Landed Cost Guide: Importing Electrical Connectors & Terminal Blocks (HS 8536.90)
Duty is Free into four major markets — so on this heading, freight and import tax decide what an order really costs. Here are the verified rates, the ocean-vs-air reasoning, and the three numbers that set the cost of your own shipment.
Terminal blocks, connectors and similar wiring devices sit in HS heading 85.36 — apparatus for switching, protecting or connecting electrical circuits. Line 8536.90 is the heading's "other apparatus" line, and it is where most terminal blocks and many connectors land. It is also a genuinely unusual line to import: in the four markets in this guide, the duty rate is zero. That makes 8536.90 the cleanest possible demonstration of a truth importers learn the hard way — duty is often the smallest part of landed cost.
The duty picture: Free in all four markets
The rates below are the general (MFN) rates from the official tariff schedules, as verified in our reference set in October 2026. If your goods are made in China, read the warning below before using the US figure for a real order. If your product is a switch, a relay or a fuse rather than a connector or terminal block, it may sit on a different line of the same heading — confirm the exact line with our HS Code Finder before relying on this guide.
| Destination | National line | Duty | Import tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 8536.90.40 | Free (0%) | No federal import sales tax (0%) |
| Canada | 8536.90.00 | Free (0%) | GST 5% |
| Germany (EU) | 8536.90.10 | 0% | VAT 19% |
| United Kingdom | 8536.90.10 | 0% | VAT 20% |
⚠ Important — US additional duties on Chinese-origin goods
The Free (0%) rates above are the general (MFN) rates for HS 8536.90. They are not the whole story for goods made in China. The United States applies additional duties to many Chinese-origin products under Section 301 and related measures, recorded in Chapter 99 of the US tariff schedule. On this code’s principal US line (8536.90.40 — terminals, electrical splices and couplings), those duties are charged on top of the Free base rate: Section 301 List 1 adds 25%, and the Section 301 forced-labor action adds a further 12.5% — 37.5% in additional duties, so a China-origin shipment on that line pays 37.5% duty in total, not zero. These measures change as they are added, adjusted or expire.
The exact stack depends on your national line: the 8536.90.60 line (battery clamps), for example, sits on Section 301 List 4A at 7.5% instead of List 1. Before pricing a China-origin connector order for the US, check the additional-duty position against your exact line: our tariff checker itemises the Chapter 99 duties for this code, and a licensed customs broker can confirm the position in writing. Any landed-cost figure you build from this guide’s table uses the general rates only — for Chinese-origin goods into the US, treat those totals as a floor, not a ceiling. The warning applies identically to both transport modes.
Get your three numbers
Your landed cost is only as real as the numbers inside it — and there are three, gathered in this order:
- 1 · Your supplier price — the goods value from an actual quote. No quote yet? Request compared supplier quotes first.
- 2 · Your tariff rate — the duty for your HS code and destination, from the Tariff Checker, where the rate is verified rather than guessed.
- 3 · Your freight cost — ocean or air, estimated with the Freight Estimator from dated published benchmarks.
Or let us put the three together for your shipment: send us the product, and we reply with compared supplier quotes, the verified duty and the freight picture in one written answer — within one business day, per our promise on the quote page.
Why duty-free does not mean cost-free
The duty on this heading is zero — and an order can still land far above its invoice price. A full container costs what it costs whether the goods inside are worth a little or a lot, so on smaller orders the freight line alone can rival the goods value; on the published China–North America benchmarks (see Sources), a 40 ft container is priced in the same range as a modest order of the goods themselves. Into Germany, the 19% VAT — charged on the goods value, its duty and the freight to the border — is larger than many products' entire duty bill on other headings. VAT- and GST-registered businesses can generally reclaim import VAT/GST later — but it is paid at the border first, so it belongs in the landed-cost cash picture, and freight never comes back at all. This is why comparing supplier quotes on unit price alone is meaningless: on this heading, the quote is the smallest variable in the decision.
Ocean or air? The mode never changes your duty
One point stands regardless of the numbers you run: choosing air or ocean never changes the duty on this product — it is Free by both modes — and it never changes the import tax rate. (In the EU and UK the VAT amount can move a little, because that tax is calculated on a value that includes the freight to the border; the rate is identical.) What the mode changes is the freight bill and the calendar.
The two modes are priced on different logic. Ocean FCL is priced per box: the container costs the same half-empty or full. Air is priced per kilogram — on actual weight, or on volumetric weight for bulky cartons (length × width × height in cm ÷ 6,000, the air-index convention). So for a light shipment, the per-kilogram air price can undercut a whole container and arrive in days instead of weeks; past a lane-dependent crossover weight — on the published China–North America figures, the container benchmark equals the air price of roughly 1.4 tonnes — the full container starts beating air on freight alone, and the gap widens with every tonne after. Air is the right tool for urgent, light, high-value shipments; ocean is the right tool for volume. Which side of the crossover your shipment sits on comes down to weight — the core of the freight number, third in the sequence below.
Shipping batteries instead? The same method — plus a US additional-duty warning you should not skip — is covered in our HS 8507.60 landed-cost guide.
Check your own product
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Sources and dates
- Duty and tax rates: official tariff schedules (US, Canada, EU, UK national lines as tabled above), as verified in the CrossPart reference set, October 2026. Destination import taxes: US 0% federal, Canada GST 5%, Germany VAT 19%, UK VAT 20%.
- Ocean benchmarks (per 40 ft container / FEU): Drewry World Container Index, 15 October 2026 — Shanghai→Los Angeles US$7,884; Shanghai→Rotterdam US$3,522. Freightos FBX, 9 October 2026 — China→US West Coast US$8,106; China→North Europe US$3,260.
- Air benchmarks: Freightos Air Index, week to 13 October 2026 — China→North America US$5.77/kg; China→Northern Europe US$3.58/kg. Airport-to-airport index figures; origin and destination charges excluded.
- Benchmarks are published market reference figures on the dates shown — not quotations. Actual freight is quoted per shipment and moves with the market. Transit times are typical ranges, not guarantees.
General educational content, not customs, legal or engineering advice. Confirm classifications and charges with a qualified customs broker for your shipment.