You asked for a delivered price. The quote came back with a single number and four words: customs clearance and duties included.
That is exactly what DDP is supposed to do. You are not filing an entry, not hiring a broker, not posting a bond, not wiring duties to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Someone else handles all of it, and you pay one price.
The question is what that sentence actually covers. “Included” is doing a lot of work in a very small number of words, and most of what it hides only becomes visible when something goes wrong — a rate changes, a container gets pulled for examination, an agency asks for a document nobody warned you about.
This guide is not about auditing your forwarder. You chose DDP precisely so you would not have to. It is about the handful of things worth pinning down before you accept the quote — who carries the legal import responsibility, what happens to the price if the tariff moves, and which risks stay with you no matter who files the entry.
who handles what under U.S. DDP
Five parties show up in a typical DDP shipment to the United States. They are easy to blur together, and blurring them is where most misunderstandings start.
| Party | What they actually do | Answerable to CBP for the entry? |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign seller or shipper | Sells the goods and, under DDP, pays freight and duties | Only if named as Importer of Record |
| You, the U.S. buyer | Buy the goods, receive them, sometimes supply documents | Only if named as Importer of Record |
| Ultimate consignee | The party that physically takes delivery — often your warehouse or a 3PL | Not for the entry, but receives certain agency notices |
| Licensed customs broker | Files the entry with CBP on the importer’s behalf | Acts for the importer; cannot be the importer |
| Surety company | Issues the customs bond that secures the duties | Financially, if duties go unpaid |
The row that matters is the Importer of Record. Paying for the goods, paying the freight, and being legally answerable for the customs entry are three separate things, and DDP does not automatically put them in the same hands. The commercial invoice tells you who sold you the goods. It does not tell you who is on the hook if the entry turns out to be wrong.
Who can be the Importer of Record?
U.S. law allows only two kinds of party to file a customs entry: the owner or purchaser of the goods, or a licensed customs broker acting for one of them (19 USC 1484). Whoever takes the role is legally liable for the duties on the entry (19 CFR 141.1).
In practice, that leaves three possibilities:
- The foreign seller. A seller who still owns the goods at the time of entry counts as the owner, so it can be the importer. Many DDP shipments work this way.
- You. As the purchaser you also qualify — and this is often the cleanest structure of all: your EIN, your bond, a broker filing under a Power of Attorney you signed. The duty cost stays inside the delivered price, but the entry and the duty receipts accumulate under your name.
- Never the forwarder itself. Arranging transport is not a financial interest in the goods, so a freight forwarder cannot become your Importer of Record just because it booked the container.
A foreign seller acting as importer needs four things in place. Most of this is one-time setup, arranged before the first shipment:
- An importer number from CBP. A foreign company has no U.S. tax ID, so it files CBP Form 5106 and CBP assigns it a number under 19 CFR 24.5.
- A U.S. resident agent — someone in the United States who can receive legal documents on its behalf.
- A customs bond in its own name — single-entry for one shipment, or continuous for a year of imports.
- A Power of Attorney signed to the licensed broker who will file the entries.
None of this is exotic. A well-run DDP operation has all four in place long before your cargo ships — but all four have to exist, and “we handle everything” is not proof that they do.
So being asked for a Power of Attorney and a tax ID is not, by itself, a warning sign — under this structure, that paperwork is what makes the import record yours. What deserves a second look is the opposite: a quote that asks for nothing at all. Every entry has an Importer of Record. If nobody has asked you for anything and the seller has not set itself up as one, then the importer is someone you cannot see — and if that entry is undervalued or misclassified, you hold no duty receipts and no records of your own.
Once the importer is in place, every shipment runs through the same five steps:
- The importer grants a Power of Attorney to a licensed customs broker. This authorization is required by 19 CFR 141.46 before the broker can act.
- The broker prepares and files the entry with CBP, declaring the classification, the value, and the country of origin.
- A customs bond is posted — either a single-entry bond for that shipment or a continuous bond covering a year of imports — guaranteeing that duties will be paid and regulations followed.
- CBP releases the cargo, usually before the final duty amount is settled.
