Customs duty from European Union to United States: Import Duty Guide

Key Takeaways

• The EU trades with the US under a 2025-2026 framework - not a traditional, permanent FTA - that caps most goods at a 15% tariff ceiling, with steel and aluminium excluded and remaining at 50%.
• This is the bloc-wide version of the story covered on this site’s Germany to US lane page - every EU member state trades under this same single framework, since the EU sets trade policy centrally.
• The EU as a bloc is the single largest source of US goods imports - larger than any individual country, including Mexico, Canada, or China, each of which is a bigger source than any single EU member state on its own.
• The framework was agreed in principle on 27 July 2025 and formalised in a joint statement on 21 August 2025.
• US valuation uses FOB, there’s no import VAT (only state sales tax at checkout), and there’s no de minimis exemption of any value for any origin, EU included.

EU-US Trade at a Glance

The EU as a bloc is the single largest source of US goods imports - larger than any individual country. US imports from the EU reached roughly €554-555 billion in 2025, ahead even of Mexico’s $534.31 billion, the largest individual-country source (Eurostat; Consilium, “EU-US trade: facts and figures”).

No single EU member state accounts for anywhere near this on its own - Germany, the largest individual EU contributor, supplied $155.83 billion in 2025 (see the Germany to US page) - it’s the bloc’s combined weight across all 27 member states that makes the EU collectively the US’s biggest import source.

Is There a Trade Deal Between the EU and the US?

Yes, though not a traditional, permanently-ratified free trade agreement - a framework agreed in principle on 27 July 2025 and formalised in a joint statement on 21 August 2025.

It sets a 15% all-inclusive tariff ceiling on autos (down from a prior 27.5%), pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors entering the US from anywhere in the EU, with steel and aluminium explicitly excluded and remaining at 50% under Section 232.

Because the EU negotiates trade policy centrally, every member state - from Germany to the smallest economies - trades with the US under this single, identical framework rather than any country-specific arrangement.

How Much Will You Pay Importing from the EU to the US?

For autos, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors specifically, expect up to 15% under the framework. Steel and aluminium sit outside that ceiling at 50%, regardless of which EU member state they originate from.

For other general merchandise, the exact current rate is genuinely unclear given a separate, lower-tier Section 301 mechanism that overlaps with this framework in ways not fully reconciled in public guidance - see the Germany to US page for the fuller explanation of that ambiguity.

US valuation uses FOB, there’s no VAT (only state sales tax at checkout), no de minimis exemption at any value, and a Merchandise Processing Fee of roughly $8.06 on a typical informal entry.

Frequently Asked Questions About Importing from EU to US

Is the EU-US trade relationship governed by one agreement for all member states?

Yes - the EU sets trade policy centrally, so every member state trades with the US under this same 2025-2026 framework rather than any country-by-country arrangement, even though individual countries like Germany or France may have their own distinctive product mix.

Is the EU really the biggest single source of US imports?

Yes - combined across all 27 member states, the EU supplied roughly €554-555 billion in US goods imports in 2025, more than any individual country, including Mexico’s $534.31 billion.

Is this a permanent trade agreement?

No - it’s a negotiated framework, not a conventionally-ratified permanent FTA, agreed in principle in July 2025 and formalised the following month.

Where can I find country-specific detail within the EU?

This site also covers Germany to US and France to US as individual-country deep dives within the same overall EU-US framework, for more product-specific detail than the bloc-wide picture here.