New Guidance on Tariffs for Aircraft Parts (Aug. 6, 2025)

August 6, 2025 by Leave a comment

Tariffs continue to be a moving target. Today’s Federal Register includes some new tariff changes that affect aircraft parts imports (some of these new provisions are not yet listed in revision 17 to the HTSUS).

A quick look at some major jurisdictions that produce civil aircraft parts shows the variety of approaches currently being used to assign tariff value to aircraft parts being imported into the United States:

Source (“product of”)Duty and Tariff Code
Aircraft parts that are products of Brazil (e.g. many Embraer parts):Base duty plus 10% additional duty (9903.02.09)(but NOT the additional 40% (9903.01.82)) for aircraft parts)
Aircraft parts that are the products of Canada (e.g. many Bombardier parts):If subject to USMCA – no additional duty (9903.01.14)
If NOT subject to USMCA  – base duty plus 35% (9903.01.10)
Aircraft parts that are products of the EU** (e.g. many Airbus parts):The higher of 15% (9903.02.20) or the normally-applicable base duty value if it exceeds 15% (9903.02.19)
Aircraft parts that are products of Japan (e.g. JAMCO parts):Base duty plus 15% (9903.02.30)
Aircraft parts that are products of the UK (e.g. many BAE Systems parts):No additional duty for aircraft parts (9903.96.01)

This table assumes an aircraft part that is subject to heading 8807 (where the base duty is 0%). In all cases, the civil aircraft-specific provisions are often limited to certain tariff codes, so please confirm the treatment of your actual import based on its tariff classification and actual country of origin. There may be additional codes and duties (or exceptions) that apply to your transaction based on the specific facts of your import.

These rates and applications are constantly changing, so be sure to verify information for the date of your entry into the U.S. Customs Zone!

** SPECIAL NOTE: The EU has reported that the United States has agreed to accept civil aviation products of the EU (including aircraft parts) with no additional duty; however this is not yet reflected in any Executive Order, Federal Register Notice, nor HTSUS provision. Stay tuned – we hope that this exception will be implemented into U.S. trade law, soon!

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Tariff Update: UK Tariffs Provide a Positive Model for Treatment of Aircraft Parts

July 28, 2025 by Leave a comment

Tariffs continue to be a hot topic in the news, and for aviation businesses. Recent tariff decisions suggest that aviation may see some relief from tariffs in the near future.

The Japan and EU agreements have both been reported in the press, but neither is yet available to the public. The EU agreement is particularly important because it will likely affect tariffs applicable to Airbus parts that are imported into the United States. While the EU agreement is not yet available, the UK agreement may shed some light on what we can expect from the EU agreement.

The recent UK agreement has been reflected in revision 16 to the 2025 HTSUS, and this provides us with some idea about how aviation is likely to be treated in the new tariff agreements (but it is no guarantee that other arrangements will include the same language). Under the UK agreement, civil aircraft parts will enjoy duty-free treatment and will be excepted from the chapter 99 country-based tariffs (currently found in HTSUS 9903.01.25 for products of the United Kingdom). This agreement will be limited to aircraft parts that are the product of the UK, but we are hopeful that ASA’s efforts will lead to a more general duty-free approach for most aircraft parts.

ASA filed formal comments with the United States earlier this summer, in which we explained that tariffs on aviation were a bad policy idea, and they were also a violation of U.S. law and U.S. treaty obligations. That concept has been endorsed in the UK agreement, and we are hoping that it will be endorsed in other agreements as well.

Aircraft parts that are products of the United Kingdom and that are entered on or after June 30, 2025 may be entered under HTSUS Subheading 9903.96.01 (in addition to the base tariff that applies to the underlying goods). This subheading allows for duty-free treatment of civil aircraft and their parts:

9903.96.01: Effective with respect to entries on or after [June 30, 2025], articles of civil aircraft (all aircraft other than military aircraft); their engines, parts, and components; their other parts, components, and subassemblies; and ground flight simulators and their parts and components of the United Kingdom, classified in the subheadings enumerated in subdivision (a) of U.S. note 35 to this subchapter.

This clause specifically exempts aircraft parts from the additional duties imposed by HTSUS subheadings 9903.01.25, 9903.81.94, 9903.81.96, 9903.81.97, 9903.81.98, , 9903.85.12, 9903.85.13, 9903.85.14, and 9903.85.15. This means that both the UK country-based 10% tariff and the UK steel and aluminum derivative tariffs appear to be excluded for aircraft parts. This is a positive sign for the aviation industry.

There is a list of the HTSUS subheadings that are affected by this exception, so please make sure your base tariff code is within the scope of the aircraft parts exception (the list is found in Chapter 99: U.S. Note 35(a)). Note that while this list includes many tariff subheadings typically associated with aircraft parts, you should identify your specific tariff codes to make sure that they are included before assuming that the exception applies to your imports.