- The entry is later liquidated, and until it is, CBP can ask questions, request corrections, or reassess what is owed.
You do not need to know which broker signs the entry, which surety issues the bond, or what importer number appears on the paperwork — a forwarder keeping those private is normal. What you do need is written confirmation of three things: that the chain exists, that its routine costs are inside your quote, and that you know which link — if any — you are personally standing on.
If you need something beyond ordinary clearance — control over the entry itself, duty drawback, a Foreign Trade Zone program — say so before booking. Standard DDP is built for a simple release and a predictable landed cost, not for giving you a hand on the customs entry.
The biggest variable: what happens if the tariff changes before entry
Here is the part of a DDP quote that almost never appears in writing, and it is also the part with the largest number attached to it.
When a forwarder quotes you “duties included,” that figure is not looked up from your shipment. It is calculated in advance from three assumptions: the HS code the goods will be classified under, the value that will be declared, and which additional tariffs will apply on the day of entry.
Suppose you are importing $50,000 of plastic housewares. The forwarder classifies them under HS 3924.10, applies the 3.4% base rate plus the 25% Section 301 list rate, adds whatever surcharge is in force that month, and folds the result into your all-in DDP price. Nothing improper has happened — this is how the quote gets built.
But between the day you accept that price and the day the container is entered, thirty to fifty days go by. The duty rate that applies is the rate in effect on the date of entry, not the date of the quote. And this is not a hypothetical. On July 24, 2026, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern, the 10% Section 122 global surcharge reached its 150-day statutory limit and expired — in the same minute, USTR’s new Section 301 forced-labor action took effect at 12.5% for China-origin goods. A container quoted in early July against a 38.4% total rate was entered at 40.9%. Nothing about the cargo changed; roughly $1,250 appeared out of nowhere. And that was a mild, 2.5-point swap — when goods are newly added to a list, or a new action stacks on top of the old ones, the move is routinely ten points or more.
The current U.S. tariff stack for China-origin goods — as of August 2026:
| Layer | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Base duty (MFN) | Varies by HTS code — 3.4% for HS 3924.10 | HTSUS Column 1 General |
| Original Section 301 lists (2018–2019) | 25% or 7.5%, depending on the list | USTR China Section 301 actions — all still in force |
| New Section 301 forced-labor duty | 12.5% for China-origin goods; 10% for economies with forced-labor import bans in place | USTR final action announced July 23, 2026, effective July 24 |
| What it replaced | The 10% Section 122 global surcharge | Expired July 24, 2026 at its 150-day statutory limit |
| In-transit exemption (now closed) | Qualifying cargo escaped the new 12.5% | Loaded on a vessel before 12:01 a.m. ET on July 24 and entered before 12:01 a.m. ET on July 28 — ocean freight only |
On this stack, the HS 3924.10 example now pays 3.4% + 25% + 12.5% = 40.9% combined; a product with a 5% base rate on the 7.5% Section 301 tier pays 25%. Some product lines are exempt under Annexes I and II of the USTR notice, so confirm the figure against your own HTS code. Sources: the USTR action announcement, the Federal Register notice, and CBP’s implementation guidance (CSMS #69326983). A separate Section 301 investigation into structural excess capacity — covering China and fifteen other economies — is still underway and could stack further duties on top. We update this snapshot when rates move.
Three things can break the assumption:
| What breaks | How it happens | Rough scale |
|---|---|---|
| The tariff rate moves | A Section 301 or 232 list is revised, a new Section 301 action takes effect, an exclusion lapses | The big one — routinely 10 to 20 percent of cargo value |
| CBP disagrees with the classification | The broker files under one heading; CBP rules the goods belong under another | Rate difference plus correction fees; occasionally pulls the goods into an antidumping order |
| CBP disagrees with the value | The declared value sits below the range CBP expects for that commodity | The duty base rises, and duties rise with it |
Valuation has a second failure mode, and this one never involves CBP at all. Under the transaction value rules (19 USC 1401a), the duty base is what the goods cost — not what the shipping costs. International freight, insurance, and the duty itself can generally be stripped out of an all-in DDP price before the rate is applied, as long as they are separately identified. A forwarder who declares your full DDP price as the entered value quietly overpays the duty and bakes the overpayment into your quote; one who declares too aggressively low to win the booking creates the reassessment risk in the table above. You cannot audit the declared number yourself, but you can ask which value will be entered. A forwarder who has thought about this has a ready answer.
