Customs are taxes that can affect the prices of goods. From the point of view of the countries, they can give additional budget revenues and protect domestic producers from the influx of goods from abroad. They can also freeze trade with a country, the best example of which is the current situation on the US -China line. We translate it below on the example. Basically, too high duties cause consumers to choose cheaper domestic products, not more expensive abroad (covered by the high customs).
What does it look like from a consumer or company that brings goods from other countries (outside the EU)?
Read also: The new duties are to work bypass. Companies can reduce them and even avoid them. We translate
How duties work in the case of goods sold to the USA and bought from the USA
The sale of goods from the EU to the USA means that You have to add and pay the American duty. If the EU seller adds duty to his product, then its price will increase, and the American consumer will pay for it, who will buy this product at a higher price.
The opposite it works the same. If a company or a person from the US sells goods to the EU, then he must add duty in the EU. EU buyer must therefore pay more for goods from the USA.
It is worth making a reservation here. Sellers can take the cost of customs (in whole or in part), then the price for the consumer either will not change or will increase less. However, this applies to cases when the seller's margin is high (the seller decides whether he will earn less – it will be when he reduces the margin of the duty, the cost of which he will take on).
Let us add that the height of the customs depends on several factors: origin of the goods, type of goods, customs rates and contracts such as free trade agreements (then there are no duties on trade in goods).
Let's explain how it can work on the example of cars.
What duty you have to pay if we bring a car from the USA to Poland
If a person or company It imports a car with a value of e.g. 40,000 dollars from the USA to Polandthis:
- The importer in the EU (e.g. in Poland) must pay 10 percent duties, because this is the EU rate,
- If the car is 40,000 euro The duty is 4,000 dollars (i.e. approx. PLN 15,600),
- In addition, you have to pay VAT (23 % from the price of the vehicle) and excise duty (3.1 percent – if the car has a engine with a capacity of up to two liters or 18.6 percent – if the engine is larger),
In practice, this means that from a car with a engine with a capacity of 3 liters from the USA zo value 172 thousand. PLN (40,000 dollars) imported to Poland, you have to pay:
- duty = PLN 15,600,
- excise duty (from the price of the car + PLN 15,600 duties) = PLN 34,893
- VAT at a rate of 23 percent (from the price of the car + duty + excise duty) = PLN 51,173
- The sum of customs and tax duties is: PLN 101,666.
Duty and taxes cause Increase in the purchase price of a car by almost 60 percent, which is PLN 273,666 (also other fees may receive).
For comparison, if a person privately brings a car from Germany, then:
- There is no custom
- There is usually no VAT if the seller from Germany has issued a VAT invoice or is a private person,
- The purchase of a car from Germany in this case would mean that in Poland you have to pay only excise duties (from the value of the car, without enlargement of the duty, which is not there), so it would amount to: PLN 31,992,
- After taking into account the excise duty, the cost of buying a car worth 172 thousand. PLN from Germany would be 203 992 PLN (almost PLN 70,000 less than if you buy from the USA).
Why is trade between the USA and China today unprofitable? The effect of the trade war
In the case of the USA and China, we are dealing with a customs war today. On April 11, 2025, duties imposed by the USA on Chinese goods are 145 percent, and China duties on American goods – 125 percent.
For example, If the phone is Chinese and its value is $ 1,000, after the last duties' increases, the Chinese seller must add 1250 PLN dollars. In total, he can sell a phone in the USA for $ 2,250. In practice, no American may be interested in buying a phone after such a raise.
It works the same way the other way, which means that trade between the US and China becomes unprofitable.
Clinics are therefore becoming a barrier to trade, which has further consequences. If companies from China cannot sell, for example, telephones to the US, they will look for other markets. So they can sell them to the EU, which did not impose such drastic duties. As a result The so -called “flooding the market” with Chinese products. The EU has already announced that she would defend against it.
