Trade policy

What You Actually Pay to Import Taiwan Auto Parts, as of August 2026

August 1, 20265 min read

A Taiwan-origin aftermarket auto part imported into the United States on August 1, 2026 lands at either 15% or 10% total ad valorem duty, and what decides which is not its value, its price or its supplier — it is whether its HTS classification sits on the Section 232 auto-parts list. On the list, 15%. Off the list, 10%. Both are totals, not additions to a base rate. That produces a result almost nobody has stated plainly: being covered by Section 232 is now the more expensive outcome, by five percentage points. Any article written in May is out of date, because four separate things happened after it. Here is the clean, dated stack — confirm it with your own customs broker before you price against it.

Why is everything written in May now misleading?

Four changes landed between early June and the end of July. Each moves or removes a layer that May articles still treated as live.

June 3, 2026 — Executive Order 14411, "Strengthening Customs Enforcement", signed; published June 10 at 91 FR 35125. It restricts foreign importers of record and directs new bonding, disclosure and penalty rules, none published as regulations by August 1.
June 24, 2026 — the $800 de minimis exemption suspended indefinitely for every mode of transport, by two interim final rules at 91 FR 37789 and 91 FR 37801.
July 24, 2026 — the temporary Section 122 balance-of-payments surcharge lapsed to zero by its own terms.
July 24, 2026 — a new Section 301 action on forced labor took effect, published July 28 at 91 FR 47318. This is the layer that creates the fork below.

What is the fork, and why does being on the Section 232 list cost more?

Two instruments reach Taiwan-origin goods, drafted so they do not overlap. The Section 232 cap at 91 FR 31818, effective for entries on or after May 1, 2026, limits Column 1 plus Section 232 to a 15% total for covered parts, with no Section 232 duty at all where Column 1 already reaches 15%. The Section 301 forced-labor action at 91 FR 47318 sets Taiwan at 10% net of MFN — below 10% MFN the two together come to 10%; at 10% or above, the Section 301 component is zero.

The Section 301 notice then exempts, through heading 9903.05.90, parts entered under the Section 232 auto-parts headings — a list that includes 9903.94.66 through 9903.94.69. So a part on the 232 list pays the 15% capped total and no forced-labor duty. A part off the list pays no Section 232 duty at all, and picks up the forced-labor duty to a 10% total instead.

That is the counterintuitive result in full. The instinct built up over two years is that Section 232 coverage is the outcome to avoid; here, coverage is the more expensive one. Nothing was designed to do that — it falls out of a 15% cap and a 10% net-of-MFN duty set by different agencies, with an exemption that keeps them from stacking.

Duty stack on a Taiwan-origin aftermarket auto part, illustrated with a 2.5% Column 1 General rate — as of August 1, 2026
Layer	On the Section 232 list	Not on the list	Instrument
Column 1 General (example: 2.5%)	2.5%	2.5%	HTSUS
Section 232, Taiwan cap	+12.5%, to a 15% total	None — not a listed part	91 FR 31818; 9903.94.67
Section 301, forced labor	0% — exempt	+7.5%, to a 10% total	91 FR 47318; 9903.05.90, 9903.05.76
Section 122 surcharge	0% — lapsed	0% — lapsed	Lapsed July 24, 2026
IEEPA "reciprocal" duty	0% — terminated	0% — terminated	EO 14389
Total ad valorem	15%	10%	Before MPF, HMF and any AD/CVD

What happened to the reciprocal tariff and the 10% surcharge?

Both are gone. The IEEPA "reciprocal" tariffs were ended by Executive Order 14389 of February 2026, published at 91 FR 9437, after the Supreme Court held in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the President lacked IEEPA authority to impose them; that order expressly leaves Section 232 and Section 301 untouched. The temporary Section 122 surcharge that ran in the interim — 10% ad valorem under Proclamation 11012, in force from February 24, 2026 — expired on July 24, 2026 and was not extended. It never mattered to a covered auto part anyway: the proclamation said in terms that the surcharge does not apply in addition to tariffs imposed under Section 232. Any spreadsheet stacking it on a Section 232 auto part was double-counting even before July.

Why doesn't the Section 301 exemption just cover "auto parts"?

Because it is written against heading numbers, not against a concept. The exemption lists the specific Section 232 headings whose goods are excluded. A part that is an auto part in every commercial sense, but whose classification is not within U.S. note 33(g) or note 33(r), is not entered under one of those headings — so it is not exempt, and owes the forced-labor duty to a 10% total.

This is why "is my part on the 232 list?" is the highest-value question you can put to a broker this quarter. It is a classification question, not a rate question; the rate follows from the answer. Two parts bolted next to each other on the same vehicle can land on opposite sides of it.

One thing we cannot resolve: the Section 301 notice carries country-specific exemption annexes, and the Taiwan list is published in the Federal Register as scanned images rather than text, which we could not read. Whether any auto-parts classification appears on it is unknown to us — if it does, an off-list part might not owe the 10%. Ask your broker to check that annex against your classification.

What can we not tell you?

The gap between what is published and what applies to your entries is where importers get hurt.

Which fork your part is in — that depends on classification against U.S. note 33(g) or 33(r), and only your broker can confirm it.
What note 33(r) requires of importers using 9903.94.68 and 9903.94.69. Commentary describes a self-certification about use in US vehicle production or repair; we have not read the note and do not assert it.
Whether the Annex to 91 FR 31818 has been amended since May 28, 2026, or whether the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade has entered into force. It had not as of the cap notice, and that would change the picture.
MPF, HMF and any AD/CVD — all apply on top of both forks and none are in the figures above.
Your China comparison. The same action sets China at 12.5%, flat rather than net of MFN, stacking on classification-specific Section 301 List duties. We publish no single "effective China rate".

What to do with this

Take your five highest-volume Taiwan classifications to your broker and ask, per classification, which fork it falls in and why. That beats any general tariff briefing, because it turns a policy question into a number you can put in a quote. If you imported on or after May 1, 2026, our companion piece on the refund window covers entries charged at the un-capped rate.

All of the above is stated as of August 1, 2026, from primary instruments cited by number. This area moved four times in three months — verify current rates with your customs broker before pricing a program, and re-check by September 1, 2026, or sooner if the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade enters into force, the Annex to 91 FR 31818 is amended, or an exclusion process opens.

If the answer changes what you want to buy, or where, that is where we come in. Describe the part in plain English on our request page — vehicle, years, position, quantities — and we come back with verified Taiwan manufacturers that have confirmed they want the project.

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