Docket expenses: quarter-to-date landed cost, the share captured automatically from email, and the demurrage exposure still avoidable. — Landed cost — each line traced back to the email it came from.

Merchandise processing fee (MPF): the rate with two walls

The merchandise processing fee is what US Customs charges to process an entry. On a formal entry it is 0.3464% of the entered value, bounded by a minimum and a maximum that CBP re-indexes every fiscal year: from 1 October 2026 those are $34.58 and $670.86. Outside that band the fee is a flat amount and the effective rate changes. Goods originating under the USMCA are exempt entirely.

Merchandise processing fee: A US customs user fee charged for processing an entry. On a formal entry it is an ad valorem fee of 0.3464 percent of the entered value, subject to a minimum and a maximum amount that CBP re-indexes for inflation each fiscal year, plus a surcharge on a manual entry.

Working out MPF on a formal entry The first step is arithmetic. The three after it are the ones a percentage column leaves out.

The merchandise processing fee is the charge for the paperwork rather than for the goods. It is owed on a formal entry whether the tariff rate is 12 percent or zero, which is the first thing that surprises a desk importing duty-free.

The rate, and the two walls either side of it

On a formal entry the fee is stated as a single percentage:

merchandise that is formally entered or released is subject to the payment to CBP of an ad valorem fee of 0.3464 percent

The complication is immediately below it. The ad valorem fee “must not exceed $485 … and must not be less than $25”, each figure as adjusted under § 24.22(k), and the adjustment is large. For fiscal year 2027 the operative limits are $34.58 and $670.86, required from 1 October 2026.

So the fee is a percentage with a floor and a ceiling, and that makes its effective rate a function of the value of the shipment rather than a constant. Below the point where the minimum takes over, a small formal entry pays an effective rate above 0.3464 percent. Above the point where the maximum takes over, a large one pays an effective rate below it. The printed percentage is right in the middle of the range and nowhere else, which is the reason the fee is worth its own entry.

A formal manual entry also carries a surcharge, $3 at base-year value, in addition to the ad valorem fee.

The printed dollar figures are not this year’s figures

19 CFR § 24.22 says this about itself, before stating any amount:

the specific customs user fee amounts and corresponding limitations that appear in this section are not the actual fees or limitations but represent the base year amounts that are subject to adjustment each fiscal year in accordance with the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) using Fiscal Year 2014 as the base year for comparison.

The current amounts come from an annual notice:

CBP will determine annually whether an adjustment to the fees and limitations is necessary and a notice specifying the amount of the fees and limitations, as adjusted, will be published in the Federal Register annually for each fiscal year at least 60 days prior to the effective date of the new fees and limitations.

That is why the $25 and $485 above are described here as base-year figures. This fiscal year’s notice is CBP Dec. 26-14, published 31 July 2026 at 91 FR 48398, and its amounts are required as of 1 October 2026: minimum $34.58, maximum $670.86, manual surcharge $4.15, each 38 percent above the base-year figure in the regulation. Check the figure in your own records against that notice, and expect to check again next October.

Origin can remove it entirely

The fee has an exemption that duty-rate thinking does not predict:

The ad valorem, surcharge, and specific fees provided for under paragraphs (b)(1) and (2) of this section will not apply to goods originating within the meaning of General Note 11, HTSUS … or to goods that qualify for preferential tariff treatment under § 182.82 of this chapter

A USMCA-originating consignment therefore owes no processing fee at all, surcharge included. The harbor maintenance fee has no equivalent carve-out, so the same container still owes that one. That is the single most common reason a preferential entry comes in above the estimate.

Where it sits on the landed cost

MPF is one line of several on the same filing, and it shares its base with the duty: both run off the value determined under 19 U.S.C. 1401a, the customs value. It falls due when the entry summary is presented.

A desk that keeps this fee as a percentage in a spreadsheet will be out on every entry at the cheap and expensive ends of its book, and out on every preferential entry. Keeping it per shipment, from the broker’s own working sheet, is what landed cost tracking software is for — the fee lines and the two dates behind them are the part a percentage gets wrong.

