Import Silver Jewelry from Bali to USA: Duty, CBP & Costs

To import silver jewelry from Bali to the USA, you classify the goods under HS code 7113.11, pay an import duty of typically 5–6.5% of the FOB value, and clear US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through either an informal entry (shipments under $2,500) or a formal entry (over $2,500). For a first wholesale order of around $1,000, the entire process runs through a courier like DHL or FedEx in 5–10 days door-to-door, with total landed costs typically landing 18–26% above the FOB Bali price. No import license and no FDA approval are required.

This guide goes deeper than our general how to import Bali silver jewelry overview and focuses exclusively on the US side: CBP entry types, HTS duty math, the de minimis situation as of 2027, courier vs freight forwarder economics, state resale certificates, and a fully costed $1,000 landed cost example. If you want the condensed checklist version, see our USA import guide hub; if you are still comparing suppliers, our Bali silver jewelry wholesale USA page covers pricing, MOQs, and best-selling styles for American boutiques.

US Import Requirements at a Glance

US buyers face one of the friendliest import environments in the world for silver jewelry: no import license, no FDA involvement, no product registration, and a duty rate that has historically sat around 5–6.5%. Here is the full picture in one table.

Requirement	What US Importers Need to Know
HS / HTS code	7113.11 (articles of jewelry, of silver) — most Bali pieces fall under HTS 7113.11.50
Import duty	Typically 5–6.5% of FOB value under standard MFN rates; verify current surcharges (see Step 1)
Import license	Not required for silver jewelry
FDA	Not applicable — jewelry is not FDA-regulated
Entry type	Informal entry under $2,500; formal entry (broker + bond) above $2,500
Sales tax at border	None — US has no federal VAT; state sales tax applies only when you resell
Resale certificate	Recommended — lets you buy inventory tax-free in your state
Typical transit	5–10 days FOB Bali via DHL/FedEx insured air freight

Step 1: Classify Under HS Code 7113.11 and Confirm Your Duty Rate

Silver jewelry import duties in the USA are calculated under HS code 7113.11 — “articles of jewelry and parts thereof, of silver” — and the standard MFN duty rate is typically 5% for most finished pieces (HTS 7113.11.50), rising to around 6.5% for certain lower-value subheadings. This is the single most important number in your import math, because everything else (freight, fees, insurance) is largely fixed.

Three US-specific details that first-time importers routinely miss:

• Duty is charged on the FOB transaction value, not CIF. Unlike the EU or Australia, US customs value generally excludes international freight and insurance. On a $1,000 FOB order with $135 in freight and insurance, duty applies to $1,000 — not $1,135. At 5%, that is a $6.75 saving versus CIF-basis countries on every $1,000 ordered.
• Subheadings matter. Rope and chain of silver, unfinished parts, and pieces valued under certain per-dozen thresholds can carry different rates (roughly 6.3–6.5% historically). A correctly itemized commercial invoice from your supplier keeps you in the right subheading.
• Trade policy has been volatile since 2025. The US has applied additional tariff measures to goods from a number of countries, and rates on Indonesian-origin goods have shifted more than once. As of 2027, always confirm the effective total rate for HTS 7113.11 in the current USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule (hts.usitc.gov) or with your customs broker before locking in retail pricing. Treat 5–6.5% as the structural baseline, and budget a contingency buffer of a few percentage points.

For a deeper breakdown of classification, certificates of origin, and Indonesia’s export-side paperwork, see our dedicated guide to HS code 7113.11 duties and documentation. In practice, buyers who ask us how to import Bali silver to the USA legally are usually surprised at how mechanical this step is: correct code + correct invoice value = predictable duty bill, with CBP penalties reserved almost entirely for undervaluation and misdescription.

Step 2: Know Where the De Minimis Rule Stands

The short answer as of 2027: do not build your import plan around de minimis. Historically, Section 321 allowed up to $800 per person per day to enter the US duty-free, which meant small sample orders of Bali silver often cleared with zero duty. Since 2025, however, the de minimis exemption has been substantially restricted for commercial shipments, and enforcement on low-value e-commerce imports has tightened significantly.

