What Tariff Do EU Goods Actually Pay in the US Right Now? (It's Not 15%)

If you searched for the current US tariff on EU goods, you probably found "15% all-inclusive ceiling" — the framework that took effect July 1, 2026 under the US–EU arrangement. That figure is already out of date. Under the Section 301 actions effective July 24, 2026 (91 FR 47318 (Jul 28, 2026)), products of the European Union are subject to a top-up to 10% total: where a product's MFN rate is below 10%, a 301 duty is added so MFN + 301 = 10%; where MFN is already 10% or higher, the additional duty is zero.

Examples

Exceptions that matter for EU exporters

• Section 232 products — steel, aluminum, and copper articles carry their own duties (50% core / 25% derivative / 15% reduced-list per the proclamation of Jun 4, 2026) and are exempt from the 10% cap regime.
• Annex exemptions — certain raw materials, pharmaceuticals (added July 31), informational materials, and other listed goods.

Germany-to-US industrial shipments are a textbook case: most machinery lines carry low MFN rates (0–4.4%), so the effective change on July 24 was a jump to a flat 10% total — lower than the 15% ceiling that applied for the three weeks prior, and lower than the 12.5% that Japanese competitors pay. Competitive position now shifts with every USTR notice, which is precisely why per-SKU monitoring pays for itself.