By Wyeth Ruthven, Director, Congressional & Public Relations
HIDA has developed a new interactive, online tool to help members calculate and understand tariff costs. The Interactive Tariff Dashboard, a free, member-only resource, allows the user to estimate tariff costs by product category based on country of origin. Data is drawn from public sources using Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes that apply to commonly-used medical products. The data pulls from the U.S. International Trade Commission, which records all products imported to the U.S., and is updated monthly.
The new tool allows companies to:
- Calculate both import values and duty payments
- Assess how trade policies affect specific segments of their product portfolios
- Understand how the tariff burden differs for products manufactured in different countries
- Model future tariff scenarios and estimate their potential financial impact before policy changes take effect.
Users can enter assumptions such as import volume and tariff rates to project future duty costs. For example, a distributor importing 35,000 units of a product can compare the actual tariff costs paid in prior years with the estimated costs that would result from a proposed tariff increase. These projections help companies evaluate potential risks, prepare budgets, assess pricing implications, and make more informed sourcing decisions.
“With tariff policies changing so quickly, we wanted to give members another tool to help manage the uncertainty,” explained HIDA VP of Research and Analytics Alysse Henkel, who built the dashboard.
For healthcare distributors, tariffs are no longer an abstract trade policy issue. They have become a significant business consideration that can affect product costs, sourcing decisions and customer contracts. Yet understanding exactly how tariff changes affect medical products can be difficult, particularly when policy shifts occur rapidly and involve thousands of product classifications.
Looking ahead, HIDA will continue to refine the dashboard as tariff policy changes, helping members turn uncertainty into clearer planning and stronger advocacy. By pairing reliable data with practical tools, distributors can better anticipate what is coming next and make decisions that protect the healthcare supply chain. The Tariff Dashboard is available to HIDA members on the association’s website. It is part of a full suite of tools our association has developed to manage the ever-changing world of tariffs and trade policy.