What this means for wholesale buyers in practice:

• Sample orders (10–20 pieces, typically $150–$400) may still clear with minimal or zero duty depending on the rules in force when they ship — but treat any de minimis saving as a bonus, not a plan.
• Wholesale orders of $200–$5,000 should always be costed with full duty included. If duty happens not to apply, your margin simply improves by 5–6.5%.
• Splitting one order into multiple sub-$800 shipments to dodge duty is a false economy — CBP treats structured shipments as a compliance red flag, and courier per-shipment fees (typically $15–$35 each) eat most of the “savings” anyway.

Around 60% of the US buyers who contact us start with a sample order before committing to a full wholesale order — our MOQ starts at roughly $200 for a first order — so the de minimis question comes up in nearly every onboarding conversation. Our standing advice since the 2025 changes: cost every shipment duty-in, and let the paperwork surprise you pleasantly rather than painfully.

Step 3: Prepare the Right Documents Before the Shipment Leaves Bali

A US-bound silver jewelry shipment needs just four core documents, and a competent Bali exporter prepares all of them for you. CBP clearance problems are almost never caused by missing exotic paperwork — they are caused by sloppy commercial invoices.

Document	Who Prepares It	What CBP Looks For
Commercial invoice	Exporter (us)	Accurate per-item values, HS 7113.11, “925 sterling silver, handmade, Indonesia origin”
Packing list	Exporter (us)	Piece counts, net/gross weights per carton
Air waybill (AWB)	DHL/FedEx or forwarder	Consignee details matching the invoice — the single most common hold we see is a buyer putting a personal name on the AWB but their LLC on the invoice
Certificate of origin (on request)	Exporter via Indonesian authorities	Confirms Indonesian origin; useful if preferential rates ever apply

On the Indonesian side, the exporter also files a PEB (Pemberitahuan Ekspor Barang, the export declaration) — that is our responsibility, not yours, and it never touches your CBP entry. Every piece we ship carries the .925 hallmark, and we include a quality-control sheet confirming 92.5% silver content, which aligns with what US law expects of anything sold as “sterling” (more on that in the FDA/FTC section below). Buyers sourcing from a wholesale Bali silver jewelry supplier with 12+ years of export documentation experience rarely see a CBP document hold; in 2026 we shipped to 15+ countries, and the US remained the single largest destination with zero documentation-related seizures.

Step 4: Choose Courier or Freight Forwarder

For orders under roughly 30–50 kg — which covers almost every silver jewelry order below $10,000 — an express courier (DHL or FedEx) beats a freight forwarder on total cost, speed, and simplicity. Silver is dense and high-value: a $1,000 wholesale order of around 100 pieces typically weighs only 4–8 kg packed.

Factor	Courier (DHL/FedEx)	Freight Forwarder
Best for	Orders under ~30–50 kg / $10,000	Recurring large orders, 50 kg+, mixed containers
Transit Bali → USA	5–10 days door-to-door	10–21 days air; 30–45 days sea
Customs clearance	Handled by courier’s in-house brokerage	You appoint a customs broker ($100–$200/entry typical)
Typical cost, 5–8 kg	~$90–$150 all-in freight	Rarely competitive at this weight
Tracking & insurance	Built-in; declared-value insurance ~1–2%	Arranged separately (cargo policy)

Bali silver jewelry wholesale shipping to USA addresses runs on a well-worn air corridor: Denpasar → Singapore or Hong Kong hub → US gateway (usually Cincinnati for DHL, Memphis or Anchorage for FedEx) → final delivery. We ship FOB Bali with insured air freight as standard and provide full tracking from pickup in Celuk Village. Once your volumes pass roughly $10,000–$15,000 per shipment or you consolidate multiple suppliers, a freight forwarder plus your own broker starts to win on per-kilo economics — our comparison of shipping times and insurance from Bali to the USA, EU and Australia covers that crossover point in detail.

Step 5: Clear CBP — Informal vs Formal Entry

CBP offers two entry lanes, and the $2,500 shipment value line decides which one you use. Under $2,500, your shipment clears as an informal entry: the courier’s brokerage files it, no customs bond is required, and you typically never interact with CBP at all — you just receive a duty invoice from DHL or FedEx a few days after delivery. Over $2,500, the shipment becomes a formal entry: a customs bond is mandatory, entry summary paperwork (CBP Form 7501) is filed, and most importers appoint a licensed customs broker.

Informal entry (under $2,500) — most first orders

• Courier files the entry automatically; clearance typically adds 0–2 days.
• Fees: duty (5–6.5% typical) + a small merchandise processing fee (a few dollars on informal entries) + courier clearance/disbursement fee, usually $15–$35.
• No bond, no broker, no importer registration needed — your EIN or SSN serves as the importer number.

