Trade Updates — US, EU & UK customs rule changes, dated and sourced

What changes next?

Dates already set in law or regulation. Nothing here is speculation.

1 July 2028617 daysEU Customs Data Hub goes live for e-commerce
Date not setThe £135 customs duty relief will be removed, by October 2028 at the latest

Every change we track

Ordered by what bites next, then by what is already in force. Expired rules stay on the record — a duty paid inside a window that has since closed is still a duty that has to be repriced correctly.

Takes effect in 617 daysEuropean Union · European Commission — EU Customs Reform

EU Customs Data Hub goes live for e-commerce

Announced: —
Effective: 1 July 2028
Ends: —

The Data Hub is expected to come online for e-commerce on 1 July 2028, at which point the €3 flat duty ends and consignments revert to the normal tariff for their classification. It becomes voluntary for all operators from March 2031 and mandatory from March 2034.

Why it matters

It sets the horizon on the current EU regime. Any low-value EU pricing model built today has a known expiry.

Primary sources

DG TAXUD — EU Customs Reform

Stipendia

Tracked, not priced

Tracked. The €3 duty data carries 2028-07-01 as its end date.

Takes effectUnited Kingdom · HM Treasury / HMRC

The £135 customs duty relief will be removed, by October 2028 at the latest

Announced: 26 November 2025
Effective: —
Ends: —

The Budget of 26 November 2025 confirmed the end of the customs-free £135 threshold. The consultation closed on 6 March 2026 and the summary of responses was published on 13 July 2026. The UK has chosen a full tariff approach rather than the EU's flat rate — UKGT rates apply to LVIs, the same as for freight, with no simplified schedule — plus a separate, still-undecided additional per-LVI fee, and a fiscal-representative model under which a UK-established business is jointly and severally liable for an overseas seller's low-value import declarations. Commencement is by statutory instrument, no later than October 2028. This is a GB-only reform — Northern Ireland stays under the Windsor Framework and the EU's own low-value regime.

Why it matters

This is a third distinct low-value regime — US classification, EU flat rate, UK full tariff — and the fiscal-representative requirement has the same shape as the EU's IOSS intermediary route.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Tracked, not priced

Tracked. No engine change is due until commencement is laid.

In forceUnited States · CBP

Chapter 98, FTA-preference and PGA goods lose mail informal-entry eligibility

Announced: 24 June 2026
Effective: 22 October 2026
Ends: —

From 22 October 2026, merchandise claiming Chapter 98 duty-free treatment, merchandise subject to Chapter 98 or 99 duties, merchandise claiming FTA duty-free treatment, and merchandise subject to Partner Government Agency requirements are excluded from the mail informal entry process and must use Entry Type 13 or formal entry. CBP's voluntary electronic Entry Type 13 test went live in the ACE production environment on 22 September 2026 — 90 days after the Federal Register notice establishing it — so the alternative path this entry names is now testable ahead of the 22 October deadline, not merely announced.

Why it matters

This narrows the route that most low-value mail currently takes. Any merchant relying on an FTA claim through the post needs a different entry plan before the date, and can now test Entry Type 13 filing before being forced onto it. Participation is limited to parties with the right to make entry under 19 C.F.R. § 143.26(a); carriers can also voluntarily participate by reporting the tracking number.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Flagged, not priced

The engine warns when a consignment claims Chapter 98 treatment. Full entry-type routing is on the roadmap.

In forceUnited States · 19 CFR 24.23; CBP — Customs User Fees To Be Adjusted for Inflation in Fiscal Year 2027 (FR Doc. 2026-15530)

US Merchandise Processing Fee limits rise for fiscal year 2027: $34.58 minimum, $670.86 maximum

Announced: 31 July 2026
Effective: 1 October 2026
Ends: —

From 1 October 2026 the Merchandise Processing Fee on a formal entry is still 0.3464% of the value of the merchandise, but within a minimum of $34.58 and a maximum of $670.86 (up from $33.58 and $651.50 in fiscal year 2026). The automated informal-entry fee rises from $2.69 to $2.77. Mail is exempt, except Inbound EMS items that are formally entered, and goods originating under USMCA and other US free trade agreements are exempt when the preference is claimed.

