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Used Clothing Bales: The Two Tests That Decide Free Entry or New-Apparel Rates Under 6309

Computed from ExportSonar's machine-readable copy of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (23,193 lines, USITC export generated 2026-10-09); every figure in this guide is reproducible from that dataset.

Search “duty rate for used clothing” and you land on a CBP FAQ page, an industry association's objection letter, and trade blogs recycling each other. None of them show you the actual schedule lines. Here is the uncomfortable clarity our extract provides: every single line of heading 6309 — worn clothing and other worn articles — reads Free, while the new-apparel headings those same garments would fall back into commonly charge double-digit percentages. The entire game, therefore, is not the rate. It is qualification: two tests, appreciable wear and bulk-or-bale packing, decide whether your shipment rides Free or gets re-rated as new merchandise. This guide enumerates all 3 lines, decodes both tests, prices the rejection scenario at three invoice sizes, and lists the paperwork that keeps the Free rate intact.

The whole heading, enumerated: 6309 in our extract

Source: our machine-readable HTS extract, all records under 6309 verbatim. The two ten-digit statistical suffixes split worn clothing from other worn articles; both are dutied by kilogram.

Three lines. All Free. No special-program letters anywhere in the column — there is nothing to prefer when the base rate is already zero. And a Column 2 rate of 93% that only matters for the shortest list of non-NTR trading partners. Compared with the 664 lines in the adjacent new-apparel headings 6109–6204, where paid rates span single digits up to 32 percent, 6309 looks like a tax holiday. It is — for shipments that qualify.

The side-by-side that lookup pages don't show

Source: record counts and columns computed from our HTS extract. New-apparel figures aggregate all lines under headings 6109, 6203 and 6204.

Test one: appreciable wear

The statute's phrase is “if they have been actually worn.” Not tried on, not washed once, not returned-to-stock — worn, with the kind of use that leaves an examiner confident the garment has lived a life. In practice this is a judgment call at the port, and judgment calls travel on documentation. Grading certificates, supplier attestations and photographic condition records convert “trust us” into evidence. Shipments of factory seconds, closeouts and deadstock inventory fail this test routinely: unworn garments are simply new apparel wearing a discount sticker, and CBP treats them accordingly.

Why does the threshold matter economically? Because the fallback is not a middle rate. Once 6309 is denied, each garment takes the rate of its own material-and-type heading — the 664 lines we aggregated above exist precisely to price new garments by fiber, construction and gender split. A mixed bale does not average those rates; each item is classified on its own merits, which is why rejection bills surprise importers who assumed one blended percentage.

Test two: bulk or bales, for cleaning and resale

The second qualification is structural. Heading 6309's coverage extends to worn articles “imported in bulk or bales” for the express purpose of being cleaned or laundered and then sold in that state. This is the rag-trade provision: compressed bounces of graded secondhand clothing, sorted by fiber and grade at the origin warehouse, shipped by the container for sorting-house processing. The kilogram unit of quantity on both ten-digit lines tells you Congress wrote this for tonnage trade, not for a consignment of vintage tees folded into a mixed pallet.

Retail-ready quantities raise flags that bales do not. If your goods arrive consumer-packed, ticketed and mixed with other merchandise, the examiner's default frame shifts from “bulk used textiles” to “secondhand merchandise,” and the burden of proving the cleaning-and-resale purpose lands squarely on your entry packet. Neither test is optional; passing one with a failing score on the other still loses the Free rate.

What rejection costs: three worked invoices

If CBP denies 6309 treatment, duty is computed at the new-apparel rate appropriate to each garment — plus the usual entry fees either way. Formal entries also pay the Merchandise Processing Fee (0.3464% of value, floor $34.58, cap $670.86, FY2027 adjusted effective 2026-10-01) and, waterborne, the Harbor Maintenance Fee (0.125%). For illustration we price the rejection using a single high-paid comparator line, 6109.90.10 (“Of man-made fibers”, 32%):

Source: Free rate and kilogram units from data/hts.json heading 6309; comparator rate from line 6109.90.10; fee parameters from data/entry_fees.json (FY2027). HMF shown for waterborne cargo; air freight drops that column.