Formal entry (over $2,500) — scaling up

• Customs bond required: single-entry bonds typically run $50–$150, while a continuous bond (unlimited entries for 12 months) costs around $250–$500/year and pays for itself after roughly 3–4 shipments.
• Merchandise processing fee (MPF) of about 0.35% of the entered value applies, subject to minimum and maximum amounts (roughly $33 minimum as of recent years — verify current figures).
• Broker fees typically $100–$200 per entry; couriers can still act as your broker for formal entries.
• Sea freight adds a harbor maintenance fee (0.125% of value) — one more reason air freight dominates for silver jewelry.

Practical rule of thumb: if you are ordering $1,000–$2,000 of 925 sterling silver at a time, stay in the informal lane and let the courier do everything. Cross $2,500 per shipment only when your reorder velocity justifies a continuous bond — at that point your per-shipment compliance cost actually drops.

Step 6: Landed Cost Example — a $1,000 Wholesale Order Fully Costed

A $1,000 FOB Bali order lands in the USA at approximately $1,200–$1,255 all-in — a landed cost premium of roughly 20–26% over the factory price. Here is the line-by-line math for a typical first wholesale order: about 100 pieces at a $10 average FOB price, packed weight 6 kg, shipped DHL Express to a US boutique.

Cost Line	Basis	Amount (USD)
Goods, FOB Bali	~100 pcs × $10 avg	$1,000.00
Air freight, DHL Express (6 kg)	Bali → US door, 5–10 days	$120.00
Insurance (declared value)	~1.5% of goods value	$15.00
Import duty, HTS 7113.11.50	5% × $1,000 FOB (baseline rate)	$50.00
MPF (informal entry)	Flat, informal entry	~$3.00
Courier clearance + disbursement fee	DHL/FedEx standard	$15–$35
Total landed cost		~$1,203–$1,223
Landed cost per piece	÷ 100 pieces	~$12.03–$12.23

Three takeaways from this table. First, freight is your biggest non-product cost at this order size — roughly 12% of goods value — which is why consolidating into fewer, larger orders improves per-piece economics faster than negotiating product price. Second, duty is only about $50 on $1,000: meaningful, but rarely the difference between a viable and non-viable product line. Third, at a landed cost of around $12 per piece, typical US boutique retail pricing of $34–$48 (a 2.8–4× markup on landed cost) leaves a healthy 65–75% gross margin. If additional tariff surcharges on Indonesian goods apply when you order, add them to the duty line — at 10 extra percentage points, the same order lands around $1,303–$1,323, still roughly $13 per piece.

Step 7: Set Up State Resale Certificates and Sales Tax

The US charges no VAT or sales tax at the border — but you should still register for a resale certificate in your state before your inventory arrives. A resale certificate (also called a seller’s permit or resale license, depending on the state) lets you purchase inventory without paying sales tax, because tax is collected only once, from the end consumer at retail.

How it works for a Bali silver importer:

• Register with your state’s revenue department. Around 45 states plus DC levy sales tax; registration is typically free or under $100 and often processed within days.
• Your import itself is not taxed — the certificate matters for domestic wholesale purchases and, crucially, proves to marketplaces and trade shows that you are a legitimate reseller.
• Collect sales tax when you sell at retail, at your state and local combined rate (commonly in the 6–10% range).
• Selling online across state lines? Since the 2018 Wayfair decision, economic nexus rules mean you may owe sales tax registration in other states once you pass thresholds (commonly $100,000 in sales in a state, though thresholds vary). Most small importers stay under these limits for their first year or two.

None of this involves CBP or your Bali supplier — it is purely a domestic retail compliance step. But US boutiques that skip it lose the tax-free purchasing benefit and can face back-tax assessments, so we flag it for every new US wholesale client alongside our catalog and price list.