Before the order, though, the question is usually the other way round: what does this consignment land at if I buy it this way rather than that way? That is a landed cost simulator question rather than a tracking one, and the floor and the ceiling are exactly why it is worth asking. Splitting one shipment into two small entries pays the minimum twice; consolidating two large ones does not pay the maximum twice.

Questions traders ask

What is MPF in customs?

The merchandise processing fee: what US Customs and Border Protection charges for processing an entry, separately from any duty on the goods. On a formal entry it is an ad valorem fee of 0.3464 percent of the entered value, due from the importer of record at the time the entry summary is presented. It is not a duty, it is not based on the tariff classification, and it is owed on dutiable and duty-free goods alike unless an origin exemption applies.

What is the MPF minimum and maximum?

For fiscal year 2027, required as of 1 October 2026, the minimum is $34.58 and the maximum is $670.86, set by CBP Dec. 26-14 at 91 FR 48398. Do not use the $25 and $485 printed in 19 CFR § 24.23: the regulation states those are base-year amounts from fiscal year 2014, re-indexed every fiscal year under § 24.22(k), and this year's limits are 38 percent above them. The rate itself did not change; the notice's own footnote says only the limitation is increasing.

Is the merchandise processing fee always 0.3464%?

The rate is, the effective share is not. Because the fee cannot fall below the minimum or rise above the maximum, there is a band of entered values inside which 0.3464 percent is what you pay and two ranges outside it where you pay a flat amount instead. On this year's limits the floor governs everything below about US$9,983 of entered value and the cap everything above about US$193,666. So a US$5,000 entry pays an effective 0.69 percent and a US$250,000 entry an effective 0.27 percent, from the same stated rate.

Who is exempt from MPF?

Goods originating within the meaning of General Note 11 of the HTSUS, and goods qualifying for preferential tariff treatment under 19 CFR § 182.82 — the USMCA route — entered for consumption on or after 1 July 2020. The exemption covers the ad valorem fee, the manual-entry surcharge and the specific fees together. Separately, the fees do not apply to most Chapter 98 articles, to products of a beneficiary country under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, or to merchandise released under 19 U.S.C. 1321.

Is MPF the same as the harbor maintenance fee?

No, and they behave differently in almost every respect. Both are a percentage of the same appraised value, but the harbor maintenance fee is 0.125 percent with no floor, no ceiling and no annual re-indexing; it applies only where the vessel loaded or unloaded at a port on the list the regulation prints; and it has no origin exemption, so a USMCA container owes the harbour fee while owing no processing fee.

When is MPF due?

On a formal entry, at the time of presentation of the entry summary — the same filing that carries the duty. That is later than the moment the harbour fee's liability attaches, which is unloading, so the two fees on one shipment can belong to two different dates even though they are paid together.

Related terms

Harbor maintenance fee — A US port use fee of 0.125 percent of the value of commercial cargo loaded on or unloaded from a commercial vessel at a port listed in the regulation. On imported cargo the importer is liable at the time of unloading, and the fee is shown and paid on the entry summary.
Entry Summary — The documentation or data filed with US Customs and Border Protection that enables it to assess duties, collect statistics on imported merchandise and determine whether other legal requirements are met. Normally CBP Form 7501, submitted through ACE within 10 working days of entry.
Customs value — The value of imported goods on which customs duty is assessed. Under the WTO Valuation Agreement the primary basis is the transaction value — the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export — adjusted by the additions listed in Article 8 and by no others.
Landed cost — The total cost of a consignment delivered into the buyer's warehouse, combining the goods value with duty, freight, port and terminal charges, agent fees, inland transport, insurance, bank charges, inspection and any demurrage or detention.
Certificate of Origin — A document certifying the country in which goods were produced, issued by a chamber of commerce or a designated authority, used by customs to apply duty rates, quotas, trade remedies and preferential tariff treatment.
HS code — A product number from the Harmonized System, the World Customs Organization's international classification. Six digits are common to every member country; national tariffs extend them to eight or ten digits for duty rates and controls.