*Illustrative single-line rate. Realistic rejection math uses each garment's own heading; the paid-line landscape in the neighboring chapters runs steep. Across our extract, 6109 median 16.5% across 40 paid lines, 6203 median 14.9% across 183 paid lines, and 6204 median 13.6% across 276 paid lines. Against those baselines, a rejected $25,000.00 bale priced at the comparator line owes $8,000.00 in duty that the Free line never carried — the fees stay identical, the duty does not. Run your own numbers in the duty calculator.

Paperwork teeth: keeping the Free rate you found

A Free line is not a no-papers line. Entries under 6309 should carry a commercial invoice that says what the goods are — used, worn, graded — with bale counts and kilogram weights that match the unit of quantity, photographs or grading reports evidencing wear, and a statement of the cleaning-or-laundering-and-resale purpose. Examiners cut bales open. What they find should look exactly like the declaration: sorted, worn, bulk-packed textiles. Misalignment between paperwork and contents is how Free entries turn into penalty cases.

Sourcing context helps too. The textile ladder between fabric and finished apparel — and the duties it imposes at each step — is our textile tariff ladder guide; the broader census of zero-rated lines sits in the duty-free imports explainer; and for how ten-digit suffixes like 6309's .10/.20 split work, see the statistical suffix guide. Precedent search belongs in the workflow as well: our 6309 ruling family page collects issued classifications against this heading, and the underlying data page lives at heading 6309.

Watch the heading while it watches you

Free lines move. Preference lapses, Section 301 waves and miscellaneous bills have re-priced lines far less traded than secondhand textiles, and every one of those changes first appears as a quiet edit to a schedule line. Subscribers monitoring 6309 get an email the moment the general, special or Column 2 column shifts; batch classification across a whole catalog and CSV exports live on the paid tiers, detailed on the pricing page, and new accounts start at the signup page. When the rate is Free, the only thing left to manage is qualification — so manage it like the margin depends on it, because it does.

Frequently asked questions

What duty rate applies to used clothing imported into the United States?

Under heading 6309, worn clothing and other worn articles enter duty-free: all 3 lines in our machine-readable schedule extract read Free in the general column. The catch is qualification. The two tests — appreciable wear and bulk-or-bale packing — decide whether your goods belong in 6309 at all. Fail them and CBP classifies the items as new apparel under their own headings, where paid lines commonly run double-digit percentages.

Are bales of secondhand clothes classified differently from individual garments?

The classification itself does not change with packaging, but the evidence burden does. Heading 6309 covers worn clothing and worn articles when imported in bulk or bales for the express purpose of being cleaned or laundered and then sold in that state. A container of graded bales is the natural habitat of 6309; a carton of pre-owned garments mixed with retail stock invites a different look. Our extract shows all 6309 lines are dutied by kilogram, which fits bulk trade rather than shelf merchandise.

What happens if CBP decides my shipment is not worn enough for 6309?

Rejected goods drop out of 6309 and get classified as what they materially are: new or like-new apparel under headings such as 6109 through 6204. Duty is then assessed at those lines' rates on the full customs value. As an illustration, one paid knit-shirt line in the 6109.90 group carries 32% — applied to a $25,000.00 bale that carries a flat $8,000.00 in duty that the Free line never owed. Add penalties exposure if the declaration was aggressive, and the economics of honest paperwork get obvious.

Do preference programs give used clothing a better-than-Free rate?

No, and this surprises people. The special-rate column is empty on every 6309 line in our extract — no preference-program letters are listed at all, because the general rate is already Free. Preference claims only become interesting after a rejection: once your goods are taxed as new apparel, FTA origin can pull the rate back down. That is a reason to keep origin documents with the bale manifest, not a reason to expect relief at entry.

Does Column 2 apply to worn clothing?

Yes. All 3 lines of 6309 carry a Column 2 rate of 93% for countries without normal-trade-relations treatment. Because the general column is Free, the spread between most-favoured and Column 2 treatment is unusually dramatic here: infinite in percentage terms. It is a reminder that Free lines still have paperwork teeth — the statute gives nothing to shipments that fail the wear-and-bulk tests regardless of origin.

How do I document wear before shipping?

Build the file CBP will ask for: a commercial invoice describing the goods as used or worn, sorted and graded bale lists with weights in kilograms matching the 6309 unit of quantity, photographs showing condition, and a statement of the cleaning-or-resale purpose. Keep the grading consistent with the bale contents; examiners cut bales. If a ruling pattern matches your fact situation, cite it — our ruling-family pages collect issued classifications per heading so you can anchor the argument before wheels move.