FDA, FTC and Other US Rules: What Actually Applies

The FDA does not regulate silver jewelry — jewelry is not a food, drug, cosmetic, or medical device, so no FDA registration, approval, or prior notice applies to your shipment. The US rules that do apply are lighter-touch but worth knowing:

• National Gold and Silver Stamping Act + FTC Jewelry Guides. Anything you sell as “sterling” or stamped “925” must genuinely be at least 92.5% pure silver. Every piece we export carries a struck .925 hallmark backed by in-house assay checks — this is exactly the standard the FTC expects, and misrepresenting fineness is the main legal risk in this category.
• CPSIA — only for children’s jewelry. If you market jewelry to children 12 and under, federal limits on lead (100 ppm in accessible parts) and third-party testing apply. Standard adult sterling silver lines are unaffected.
• Nickel: unlike the EU, the US has no federal nickel-release limit. Genuine 925 sterling from Bali is typically alloyed with copper, not nickel, so hypoallergenic claims remain defensible — but always confirm alloy composition with your supplier in writing.
• Country-of-origin marking: CBP requires imported goods to indicate origin; for jewelry this is normally satisfied by marking the immediate packaging or tags “Made in Indonesia” rather than engraving each piece.

Common Mistakes First-Time US Importers Make

Roughly 8 in 10 problems we have seen US buyers hit over 12+ years of exporting trace back to five avoidable errors:

• Undervaluing the commercial invoice. Saving $20–$30 in duty risks CBP penalties, shipment holds, and a flagged importer record. Never do it.
• Planning margins around de minimis. As covered in Step 2, cost every order duty-in as of 2027.
• Ignoring the duty basis. Comparing supplier quotes CIF vs FOB distorts the math — US duty is assessed on FOB value, so an FOB Bali quote is the clean comparison baseline.
• Ordering by piece count instead of weight-value density. Chunky bangles and heavy chains ship at nearly the same freight cost as lightweight earrings but tie up 3–5× more capital per carton. Mix your first order deliberately.
• Skipping samples. A 10–20 piece sample order (~$150–$400) validates quality, hallmarks, and finish for less than the cost of one misjudged wholesale carton. We offer samples before our ~$200 first-order MOQ precisely for this reason.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are import duties on silver jewelry in the USA?

Silver jewelry enters the USA under HS code 7113.11, with standard MFN duty rates of typically 5% (HTS 7113.11.50) to around 6.5% for certain subheadings, calculated on the FOB transaction value. Additional tariff measures on Indonesian-origin goods have applied in some periods since 2025, so verify the current effective rate in the USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule or with a customs broker before ordering.

What are import duties on silver jewelry from Indonesia to the USA specifically?

Indonesian-origin silver jewelry pays the same baseline HTS 7113.11 rate of typically 5–6.5%, plus any country-specific surcharge in force at the time of entry. On a $1,000 FOB order, budget $50–$65 in baseline duty and confirm whether supplemental tariffs currently apply to Indonesia — your courier’s brokerage will apply the correct total automatically at clearance.

Do I need an import license to import silver jewelry from Bali to the USA?

No. The US requires no import license, permit, or registration for silver jewelry. For informal entries under $2,500 you do not even need a customs bond — your courier clears the shipment using your name or business EIN as the importer of record.

Does the $800 de minimis exemption still apply in 2027?

Treat it as unreliable. The Section 321 de minimis exemption has been substantially restricted for commercial shipments since 2025, and rules have continued to shift. Cost every wholesale order with full duty included; if an exemption applies when your shipment clears, your landed cost simply improves by 5–6.5%.

Do I need a customs broker for a $1,000 order from Bali?

No. Orders under $2,500 clear as informal entries, and DHL or FedEx handles the filing within their standard service — you receive a duty-and-fees invoice of roughly $70–$90 on a $1,000 order after delivery. Brokers ($100–$200 per entry) only become relevant for formal entries above $2,500.

Is FDA approval required to import silver jewelry into the USA?

No. Jewelry is outside FDA jurisdiction entirely. The applicable US rules are the FTC’s truth-in-marking standards (a “925” stamp must mean at least 92.5% silver) and, only if you sell children’s jewelry, CPSIA lead-content limits.

How long does shipping from Bali to the USA take?

Insured DHL/FedEx air freight runs 5–10 days door-to-door from Celuk Village to most US addresses, including customs clearance. Add 7–14 days production lead time for made-to-order wholesale quantities; ready-stock designs ship within 2–3 business days of payment.

What is the total landed cost of importing wholesale Bali silver jewelry into the United States?

Import duties and taxes for bringing wholesale Bali silver jewelry into the United States typically add 20–26% to the FOB price at the $1,000 order level: around $120–$150 freight, $15 insurance, $50–$65 duty, and $18–$38 in entry fees. The percentage falls as order size grows, since freight and fixed fees dilute across more pieces.