Why it matters

MPF is charged on value, not on duty, and is owed even on duty-free goods. On a $100,000 formal entry it is $346.40; it never exceeds $670.86 per entry however large the shipment. A $5,000 entry pays the $34.58 minimum, and a shipment of $2,500 or less entered informally pays the flat $2.77.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Priced from 2026-10-02 on every US quote — commercial, postal Inbound EMS and quick estimates — by entry type and fiscal year, with the USMCA exemption applied. Before that date the platform charged 1.4% with a $1.00 minimum and no maximum, which overstated MPF on most formal entries (a $100,000 entry was quoted $1,400) and understated it on small formal ones; it also charged MPF on informally entered Inbound EMS, which is exempt. Exemptions for the other free trade agreements are disclosed on the quote rather than applied, because those preferences are not modelled.

In forceUnited States · Section 338, Tariff Act of 1930

68 Canadian subheadings barred from importation entirely

Announced: 8 September 2026
Effective: 29 September 2026
Ends: —

Three further proclamations exclude 68 HTSUS subheadings of Canadian goods from entry into the United States — alcoholic beverages, dairy, motorcycles over 800cc, and also five molasses lines (1702.90.35, 1703.10.30, 1703.10.50, 1703.90.30, 1703.90.50) and non-alcoholic beer (2202.91.00), which sit in the dairy annex. The ban turns on the date of IMPORTATION, not the date of entry. The proclamation preserves the 50% Section 338 duty for products "that were imported, but not yet entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, prior to September 29, 2026" — so a consignment already imported before that date is not barred, whatever its entry date.

Read the plain-English guide

Why it matters

This is a prohibition, not a rate — the goods may not enter at all, and a duty quote is not a clearance. The transition rule is written on importation, which is the detail most summaries get backwards: what matters is whether the goods were imported before 29 September, not whether they were entered. 28 of the 53 alcoholic-beverage subheadings are barred only where the product is packaged in bottles, cans, boxes, kegs or similar direct-to-consumption containers; bulk in the same subheading is not barred \u2014 though it still carries the 50% Section 338 duty, so "not barred" is not "no exposure". And the three annex titles under-describe the scope — six of the 68 lines are molasses or non-alcoholic beer, so an importer of those would wrongly read the headline as not applying to them.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Screened as an origin-gated, date-effective prohibition. The packaged-only subheadings return a hold for packaging confirmation rather than a refusal.

In forceEuropean Union · Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 — Union Customs Code

A new Union Customs Code and an EU Customs Authority replace the 2013 Code

Announced: 19 September 2026
Effective: 20 September 2026
Ends: —

Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 of 16 September 2026, published in the Official Journal on 19 September, establishes a new Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs Authority and repeals Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. It entered into force on 20 September 2026, but it “shall apply from 21 September 2027” except for the provisions Article 287 lists: some apply from entry into force — including the definition of an ‘item’ and the Union handling fee framework — and others from 1 July 2028. The Commission says the EU Customs Authority, based in Lille, is expected to start operations in 2027.

Why it matters

It is the legal basis for the Union handling fee and for the EU Customs Data Hub that ends the €3 flat duty in July 2028. It also defines an ‘item’ — “one or more goods in a consignment sharing the same tariff classification, description and, where provided for …, origin” (Article 5(78)) — the unit on which both the €3 duty and the handling fee are charged.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Tracked, not priced

Tracked. Nothing in it changes a quote until the handling fee amount is set; the €3 duty is priced separately under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382.

In forceCanada · United States Surtax Order (2026), SOR/2026-186 — Customs Tariff s. 53

Canada imposes a 15%, 25% or 50% surtax on 335 US goods in response to Section 338

Announced: 4 September 2026
Effective: 8 September 2026
Ends: —

From 8 September 2026, goods originating in the United States and classified under the tariff items in Schedules 1, 2 or 3 of the United States Surtax Order (2026) pay a surtax of 15%, 25% or 50% of their value for duty (21, 172 and 142 tariff items). Origin follows the CUSMA marking rules, and goods marked as of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or the US Virgin Islands are excluded. The surtax applies to commercial and casual goods, “even when exported from a country other than the U.S.”, and “on shipments that fall under de minimis thresholds”. GST is charged on value for duty plus duty plus surtax.