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US Changes Export Licensing Requirements for Certain Aircraft Parts Transactions

May 1, 2024 by Leave a comment

The United States has changed the export licensing standards for aircraft parts bound for Australia and/or the United Kingdom (“UK”). This is being accomplished under the recently-published AUKUS rules. There are two main changes:

  • Elimination of most destination-based licensing restrictions when exporting to Australia or the UK (in the Commerce Country Chart)
  • Expansion of the AVS exception for aircraft parts bound for Australia and the UK

Commerce Country Chart Changes

Under the exporting rules, the exporter must look at the export destination and compare it to the reason for control in the Commerce Country Chart. The licensing obligations for Australia and the UK have changed dramatically!

The United States has removed the licensing obligations for all articles being exported to Australia or the UK except for articles controlled for chemical or biological weapons reasons under column “CB1” (which still require a license).

One of the common aircraft articles that may be affected by this rule change is inertial reference units (IRUs) which are export-controlled for missile technology (“MT1”) reasons. Until the recent rule change, an article controlled under the MT1 provisions needed an export license when exported to any jurisdiction other than Canada. The new rule adds Australia and the UK to the list of exceptions where the destination does not drive a license obligation for MT1 exports (this is also codified at 15 C.F.R. § 742.5(a)(1)).

This would also affect many 600-series articles (defense articles) destined for Australia or the UK, because the Australian and UK restrictions on exports controlled for reasons of regional stability (RS) and national security (NS) have also been removed.

Other licensing provisions may still apply! For example, if the aircraft parts is ordered by a business on the BIS entity list then a license will be required for the transaction, even if that company is located in the UK.

License Exception AVS

The rule change also expands the utility of license exception “AVS.”

Previously, license exception AVS applied (inter alia) to exports of aircraft parts for use on U.S. or Canadian registered airplanes, as long as they are ordered by the owner/operator and the aircraft is not located in Cuba or a Country Group D:1 nation (excluding China). This has been expanded to include parts ordered by the owners/operators of Australian-registered aircraft and UK-registered aircraft. See 15 C.F.R. § 740.15(c)(1).

AVS also allowed US and Canadian airlines to order aircraft parts to be exported to their installations (e.g. airline-operated line stations) and their agents (such as an MRO). This exception has been expanded to include Australian airlines and UK airlines. This may not be used to export to Cuba or a Country Group D:1 nation (excluding China). See 15 C.F.R. § 740.15(c)(2).

Hot Section Technology

As an additional relevant note, the United States has also removed restrictions on the export of certain engine technology to Australia or the UK. This is limited to hot section technology for the development, production or overhaul of commercial aircraft engines controlled under certain subsections of ECCN 9E003. This matches Australia and the UK with the export treatment of Canada for this technology.

Public Comments

These changes are part of an interim final rule. This means that the rule was published and becomes immediately effective, but the rule is open to public comment. Public comment remains open until June 4.

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EU To Accept UK Production Releases Under EU-UK Trade Agreement

January 18, 2021 by Leave a comment

We’ve examined the Trade Agreement between the UK and EU and it provides some useful guidance on aviation safety matters. The Agreement includes an Annex that details the scope of cooperation between the UK and EU in this subject area.

UK CAA Form 1 authorized release certificates signed on the left side by the approved production organization will be accepted in the EU

Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK, Annex AvSaf-1 Art. 21 (31 Dec 2020).

Under the Trade Agreement, the UK and EU each agree:

  • To accept certain approvals without validation (AvSaf 3-4; Annex AvSaf-1 Art. 13):
    • Non-significant supplemental type certificates, non-significant major changes and technical standard order authorizations issued by the EU
    • Minor change / minor repair approvals issued by the UK or EU;
  • To accept through a validation process (AvSaf 3-4; Annex AvSaf-1 Art. 10):
    • EU and UK type certificates;
    • EU significant supplemental type certificates and approvals for significant major changes;
    • UK supplemental type certificates, approvals for major changes, major repairs and technical standard order authorizations
  • To accept the production approval systems of the other (AvSaf 3-4; Annex AvSaf-1 Arts. 21-23);
    • This is limited to the categories of civil aeronautical products that were already subject to that system on 31 December 2020 – later-approved categories must be subject to negotiation;
    • Within these limits, UK CAA Form 1 authorized release certificates signed on the left side by the approved production organization will be accepted in the EU;
  • To limit fees and charges to those “commensurate with the services provided” (AvSaf 13);
  • To exchange accident/incident information (AvSaf 9);
  • When one of them takes immediate measure in response to a safety threat (such as through issue of an airworthiness directive) it will inform the other within 15 days (Article AvSaf 6).

One type of approval that is noticeably absent from this list is maintenance approvals. To address this, EASA issued third-country maintenance approvals to repair stations located in the UK that had previously applied. So maintenance releases from UK-based repair stations will need to be signed under EASA authority to be acceptable in the EU.

We should expect an EU-UK implementation agreement that further explains the mechanisms for acceptance and validation between the two jurisdictions.

There are some remaining issues, especially with respect to multi-country transactions. For example, nations outside of the EU, Canada, Japan and the US will need to decide whether to accept UK approvals. This could make things tricky when dealing with other jurisdictions: China comes to mind as a significant market for which a decision about acceptance of UK releases will need to be made.

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