Baby Gear Is Almost Entirely Duty-Free
By George · updated 2026-09-30 · worked examples checked against the Bahamas Tariff Act (schedule version 2026-2027)
If you're expecting a baby, this is the one shopping category where the tariff is clearly on your side. The Bahamas exempts nearly all infant goods from duty.
What's duty-free
- Baby clothing and accessories (6111.2090): 0%
- Diapers and sanitary articles (9619.0010): 0%
- Strollers, baby carriages and parts (8715.0000): 0%
- Infant cribs and play-pens (9403.7010): 0%
These exemptions are deliberate. Adult clothing is 20% but baby clothing is 0%, and general furniture is 25% but cribs are 0%.
What you still pay
Duty-free goods still pay the processing fee and VAT on the landed cost:
- $350 stroller: no duty, $10 processing and $36 VAT, so $46 in charges, or 13.1%. It lands at $396.
- $60 of diapers: no duty, $10 processing and $7 VAT, so $17, or 28.3%. They land at $77.
The stroller is about as cheap as importing gets for a mid-priced item. The diapers show what the $10 minimum does to a small order: 28.3%, at the same 0% duty rate.
Buy diapers in bulk, in one entry
Diapers show the benefit of consolidating more clearly than anything else in the schedule. They're duty-free, so the whole import charge is the $10 fee plus VAT, and the fee is charged per entry.
Four monthly $60 orders pay the $10 minimum four times, $68 in total. One $240 order every three months pays it once, which brings the charges down to $35: the same diapers at the same rate for about half the import cost. Consolidating orders covers this more generally.
Items at the edge of the exemption
The exemption follows the tariff heading, not the store's baby section, and some baby-section items fall outside it:
- Toys (9503.0090) are 20%, including toys for infants.
- Baby monitors are electronics. A camera-based monitor may count as a camera (duty-free), but check first.
- Car seats aren't under the stroller heading. Infant and child car seats have their own line (9401.2020), which is also duty-free, while ordinary vehicle seats are 45%.
- Bottle warmers and sterilisers are electric household appliances, which are generally 35%.
If you're unsure, look the product up rather than assuming the whole order is 0%.
Browse baby items people have checked and the wider duty-free list.