Why it matters

It is Canada’s answer to the US Section 338 duties on Canadian goods, and it reaches consumer goods — cotton T-shirts (6109.10.00) carry the 50% rate, so a US-made T-shirt that enters Canada free of duty under CUSMA still pays half its value in surtax. The low-value remission thresholds do not remove it. Two older US surtax orders remain in force alongside it: Steel and Aluminum 2025 and Motor Vehicles 2025.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Priced on every Canada quote from 2026-10-01, item by item from the Order’s schedules, including below the remission thresholds. The Steel and Aluminum 2025, Motor Vehicles 2025 and China (2024) surtax orders are priced too; quota-, content- and end-use-dependent steel orders and two safeguard surtaxes are disclosed on matching items rather than charged.

In forceUnited States · Section 338, Tariff Act of 1930

50% duty on Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy and a broad retaliation list

Announced: 20 July 2026
Effective: 22 August 2026
Ends: —

Three proclamations imposed an additional 50% ad valorem duty on 554 HTSUS subheadings of Canadian goods under a statute that had lain essentially unused. The effective date was postponed three days on 18 August while Canada negotiated; the duties took effect on 22 August when those talks failed. Proclamations of 8 September modified the scope with effect from 15 September, taking it to 666 subheadings.

Why it matters

The list titled 'motor vehicles' spans more than fifty HTSUS chapters — it is a broad retaliation list, not vehicles, and reasoning about it at chapter level will miss most of it. The duty is additive to MFN and to the Section 301 forced-labour duty, and USMCA preference does not exempt it (Section 338 has no equivalent to the Section 301 forced-labour carve-out). The September modification also split several 8-digit subheadings into specific 10-digit statistical lines, so an 8-digit classification can no longer answer whether the duty applies. A companion proclamation issued the same day removes a subset of these goods from the 50% duty into an outright import ban from 29 September — see the separate entry on that ban; a good already excluded is no longer merely dutiable.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Both scope versions are modelled with their effective windows. Matching never widens an 8-digit code into a 10-digit entry.

In forceUnited States · Section 301, Trade Act of 1974

Section 301 forced-labour duties replace the expired Section 122 surcharge

Announced: 23 July 2026
Effective: 24 July 2026
Ends: —

USTR took final action in 60 forced-labour investigations, imposing duties on goods of those 60 economies with two exemptions built in: a product-level exemption in Annexes I and II (not yet ingested by this engine) and an economy-wide exemption for articles already subject to Section 232 duties. The rate is 10% for an economy that imposes a forced-labour import prohibition, has committed to one through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or has a partial regime; 12.5% for an economy that has failed to do any of those. For the European Union and Taiwan the duty is capped so MFN plus this duty reaches 10% total; for Japan, Korea and Switzerland the cap is 12.5% total — either way, a product whose MFN rate already meets the cap attracts nothing. Economies outside the 60 attract no duty at all. Goods already loaded and in transit before 24 July, and entered before 28 July, were not subject to the duty.

Why it matters

This replaced a flat 10% that applied to every origin, so the shape of the calculation changed and not only the number. Two FTA carve-outs exist and are easy to miss because the rate table's own entries for the affected origins say nothing about them: U.S. note 52(g)/(h) exempts USMCA duty-free goods of Canada and Mexico outright, and note 52(i) exempts CAFTA-DR-originating textile/apparel goods of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Without a duty-free claim, Canada and Mexico stay in the 10% tier. It stacks on MFN and on the Section 301 China lists.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

All 60 economies and all four mechanics are modelled, including the net-of-MFN cap. The per-economy product exemptions in Annexes I and II are not yet ingested, and every affected quote says so.

In forceUnited States · CBP — 19 CFR / EO 14324

International mail is classified, not flat-rated

Announced: 24 June 2026
Effective: 24 July 2026
Ends: —

CBP indefinitely suspended the de minimis exemption for mail by regulation and stood up a postal informal entry process. Mail is now entered with a 10-digit HTSUS classification and assessed at the rate for that classification plus any applicable Chapter 99 duty — exactly as cargo is. Filing is by the owner, purchaser or a licensed customs broker, against a single-transaction or continuous bond in ACE eBond, on a monthly IMDW spreadsheet paid via Pay.gov by the 7th of the following month. From 22 October 2026 this process narrows — see the separate entry on mail informal-entry carve-outs.

