Tariff WatchCustoms value is the amount every ad valorem rate is applied to. The primary basis is transaction value, defined at 19 U.S.C. 1401a as the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the United States, with specified additions.
Transaction value
The price paid, plus five statutory additions.
The statutory additions are packing costs incurred by the buyer, any selling commission incurred by the buyer, the value of any assist, any royalty or license fee the buyer must pay as a condition of sale, and the proceeds of any subsequent resale that accrue to the seller. International freight and insurance are not part of transaction value.
Transaction value cannot be used where the sale is subject to conditions for which a value cannot be determined, or where the parties are related and the relationship influenced the price. The statute then sets out alternative bases in a fixed order: the transaction value of identical merchandise, then of similar merchandise, then deductive value, then computed value.
What it is not
Not landed cost, and not the invoice total.
Landed cost includes freight, insurance, duty and fees. Customs value is the input to the duty calculation, not its output, and duty is not computed on a figure that already contains it.
Where a Chapter 99 heading charges on a content value rather than on the entered value, it says so, and the declared content value is what the rate applies to. The Section 232 metals actions were assessed on metal content before moving to the full customs value on 6 April 2026.
Related
Elsewhere on this site.