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Customs & Duties

Clothing and textiles is one of the UK's largest import categories by volume. If you source garments, fabric, or accessories from overseas, you need to understand the duty rates, how the country of origin affects what you pay, and what HMRC looks for when checking clothing import declarations. The difference between getting this right and wrong can be thousands of pounds per container.

The Standard Rate: 12%

The UK Global Tariff applies a standard duty rate of 12% to most clothing and apparel — applying to garments of all types from countries without a preferential trade agreement with the UK. This is one of the higher standard UKGT rates and applies to clothing sourced from China, the US, Turkey, and most other non-FTA countries.

Some specialist categories attract different rates:

• Babies' garments: 10.5%
• Certain technical sportswear and performance fabrics: varies by construction and function — can be 6.5–12%
• Raw fabric and yarn (before cutting/sewing): typically 0–8% depending on fibre type
• Accessories (belts, scarves, hats): 2.7–12% depending on material and classification

Getting the commodity code right is particularly important in clothing because the 10-digit code determines whether you pay 6.5%, 10.5%, or 12% — and misclassification in either direction creates problems. See the full guide to UK import duty calculation for context on how customs value and duty are computed.

How Origin Determines Your Rate

EU clothing: 0% under the TCA. Garments manufactured in EU member states and meeting the TCA's rules of origin (typically requiring the fabric to be woven and the garment to be cut and sewn in the EU) qualify for 0% duty. This gives EU-sourced clothing a significant landed cost advantage over Chinese-sourced equivalents.

India and Bangladesh: reduced rates under DCTS. India falls under the UK's Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) Enhanced Preferences tier, giving clothing from India a duty rate of approximately 9.6% rather than the standard 12%. Bangladesh qualifies for an even lower rate under DCTS's Enhanced Framework — typically 0% on garments, reflecting Bangladesh's status as a Least Developed Country.

China: standard 12% UKGT rate. There is no anti-dumping duty on most clothing from China — unlike steel or bicycles — so the standard 12% rate applies without additional surcharges. However, the rate is unchanged regardless of volume or product value. See the full guide to importing from China for the broader duty picture.

A Worked Example

A UK fashion brand imports £1,000 of woven cotton garments from a manufacturer in Guangzhou, with £70 shipping and £10 insurance.

The same order from a Bangladesh manufacturer under DCTS zero-rate would land at approximately £1,338 — a saving of £52 on this order. At scale, across a season of orders, the savings from sourcing in a preferential-rate country are substantial.

The Undervaluation Problem

Undervaluing clothing on import declarations is one of HMRC's priority enforcement areas. The practice — declaring goods at a lower value than the actual transaction price to reduce the duty and VAT liability — is customs fraud. HMRC uses risk profiling and compares declared values against known market benchmarks. For Chinese clothing, HMRC publishes reference prices for major product categories. Declarations significantly below these benchmarks are flagged.

If HMRC investigates and finds that you've been undervaluing, you face a demand for all unpaid duty and VAT going back up to four years, plus interest and civil penalties. In serious cases, criminal prosecution follows. The saving from undervaluation is never worth the exposure.

Practical Steps Before Your Next Order

Confirm the exact commodity code for your garments before finalising the purchase order — don't rely on your supplier's description. Check whether the origin country qualifies for DCTS preferences and confirm your supplier can provide documentation. Calculate the full landed cost at the correct duty rate and build this into your wholesale and retail pricing. Use postponed VAT accounting if you're VAT-registered, so the import VAT doesn't create a cash flow problem at the point of import.