Why it matters

Two figures are widely misquoted. The informal-entry ceiling for mail is $2,500, not $800 — $800 was the de minimis exemption and was never an entry ceiling. And mail is exempt from the Merchandise Processing Fee except Inbound EMS. The deeper change is that a spreadsheet problem became a classification problem.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

The postal pipeline classifies rather than flat-rates, applies no MPF except Inbound EMS, and uses the $2,500 ceiling.

In forceEuropean Union · Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382

The €150 customs duty relief is abolished; €3 per declaration line replaces it

Announced: March 2026
Effective: 1 July 2026
Ends: 1 July 2028

The EU abolished duty relief for consignments of intrinsic value at or below €150 and replaced it with a flat €3 customs duty, applied per declaration line, until the Customs Data Hub for e-commerce comes online in July 2028. It applies regardless of the VAT regime used — IOSS, Special Arrangements or standard import VAT.

Why it matters

The €3 is per declaration LINE, not per parcel and not per tariff heading. H7 and H6 — the reduced datasets used for low-value e-commerce — group goods sharing the same 6-digit HS or 8-digit CN code, while a standard H1 declaration separates at 10-digit TARIC and so produces more lines and more duty for the same consignment.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Modelled per declaration line with 6-digit grouping, plus destination VAT on goods and duty, on every Stipendia quote — postal, checkout and API. Until 28 Sep 2026 only postal quotes applied it; checkout and API quotes priced EU low-value goods on the ordinary tariff instead.

In forceGlobal · World Trade Organization

The moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions lapsed

Announced: 30 March 2026
Effective: 30 March 2026
Ends: —

MC14 closed without consensus and the Work Programme on E-Commerce and its moratorium — in place since 1998 — lapsed. A plurilateral group issued a joint statement committing to continue not imposing such duties among themselves, and the roughly 70-member E-Commerce Agreement codifies a moratorium for its parties, but the multilateral floor is gone.

Why it matters

Duties on digitally delivered products are now possible in principle for the first time in nearly three decades. Nothing changes for physical parcels today, but the direction of travel is worth watching for anyone selling software, media or digital services cross-border.

Primary sources

WTO — E-commerce, post-MC14 briefing note

Stipendia

Tracked, not priced

No duty applies to a physical consignment as a result. Monitored.

In forceUnited States · Executive Order 14324

Duty-free de minimis suspended for all countries

Announced: 30 July 2025
Effective: 29 August 2025
Ends: —

The $800 administrative exemption was suspended for all countries and all modes, and the suspension was continued by an order signed 20 February 2026 (effective 24 Feb, published in the Federal Register 25 Feb). For mail it was made indefinite by regulation in June 2026. Every item entering the United States is dutiable regardless of value.

Why it matters

1.4 billion parcels entered the United States duty-free in 2024. Every one of them now requires duty processing. This is the single event that created the market for automated cross-border duty collection.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

De minimis is never applied to a US consignment.

Announced, not confirmedEuropean Union · Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, Article 20 — amount by Commission delegated act

A Union handling fee per item on distance sales is now law; the amount awaits a delegated act

Announced: 19 September 2026
Effective: —
Ends: —

Article 20(2) of the new Union Customs Code requires customs authorities to “collect a Union handling fee of a fixed amount per item” for handling the release for free circulation of goods “sold in distance sales”. The amount must correspond to the approximate cost of that service (Art. 20(3)), is lower for goods sold from a customs warehouse for distance sales (Art. 20(4)), is paid by the debtor of the customs debt at least once a month (Art. 20(5)) and is non-refundable (Art. 20(6)). The Commission sets the amount by delegated act (Art. 20(10)), and the fee applies from 10 days after that act enters into force (Art. 287(4)). No amount has been set. The Commission says it expects the fee to apply from November 2026.

Why it matters

The text sets no value threshold — it covers goods sold in distance sales, not only consignments of €150 or less — and it is charged per item, so a parcel of several different goods pays it several times. The consumer is not the debtor (recital 80): it is the importer for distance sales or, until those provisions apply, the declarant — typically the person entitled to use IOSS, or an indirect customs representative. Figures around €2 in press coverage do not appear in the regulation.

Primary sources

Stipendia

Tracked, not priced

Deliberately not priced until the delegated act sets the amount. Every EU quote — above and below €150 — discloses that it is not included.

