Imports of Chinese furniture pay 37.5% effective duty today — 12.5% base reciprocal tariff plus 25% Section 301. That's the rate stack on a sofa, a bedroom set, or a kitchen cabinet shipping out of Shenzhen this week. Vietnam, which now ships more furniture to the US than China, pays 12.5%. Mexico and Canada pay zero under USMCA for qualifying goods. The math changed on July 24, when Section 122 expired at its 150-day statutory limit and was replaced by the Section 301 forced-labor tariff — a 10% standard tier for most economies and a 12.5% tier for a 46-economy list that includes China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Here's what every line on a chapter 94 entry costs, plus the specific HTS pitfalls that turn a 37.5% duty bill into a 50%+ classification dispute.
Current Furniture Tariff Rates by Country
China: 12.5% base reciprocal tariff + 25% Section 301 = 37.5% effective. Vietnam: 12.5% base reciprocal tariff (the 46-economy forced-labor tier) — no Section 301, no Section 232 on most chapter 94 goods. Mexico: 0% on USMCA-qualifying furniture, 10% base reciprocal tariff if origin rules aren't met. Canada: same as Mexico — USMCA-qualifying is duty-free. Indonesia, Malaysia: 10% base reciprocal tariff flat. Thailand: 12.5% (on the same 46-economy forced-labor tier as Vietnam and China). Italy and Germany: 15% all-inclusive under the EU-US deal (effective July 1, 2026). India: 10% flat after the February interim deal. MFN base rates on most chapter 94 lines run 0% to 4.7% — wooden bedroom furniture (HTS 9403.50.90) is duty-free at MFN, while metal office furniture (HTS 9403.10.00) is 0%, and seating with wooden frames (HTS 9401.61) carries an MFN of 0%. The base reciprocal tariff — the Section 301 forced-labor tariff that replaced Section 122 on July 24, 2026 — is what every importer pays right now regardless of HTS code.
Worked Example: $20,000 Container of Chinese Sofas
A $20,000 CIF container of upholstered sofas from Foshan, classified under HTS 9401.61.40 (seats with wooden frames, upholstered). MFN: 0%. Base reciprocal tariff at 12.5% = $2,500. Section 301 at 25% = $5,000. MPF at 0.3464% = $69.28. HMF at 0.125% = $25.00. Total duty: $7,594.28. Effective rate: 38.0%. The exact same container from a Vietnamese factory costs $2,594.28 in duty — a $5,000 swing per container that explains why Wayfair, Restoration Hardware, and West Elm have moved 60%+ of their case-goods sourcing to Vietnam since 2018. Run it through the landed cost calculator with your actual freight and insurance numbers; the percentage stays constant but the absolute dollars scale fast on a 40-foot container.
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Why Vietnam Took the Furniture Crown
Vietnam overtook China as the largest furniture supplier to the US in 2023 and the gap has widened every year since. The math is simple: the 25% Section 301 layer on Chinese furniture has been in place since 2018 (it started at 10%, jumped to 25% in 2019), and the IEEPA reciprocal stack made it worse in 2025. Even with Vietnam paying the 46% IEEPA rate from April through August 2025, total Vietnamese duty hit roughly 46% — versus 65% on the same Chinese unit (45% IEEPA-era stack + 25% Section 301, post-Section 232 lumber). Now Vietnam is at 12.5% and China is at 37.5%. A 25-point delta on a high-volume, low-margin category is decisive. Roughly $14 billion in US furniture imports came from Vietnam in 2025 versus roughly $10 billion from China — a complete inversion of the 2018 ratio.
