DDP or DDU: who pays US duties on a parcel from China?

With DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), the shipper pays the US duties and the price you see includes them: nothing to pay at the door. With DDU, a term the Incoterms dropped in 2010 when they added DAP, whoever receives the parcel pays the duties before getting it. Rabbit buys on 1688, shows on each shipping line whether duties are included, and never counts them twice in your estimated profit.

By Hussayn Delli, founder of Rabbit · Updated November 9, 2026.

The ways to ship and the customs fee each one pays: shipping from China to the US. This page is about one question: who pays the duties, and when.

What do DDP and DDU mean?

• DDP, Delivered Duty Paid. The seller delivers the goods to the buyer’s place, cleared for import, with the import duties and taxes paid. The buyer pays nothing more to receive them.
• DDU, Delivered Duty Unpaid. The seller delivers to the buyer’s place, but the import duties are the buyer’s to pay.

Both come from the Incoterms, the trade terms of the International Chamber of Commerce: today eleven three-letter terms. DDP has been one since 1967. DDU was removed in the 2010 edition, when DAP (Delivered at Place) was added; shippers still say “DDU” for a delivery where the duties are left to the receiver. In shipping offers, you will also read “duties included”, “duties prepaid” or “taxes due on delivery”.

Who is the importer, and who owes the duties?

US rules define the importer as the person primarily liable for paying the duties on the goods. That debt is personal: paying a customs broker doesn’t release the importer if the broker doesn’t pay. So the real question behind DDP or DDU is who is named as importer on the entry.

• On a DDP line, the duties are paid out of the shipping price you paid. If you need to know, ask who is named as importer on the entry: that is who owes them.
• On a DDU line, the duties are left to the receiver. For mail, the 2026 rule says the filer pays the duties, and may pass them on.

Since the de minimis exemption was suspended, this matters for every parcel from China, even a $5 one: the end of de minimis.

What is the trap of a DDU parcel?

• Your buyer gets the bill. If you sell online and ship from China straight to your customer without duties paid, your customer is asked to pay the duties before getting the parcel. A customer who won’t pay doesn’t get it.
• The cheap line isn’t cheap. A line without duties looks cheaper because the duties aren’t in its price yet. Compare what you pay in total, once the duties are paid.
• Amazon refuses it. Amazon requires every shipment to its US warehouses to travel DDP, and refuses a shipment that arrives with charges to collect. Amazon never acts as importer: how to ship from China to Amazon FBA.

How does Rabbit show whether duties are included?

Every shipping line Rabbit lists for your parcel says it. A line with the duties in its price is marked “Duties-paid line”, or names its carrier when Rabbit is sure of it; nothing is due at delivery on that account. A line without duties shows “Taxes on delivery: amount unknown”: Rabbit has no table yet of what a US receiver pays at the door, so it doesn’t make up an amount. Rabbit’s terms say the same thing: on a duties-included line, nothing is required from you at delivery; on another line, the duties and taxes of your country are yours to pay.

How does Rabbit avoid counting the duties twice?

Your estimated profit subtracts US duties only once:

• On a duties-paid line, the duties are already in the shipping price, and so in your cost. Rabbit doesn’t subtract them again.
• On a line without duties, Rabbit subtracts the duties and the CBP fee from its table of US duties, checked on October 31, 2026. When it doesn’t know how the goods will enter, it counts the costliest way in; when it doesn’t know the product’s exact tariff heading, the costliest heading of its family.
• If that table is more than 30 days old, Rabbit stops using it: the duties become an open line, “calculated at the warehouse”, instead of an old number.

The full order of the costs: how to calculate your profit on a product from China.

Which should you choose, DDP or DDU?

• For a parcel to your customer or to Amazon: DDP. Your buyer pays nothing more, and Amazon accepts nothing else.
• For a batch to yourself, both can work: you are the one who receives the bill. Compare the total, duties included.

What doesn’t Rabbit decide for you?

You buy to resell, so your own customs and tax obligations stay yours, including the rules for the products you sell. Rabbit gives you the documents and information it has, without acting in your place. A customs broker can tell you whether your goods need more than duties.

For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.