific-rate logic still echoes. Counting ten-digit lines whose general rate carries any dollars-or-cents component:

HTS chapter	Lines with $/¢ component	Typical goods
07 — Edible vegetables	332	potatoes, onions, dried legumes
20 — Prepared fruit & vegetables	168	canned tomatoes, fruit preparations
04 — Dairy	147	milk powder, butter, cheese
08 — Fruit & nuts	146	walnuts, almonds, citrus
24 — Tobacco	141	leaf tobacco, manufactured tobacco
02 — Meat	124	beef, pork, poultry cuts
91 — Clocks & watches	114	wristwatch movements ($ per unit)
62 — Woven apparel	100	coats, suits priced per dozen + %

Two details inside chapter 04 show how granular the units get. Milk-powder lines state their unit as kg; kg cmsc — the second figure is chicken-meat content carried over from processed-food accounting, and CBP expects quantities in both. Fresh-milk lines are tiered by annual volume: 0401.20.20.00 charges 0.43¢/liter only “for not over 11,356,236 liters entered in any calendar year,” a quota-shaped specific rate.

3. The arithmetic, done twice

A pure specific rate: walnuts at 7.7¢/kg

Line 0802.11.00.00 (walnuts in shell) charges 7.7¢ per kilogram. A 1,000 kg consignment invoiced at $6,000 owes 1,000 × $0.077 = $77 — an effective 1.3% of value. Halve the invoice to $3,000 and the duty still costs $77, now 2.6% of value. The importer's lever on a specific line is not price negotiation but declared net weight accuracy: over-declaring packing weight is a duty donation, under-declaring is a penalty exposure.

A compound rate: milk powder at $1.104/kg + 14.9%

Line 0402.29.50.00 stacks both instruments. Take 500 kg worth $4,000: the specific component is 500 × $1.104 = $552; the ad valorem component is 0.149 × $4,000 = $596; total duty $1,148, an effective 28.7%. Now rerun the same line at $20/kg ($10,000 value): $552 + $1,490 = $2,042, an effective 20.4%. The percent half never moves; the money half weighs heaviest on cheap cargo.

Unit value of shipment	$/kg component as % of value	+ ad valorem 14.9%	Effective rate
$4/kg	27.6%	14.9%	42.5%
$8/kg	13.8%	14.9%	28.7%
$20/kg	5.5%	14.9%	20.4%

Read as a break-even rule: the per-kilo component alone equals 110.4 divided by your unit value in dollars, as a percent. Below roughly $11/kg of unit value, the money component out-weighs the famous 14.9% — yet most quoting spreadsheets model only the percent. That asymmetry is exactly what our duty calculator computes for every line, and why we wrote this companion explainer.

4. What importers should do differently

Quote in the schedule's unit, not yours. If the line says doz.; kg (apparel) or No. (watch movements at 30¢ each), your commercial invoice must map cleanly onto that unit or the broker will estimate it for you.
Model the floor price. On compound lines, build quotes at pessimistic unit values; the effective rate rises as value falls, so a discount can raise your landed-cost percent.
Check the Special column before accepting the pain. Many dairy and produce lines are Free under FTA partners while remaining $-heavy otherwise — the same line 0402.29.50.00 reads Free for BH, CL, JO, KR, MA, OM, P, PA, PE, SG. Origin paperwork converts directly into cash here.
Reconcile entered quantities with entry summaries monthly. Specific-duty lines make quantity errors financially material in a way percent lines do not; a 5% weight discrepancy is a 5% duty discrepancy.
Watch Chapter 99 add-ons separately. Per-unit base rates can also be stacked by trade-remedy add-ons; see our guide to how Chapter 99 add-ons stack and the taxonomy of US duty-rate types.

Frequently asked questions

What is a specific tariff?: A specific tariff is a fixed money amount charged per physical unit of the imported good - for example 7.7 cents per kilogram for walnuts in shell or $1.104 per kilogram for a dairy line - rather than a percentage of the customs value. In the October 2026 US tariff schedule, 1,690 of 23,193 ten-digit lines carry a purely specific general rate, and another 595 stack a money amount on top of a percentage as compound rates.
How do I calculate duty on a compound rate like $1.104/kg + 14.9%?: Compute both components and add them. For HTS 0402.29.50.00, a 500 kg shipment worth $4,000 owes the specific part 500 x $1.104 = $552 plus the ad valorem part 14.9% x $4,000 = $596, so $1,148 in total - an effective 28.7% rate. Customs applies the same two-step arithmetic on the entry summary; the declared net weight drives the first term.
Which products carry specific or compound duties in the US tariff?: They concentrate in agriculture and labor-intensive goods. Counted by ten-digit lines carrying any dollars-or-cents component in the general rate, the leaders are chapter 07 (edible vegetables, 332 lines), chapter 20 (prepared fruit and vegetables, 168), chapter 04 (dairy, 147), chapter 08 (fruit and nuts, 146), chapter 24 (tobacco, 141), chapter 02 (meat, 124), chapter 91 (clocks and watches, 114) and chapter 62 (woven apparel, 100).
Why does the US use cents-per-kilogram duties at all?: Per-unit rates shield domestic producers from low-priced bulk shipments: when the duty is a fixed sum per kilo, cutting the invoice price raises the duty's share of value instead of lowering it. They also give predictable revenue on commodities whose world prices swing widely. Negotiated partners mostly see these rates waived or reduced through the Special rate column, so the burden lands mainly on suppliers without preferential access.
Do specific tariffs change when prices or inflation move?: No. A specific rate is a fixed dollar figure written into the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, so it does not track inflation or commodity prices; only a formal schedule modification changes it. That is why the effective burden of a 7.7-cent duty grows whenever unit values fall, and shrinks - though never disappears - when prices rise.
How does a compound duty compare with a plain percent rate at different price points?: The money component is worth more on cheap cargo. For the dairy line $1.104/kg + 14.9%, the per-kilo part alone equals 27.6% of value at $4 per kilogram but only 5.5% at $20 per kilogram; adding the constant 14.9% gives effective rates of roughly 42.5%, 28.7% and 20.4% respectively. Quoting a compound line without knowing your per-unit value is guesswork.

Sources and methodology

Dataset: data/hts.json, our structured extract of the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule (23,193 ten-digit rows, USITC REST export dated 2026-10-09T17:43Z, generated from hts.usitc.gov). Rate-form classification splits each general string on presence of a percent sign versus a dollars-or-cents prefix; the census and chapter groupings are reproducible from the raw JSON. Worked-example rates were cross-checked against the live USITC export for 0402.29.50.00 and matched exactly ($1.104/kg + 14.9% general; $1.299/kg + 17.5% Column 2). For the official definitions of rate forms see the USITC tariff FAQ; for how duty attaches to value, transaction valuation follows 19 U.S.C. 1401a (statute text); CBP's overview of column semantics lives in CBP article 1117. Nothing in this article relies on projected or unpublished datasets.