The Section 232 Lumber Pass-Through
Section 232 doesn't apply directly to finished furniture, but it applies to softwood lumber at 10%. That matters because most US furniture importers source wood components separately — frame parts, drawer slides, cabinet boxes — that fall under chapter 44 lumber HTS codes, not chapter 94 furniture. Imported Canadian lumber lands at 10% Section 232 (plus existing CVD that runs 14-20% on softwood). For an upholstered sofa with a Vietnamese frame, the wood content might already have crossed two borders before final assembly. A vertically integrated Vietnamese factory using Vietnamese-grown wood pays nothing extra. A Vietnamese factory using Canadian or Russian lumber inputs has the lumber duty baked into FOB pricing. Ask suppliers for a wood-origin breakdown before signing 2026 contracts — the line items can move 3-5% on landed cost.
USMCA: Why Mexican Furniture Is Zero
Mexico and Canada qualify for 0% duty on furniture under USMCA — but only if the goods meet the rules of origin. For chapter 94, the rule is a tariff shift: non-originating components must shift to a different chapter heading after processing in Mexico or Canada. A Mexican factory assembling a sofa from Vietnamese frame components and US fabric meets the shift rule and qualifies. A Mexican factory importing finished Vietnamese sofas, slapping a label on, and re-exporting does not. CBP audits chapter 94 USMCA claims aggressively because the shift rule is easy to fail on case goods. Keep production records, BOMs with country-of-origin per component, and supplier affidavits on file. A failed origin audit means retroactive duty at 10% base reciprocal tariff plus penalties up to 2x the underpaid amount.
What July 24 Did to Vietnamese Furniture
Section 122 expired at its 150-day statutory limit on July 24, 2026 and was replaced the same day by the Section 301 forced-labor tariff. The new structure is a 10% standard tier for most economies and a 12.5% tier for a 46-economy list that includes China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Vietnamese furniture went from 10% to 12.5% — a modest 2.5-point bump, not the 25-40% jump some importers feared. Thailand moved to 12.5% in lockstep. Indonesia and Malaysia stayed on the 10% standard tier. The gap with China held at 25 points, because China still carries the 25% Section 301 layer on top of the same 12.5% base. The only origins still below 12.5%: Mexico (USMCA) and Canada (USMCA), which stay at zero for qualifying goods. Importers who priced duty escalation clauses into post-August contracts got a smaller shock than they braced for, but the clauses are worth keeping for any further Section 301 actions in 2027.
Action Checklist for Furniture Importers
Step 1: Audit your 2025 entries for IEEPA refunds — if you imported finished furniture between April 2025 and February 2026, you paid 10-46% IEEPA on top of Section 301 (China's reciprocal rate peaked at 145%). The IEEPA layer is refundable through the CAPE portal. Step 2: The Section 122 sunset already landed — Vietnamese furniture rose only 2.5 points to 12.5% on July 24, not the 25-point swing some feared. Build escalation language into 2027 contracts for any further Section 301 actions, but the near-term shock has passed. Step 3: Run shadow quotes from Mexican factories on your top 5 SKUs — Mexico is the cheapest 2026 origin if your volumes justify the relocation. Step 4: Verify chapter 94 HTS classifications against the USITC database — upholstered seating (9401.61) and wooden furniture (9403.50) have different Section 301 exclusion lists, and CBP catches mis-declared knock-down (CKD) flat-pack as assembled goods under GRI 2(a). Step 5: Document USMCA origin for any North American furniture program; CBP audits these heavily.
Key Takeaway
Furniture tariffs in mid-2026 are simple to state and complicated to plan around. China pays 37.5%, Vietnam and Thailand pay 12.5%, Mexico and Canada pay zero under USMCA, and the rest of the non-FTA world pays the 10% base reciprocal tariff. The July 24 Section 122 sunset replaced that layer with the Section 301 forced-labor tariff — a 10% standard tier and a 12.5% tier for a 46-economy list — nudging Vietnamese and Thai furniture up 2.5 points rather than the 25-40% some feared, while USMCA remains the only durable low-tariff origin. File CAPE refunds on 2025 IEEPA duty, build escalation clauses into 2027 contracts, and verify every chapter 94 HTS code before the next entry summary goes in.
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