ExpiredUnited States · Section 122, Trade Act of 1974

The flat 10% import surcharge expired

Announced: 20 February 2026
Effective: 24 February 2026
Ends: 24 July 2026

A temporary 10% surcharge applied to all countries, all goods and all transport modes including postal. Section 122 is capped at 150 days by statute and Congress did not extend it, so it lapsed on 24 July 2026. The Court of International Trade held it unlawful on 7 May 2026, but enjoined collection only as to the named plaintiffs; the Federal Circuit stayed that ruling on 11 June and collection continued to expiry.

Why it matters

Importers who paid this surcharge between 24 February and 24 July may have a refund claim worth preserving if the CIT ruling is ultimately affirmed. The surcharge is frequently still quoted as current — it is not.

Primary sources

White House — Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge

Stipendia

Priced by Stipendia

Retained for repricing entries dated inside the window. Never applied to a current date.

Common questions

What tariff applies to US imports right now?

Is the US de minimis exemption still suspended?

How is duty charged on international mail to the US?

What replaced the EU €150 duty relief?

When does the UK £135 low-value threshold end?

What we have corrected

Entries are corrected in place with a note, never silently rewritten.

14 September 2026 · us-section-338-canada-exclusions
Corrected the transition rule, which had been published inverted. We wrote that goods ENTERED before 29 September stay on the 50% duty. The proclamation says goods IMPORTED BUT NOT YET ENTERED before that date do. The ban turns on importation, not entry. Also corrected the scope description: six of the 68 barred lines are molasses or non-alcoholic beer, not alcoholic beverages, dairy or motorcycles.
How it was found: An adversarial audit of every published entry against its cited primary source, run the day the hub went live. The auditor quoted the proclamation text back at us.
Rule added: A sentence stating who is in scope, from when, and under what condition is quoted verbatim from the instrument, never paraphrased. That is how this error was made.
15 September 2026 · us-section-338-canada-exclusions
Added the three Federal Register proclamation citations (FR Docs. 2026-18835/18836/18837) and clarified that bulk product in a 'Packaged'-marked subheading is not barred but still carries the 50% Section 338 duty.
How it was found: The same audit. The auditor grepped all three annex PDFs we were citing and found they contain no date, no rate, no Section 338 reference and no proclamation number — they are bare HTSUS lists. Every date and rate in the entry came from the proclamation text, which we had not cited. We were telling readers to check sources that could not verify our two most load-bearing facts.
Rule added: A cited source must be able to verify the claim it is attached to. Citing a document that does not contain the fact is not a citation.
16 September 2026 · us-section-301-forced-labour
Corrected a live pricing defect, not only a publication error. This entry said "there is no FTA carve-out — USMCA goods from Canada and Mexico pay it", and the engine's own rate file (section_301_fl_rates.json) asserted the identical claim in its stacking.fta field. Neither was true: U.S. note 52(g)/(h) exempts USMCA duty-free goods of Canada and Mexico from this duty outright — the single largest carve-out in the instrument — and note 52(i) exempts CAFTA-DR-originating textile/apparel goods of six Central American origins. The engine now applies both (see app/utils/section_301_fl.py, usmca_duty_free and cafta_dr_textile_claim). Also corrected: the rule for choosing the 10% vs 12.5% additive rate (10% covers committed-but-not-yet-enforcing economies too, not only economies that already enforce a prohibition — the underlying rate table was always correct, only this description of the rule was wrong), which of the capped economies get the 10% cap vs the 12.5% cap, the in-transit grace period, and the unverifiable "99.4% of US imports" figure, which appeared in neither cited source and has been removed.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, run a second time after the Canada-ban entry's correction. The auditor retrieved both cited sources in full — the USTR final-action PDF (431 pages, extracted locally) and the Federal Register text — and quoted U.S. note 52(g)/(h)/(i) verbatim. It also checked for a later, superseding instrument and found none as of 2026-09-14.
Rule added: A pricing claim published on this page is checked against what the engine actually charges, not only against the source — the engine's own rate file carried the same error, so checking the hub text alone would have missed it.
16 September 2026 · uk-lvi-reform
The cited policy paper never states the full-UKGT-rate decision — that comes from a different, uncited document. Added the consultation-response source that actually contains it. Also noted the still-undecided additional per-LVI fee (on top of the tariff), and that this is a GB-only reform — Northern Ireland stays under the Windsor Framework and the EU's own low-value regime, not this one.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
