LandedPulseDoes an AI model calculate the duty rate?
No. Every amount is calculated from published tariff rules, so identical inputs always return identical figures. The risk commentary beside the numbers is also written by fixed rules from the same data — no language model is involved.
General-purpose assistants will produce a tariff rate that sounds entirely plausible and does not exist. They are built to generate likely-sounding text, and a duty rate is exactly the kind of short, confident-looking answer they get wrong while giving you no signal that they have.
Here no part of the result comes from a model. Numbers are calculated, and the commentary is assembled from the same measured facts — which regimes applied, what was not measured, which fees were charged. That is what makes the result reproducible — and reproducibility is what a finance team needs before it will put a number in front of a board.
The commentary — trade route risk, background on a surcharge programme, what could still change the figure — is presented as context, never as a computed value, and it names what was not measured instead of smoothing it over.
Last reviewed . General guidance on import duty mechanics, not customs or tax advice for a specific shipment.