When the number moves, there are three ways a forwarder can legitimately handle the gap. All three are defensible. Only one of them is what most buyers assume they are getting.
| How it is handled | What the quote tends to say | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| The forwarder absorbs it | “Rate locked until” a stated date | A genuine fixed price — but the lock is usually short, sometimes two weeks |
| You absorb it | Nothing at all, or a line reading “duties subject to change” | Your fixed price was never fixed; a supplementary invoice can arrive after delivery |
| The quote reopens | “Subject to re-confirmation” | You are back at the negotiating table, with the cargo already moving |
The problem is not that any of these is unfair. The problem is silence. When the quote says nothing, buyers read it as the first option and forwarders often mean the second. That gap is where the argument happens, usually with the container already on the water.
So ask — and time it right. The moment is once you have settled on a forwarder as a serious candidate. The question itself is fair, and it does not require anyone to reveal a broker, a bond, or a cost structure:
Your DDP quote is based on a specific HS code and duty rate. Please confirm: (1) which HS code and duty rate the quote assumes; (2) how long that rate is locked; (3) who bears the difference if the applicable tariff changes, or if CBP reclassifies or revalues the goods before entry.
A straight answer by email or message is enough. A forwarder who runs a clean U.S. operation can answer all three without hesitating. One who cannot is telling you something useful.
What stays your risk even when you are not the Importer of Record
Not being the Importer of Record genuinely limits your exposure. It does not eliminate it, and the gap between those two statements is where buyers get surprised.
| What can reach you | Why it does | What to settle in advance |
|---|---|---|
| A marking or redelivery notice (CBP Form 4647) | It goes to the ultimate consignee, and that is frequently your warehouse — not the importer’s office overseas | Who receives it, who relabels or returns the goods, and whose budget it comes out of |
| An FDA, CPSC or FCC hold | Agency requirements run alongside the customs entry, not inside it, and they attach to the goods and the consignee | Whether your product triggers an agency filing, who prepares it, and who responds to a hold |
| The commercial cost of a delay | A stockout, a missed FBA appointment, or a broken customer commitment does not care who filed the entry | How fast you get told, who you escalate to, and what the fallback plan is |
| No import history of your own | If someone else is always the importer, the record accumulates under their name, not yours | Whether you will eventually want drawback, an FTZ, or your own entries — and when to make the switch |
Which agencies apply to your product, and what registration or labeling has to exist before the goods ship, is a subject of its own — our China to USA shipping guide covers it. The short version: DDP covers freight and customs, not product certification.
None of this is an argument for taking over your own clearance. It is an argument for knowing which envelopes might land on your desk, and for agreeing who opens them before one arrives.
What CBP questions and examinations should already be settled
At some point a shipment will be held. It might be a routine X-ray at the terminal, a request for an invoice or a specification sheet, or a full devanning at a Centralized Examination Station. Under DDP you will not be the one talking to CBP — but you will feel it, and you may be asked to produce something.
How examinations escalate — document review, X-ray, full manual devanning — and what each type tends to cost is covered in the China to USA shipping guide linked above. The question here is narrower, and it is about responsibility rather than procedure.
Four things are worth agreeing before it happens: who tells you, who talks to the broker, what you might be asked to supply, and which of the resulting charges land on your invoice.
That last one deserves attention, because an examination is rarely a single fee. The exam itself has a price. So does every day the container sits waiting for it — demurrage at the terminal and detention on the box run in parallel with the inspection, not instead of it. A one-line “exam fee” in a quote does not describe what an intensive examination actually costs.
If you ship LCL, there is a second wrinkle. When a shared container is examined, the cost of unloading it is typically split across the importers inside by volume. Your paperwork can be flawless and you can still receive a bill because of someone else’s cargo in the same box.
