Our commitment: no surprise charges.
Where there's a choice in the rate (MFN floor, reciprocal-tariff adder, VAT bracket), we quote the highest applicable rate so your displayed total is the worst case. If the carrier charges less at customs, contact us with your delivery receipt and we'll review & refund the difference within 14 business days.
If the carrier charges more than we quoted (rare, usually means customs reclassified the package or executive-order rates changed mid-transit), we cover the difference up to 10% of the original duty estimate. Above that, you'd cover the excess and we'd update our rate snapshot to prevent recurrence.
1. The estimate, in plain English
For every product with a classified HS code, we calculate:
- The destination country's general (MFN) duty rate for that HS code, fetched from the official tariff schedule.
- Any additional reciprocal tariff layered on top (US only, since April 2025 — see Section 3).
- Destination VAT (UK 20% above £135) or GST/HST (Canada, varies by province).
- The Jamaica-side ASYCUDA processing fee (JMD$3,005 per air export entry — flat, not a percentage).
All values are converted to the currency you're shopping in using a daily indicative FX rate plus a disclosed 0.8% spread. Your card issuer's actual rate may differ.
2. Why it’s an estimate, not a guarantee
Three reasons the final amount can vary:
- Customs reclassification. The destination customs officer can re-classify your package under a different HS code than what the merchant entered, which changes the rate.
- Carrier brokerage.Your courier (FedEx, DHL, Canada Post, USPS, etc.) may charge a separate brokerage fee on top of the duty itself. We don't control or estimate this fee.
- Rate changes. US reciprocal-tariff rates have been amended multiple times in 2025 by executive order. We refresh our rate snapshot daily, but a buyer who orders right after a rate change may see a different number at customs than we quoted.
3. The US reciprocal tariff
On August 29, 2025, US Customs and Border Protection implemented Executive Order 14324, which suspended the previous $800 de minimis exemption. Every package entering the US now owes duty regardless of value.
Earlier in 2025, Executive Order 14257 introduced a reciprocal tariffon top of each country's general MFN rate. Jamaica is not specifically listed in the country-specific schedules and currently falls under the +10% catch-all baseline at HTS heading 9903.01.25.
Source: hts.usitc.gov · We re-verify the JM-specific rate on every cron run.
4. The UK threshold
Goods sent from abroad to the UK are duty-free below £135 (commercial value), per gov.uk Goods sent from abroad. Above £135, both customs duty and 20% VAT apply. We pull the per-HS-code rate from the UK Trade Tariff API.
5. The Canadian threshold
Postal shipments from outside Canada are duty-free up to CAD$20, per CBSA Importing by mail. Above CAD$20, both duty and federal/provincial GST or HST apply. Canadian rate refresh is currently scheduled quarterly (CBSA publishes the customs tariff as a downloadable file, not an API).
6. Live rate snapshot
These are the rate rows currently active in our database. Every duty quote you see is computed from one or more of these rows. Each row links to its primary source.
| Country | Type | HS | Rate / Threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | De minimis threshold | — | CAD 20.00 |
| United Kingdom | De minimis threshold | — | GBP 135.00 |
| United States | Reciprocal tariff | — | 10.0% |
7. If we got it wrong
If your package was held by customs for an amount materially different from what we quoted, contact us. We'll review the specific snapshot that fed your quote (we keep an immutable audit log of every estimate) and either:
- Refund the difference if our estimate undershot due to a rate-table staleness on our side.
- Explain (with the receipt) if the difference came from carrier brokerage or customs reclassification — neither is under our control.
Either way, you'll get a real human response and a citation, not a chatbot.
8. Changes to this page
We update this page when an executive order, regulatory change, or new source-data feed materially changes how the estimate is calculated. Significant changes are emailed to active customers.
Page version: 2026-05-06.