16 September 2026 · us-section-338-canada-duty
Noted that a companion 29 September proclamation removes some of these goods from the 50% duty into an outright ban (see the separate hub entry for that ban — a good already excluded is no longer merely dutiable). Added the two Federal Register citations that actually establish facts this entry states: FR 2026-17294 (Proclamation 11056, the postponement to 22 Aug) and FR 2026-18839 (the motor-vehicles scope modification that completes the 554→666 count alongside the already-cited alcohol modification).
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
16 September 2026 · wto-ecommerce-moratorium-lapsed
‘66-member’ corrected to ‘roughly 70-member’ for the E-Commerce Agreement.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
16 September 2026 · us-mail-classified-entry
The bond can be a single-transaction or a continuous bond, not continuous only. Cross-referenced the separate 22 October informal-entry carve-outs entry, since this entry's own description of the process narrows on that date.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
16 September 2026 · us-de-minimis-suspended
‘continued on 26 February 2026’ corrected to the order's actual signed date of 20 February 2026 (effective 24 Feb, published in the Federal Register 25 Feb) — no official date tied to this action is the 26th.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
16 September 2026 · eu-union-handling-fee
The cited source states only that the amount and date are ‘to be determined’ for ‘autumn 2026’, naming no delegated act and no 1 November date. The entry previously stated both the mechanism and the date as settled. Softened to what the source actually supports.
How it was found: The same adversarial audit, extended to every remaining live hub entry after the Section 301 forced-labour and Canada-ban corrections. Each finding is quoted from a source the auditor actually fetched.
Rule added: None new — these are applications of the rules already added on 2026-09-14 and 2026-09-16: quote a legal condition rather than paraphrase it, and cite a source that can actually verify the claim.
28 September 2026 · eu-lvi-flat-duty
The platform note said the €3 was 'Modelled per declaration line'. That was true for postal quotes only: checkout and API quotes had priced EU consignments ≤ €150 on the ordinary tariff since 1 July. The engine now applies the €3 on every path, and the note says so and records the gap.
How it was found: A review of a dashboard banner that repeated the claim. Running the engine on the same $50 US→DE item gave $3.49 duty on the postal pipeline and $2.50 on the commercial one.
Rule added: A platform_status or platform_note is checked by running the engine on every pipeline that can price the corridor, not one.
28 September 2026 · eu-union-handling-fee
Said the Commission's guidance states 'only' that the amount and date are to be determined. The Commission's Access2Markets page — already cited by the €3 entry — gives a 1 November 2026 deadline. Added that, with the source. The amount, basis and legal instrument remain unstated in both.
How it was found: Re-reading both Commission sources in full while fixing the €3 on the commercial pipeline.
Rule added: None new — the 2026-09-15 rule: a cited source must be able to verify the claim, and all the relevant sources must be read, not the first one.
29 September 2026 · eu-union-handling-fee
Rewritten from the legal text. Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, published 19 September, makes the fee law: a fixed amount per item on goods sold in distance sales, set by Commission delegated act, applying 10 days after that act enters into force. This entry previously said no legal mechanism had been named and that it was unsettled whether the fee applied per consignment or per product category — both were true of the sources available when written and are now answered. It also frames the fee as covering all distance sales: the regulation sets no €150 limit.
How it was found: Following up the Commission’s 21 September announcement that the reform had entered into force, which the repaired EU regulatory monitor surfaced. The regulation was read in full from the Publications Office.
Rule added: When an instrument is published, the entry is re-sourced to the instrument itself, and earlier secondary-source statements are checked against it rather than left standing.
29 September 2026 · eu-union-customs-code-2026
New entry for Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, the new Union Customs Code.
How it was found: As above.
Rule added: None new.
1 October 2026 · ca-us-surtax-2026
New entry, published with the Canadian duty engine (Customs Tariff T2026-2 and the surtax orders in force).
How it was found: Building Canadian tariff coverage: CBSA Customs Notice 26-23 and the Justice Laws consolidation of the Customs Tariff’s regulations.
Rule added: None new.

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This page is published for information. It is not legal or customs advice, and a duty quote is not a clearance. Where an entry says a rule is not modelled, it is not priced by the platform and no figure should be inferred from its absence. Last reviewed 1 October 2026.