Decision tool · Same goods, two suppliers

Compare suppliers by landed cost, not invoice price.

Use one commodity code and two customs origins. BorderMath checks each live origin-specific tariff treatment, then compares duty, import VAT cash cost, total landed cost and cost per unit.

Supplier A vs Supplier B landed-cost comparator

Designed for the same goods sourced from two suppliers or origins. A tariff that needs manual review, trade-remedy detail or unresolved excise treatment blocks the winner rather than producing false precision.

10-digit commodity code

Quantity

VAT cash treatment

Scope

For ordinary Great Britain imports. Qualifying £135-or-less seller/marketplace VAT transactions should be checked in the full calculator instead.

Supplier A

Customs origin

Goods value (£)

Freight (£)

Insurance (£)

VAT incidental costs (£)

Post-import costs (£)

Shipment weight (kg)

Supplier B

Customs origin

Goods value (£)

Freight (£)

Insurance (£)

VAT incidental costs (£)

Post-import costs (£)

Shipment weight (kg)

Enter the same commodity code for the goods and the two supplier scenarios.

Measure	Supplier A	Supplier B
Commodity	—	—
Customs duty	—	—
Import VAT cash cost	—	—
Total landed cost	—	—
Cost per unit	—	—
Status	—	—

Waiting for comparisonNo winner is shown until both treatments are calculable.

Purchase-price break-even—Available only where the currently more expensive supplier uses a simple percentage tariff. Freight, insurance and other entered costs are held constant.

Open Supplier A in full calculator Open Supplier B in full calculator

What the comparator is designed to answer

A lower factory price can be outweighed by freight, origin-specific duty or other border costs. The comparator uses the same official tariff engine as the main BorderMath calculator and compares the two supplier scenarios on a consistent basis.

What it deliberately does not decide

It does not prove commodity classification, rules-of-origin eligibility, quota access, anti-dumping/additional-duty liability, excise or customs valuation. When one of those blocks a complete machine-calculable result, the tool reports manual review instead of declaring a cheaper supplier.

Break-even interpretation

Where the more expensive supplier has a simple percentage tariff, BorderMath calculates the goods purchase price at which its landed cost would equal the cheaper scenario while holding that supplier's entered freight, insurance and other costs constant. Weight-based or compound tariffs do not receive a simplified break-even figure.

Commercial planning only. Supplier choice also depends on quality, lead time, Incoterms, currency, minimum order quantities, compliance and contractual risk; those are outside this calculator.