Signs a quote needs another conversation
None of these mean a forwarder is untrustworthy. They mean the quote is incomplete, and it is cheaper to find out now:
- It cannot say how Importer of Record responsibility is arranged, or whether you might be asked to take the role
- It says “U.S. clearance included” but cannot say who will be named as importer, or who arranges the bond
- It says “duties included” but cannot say which classification and value the figure rests on
- It has nothing to say about how long the rate holds, or who pays if it moves
- It asks you to sign a Power of Attorney or hand over tax details while insisting you have no involvement in the import
Missing line items are a different problem with a different fix — an all-in number with no breakdown, no exception fees, a “to door” that never says which door — all of them covered in our DDP quote red flags checklist.
What to confirm before you accept
Six things to pin down before the booking:
- Who the Importer of Record is — and whether it will be you.
- That clearance and the bond are arranged, with their costs inside the price.
- Which charges the price covers — duties, MPF and HMF, brokerage, bond, delivery.
- What the duty figure assumes — and how long that assumption holds.
- What you may be asked to provide, and by whom.
- How exceptions are billed — exams, storage, corrections, redelivery.
A quote that covers those six is a quote you can compare, price against, and hold someone to. One that covers three of them is a number, not an agreement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the Importer of Record under DDP?
Whoever is named as such on the entry. It may be the foreign seller, it may be you, and the DDP term itself does not decide it. Only an owner, a purchaser, or a licensed broker acting for one of them is eligible.
Can a foreign seller act as the U.S. Importer of Record?
Yes. A seller who owns the goods at the time of entry qualifies as the owner and can be the importer, with a licensed broker filing under a Power of Attorney.
Is the consignee always the Importer of Record?
No. They are frequently different parties. The consignee receives the cargo; the importer answers for the entry.
Who provides the customs bond under DDP?
The Importer of Record, usually arranged through the broker. In a properly scoped DDP quote the cost sits inside your price — but confirm that rather than assume it.
Does DDP include bond and brokerage fees?
It should, and a well-written quote says so explicitly. The same goes for the two smaller government charges attached to every formal entry: the Merchandise Processing Fee — 0.3464% of the entered value, with a minimum and maximum that CBP adjusts annually — and, on ocean freight, the Harbor Maintenance Fee at 0.125%. On a $50,000 shipment these come to a few hundred dollars, not thousands, but a quote that names them has scoped the entry properly. Silence on any of these is worth a question.
Can I still be asked for documents if I am not the importer?
Yes. As the ultimate consignee you can receive agency notices directly, and product or transaction details often have to come from you regardless of who files.
What happens if the tariff changes after I accept a DDP quote?
That depends entirely on what your quote says, which is why it is worth asking before you book. The scenario is not theoretical: importers holding quotes across July 24, 2026 watched the 10% Section 122 surcharge expire and a new 12.5% Section 301 duty take its place in the same minute. The three-part question earlier in this guide is designed for exactly this situation.
Didn’t the old Section 301 tariffs expire?
No. The original China lists (1 through 4A) all remain in force: 25% on most covered goods, 7.5% on the List 4A tier, and higher rates on a few strategic categories after the 2024 four-year review. The July 2026 forced-labor action stacks on top of them; it did not replace them. A small set of product exclusions — 178 at last count — runs through November 2026, but the lists themselves never went away. If your goods were paying 25% before, they are paying 25% now, plus the new 12.5%.
Am I liable if CBP finds a problem with a DDP shipment?
Your liability for the entry itself is limited if you are not the importer. Redelivery obligations, agency compliance on your product, and the commercial cost of the delay can still reach you.
Do I need an EIN for a DDP shipment to the USA?
That depends on the structure. If you are the Importer of Record — a common and fully legitimate way to run DDP — yes: your EIN anchors the entry and the bond. If the foreign seller is the importer, nobody will ask. What you should always know before handing anything over is which structure you are in — and if a quote asks you for nothing at all, remember that someone is still the importer, just not anyone you can see. If the structure does make you the importer, the EIN is only the first of four things that have to exist before the cargo ships — the paperwork sequence behind your bond and POA sets out the order.
