← Back to blog

Customs & Duties

China is the UK's second-largest source of goods imports by value — Germany edged ahead in 2025 at 11.8% of the total, with China just behind on 11.1%. From clothing and electronics to furniture and machinery, a huge proportion of what UK businesses buy from overseas still starts its journey in a Chinese factory. If you import from China, you need to understand the duty rates, the anti-dumping landscape, and how UK import duty is calculated — get the anti-dumping position wrong and your duty bill can double after the goods have already shipped.

Standard UKGT Rates for Common Chinese Imports

Since Brexit, the UK has operated its own tariff schedule — the UK Global Tariff (UKGT). China does not have a preferential trade agreement with the UK, which means standard UKGT rates apply to all Chinese imports. Here are the rates for the most common categories:

• Clothing and apparel: 12%
• Footwear: 3–17% depending on type
• Consumer electronics (phones, laptops, tablets): 0–4%
• Furniture and homeware: 0–5.6%
• Ceramics and tableware: 12% for porcelain and china tableware, 4% for stoneware — before anti-dumping duty, which applies to Chinese tableware (see below)
• Toys: 0–4.7%
• Machinery and industrial equipment: typically 0%

These are the standard rates — before anti-dumping duties, which are a separate and significant layer for certain product categories.

Anti-Dumping Duties: The Hidden Extra Cost

Anti-dumping duties are imposed when a product is sold into the UK at below its cost of production, to the detriment of UK manufacturers. China is the most common target. These duties are applied on top of standard UKGT rates and can be substantial.

Products currently subject to anti-dumping duties on imports from China include:

• Certain steel products: including wire rod, cold-rolled flat steel, and hot-rolled flat steel. Rates of 16–33% above standard duty are common.
• Ceramic tableware and kitchenware: an active measure adds 17.9%–36.1% depending on the exporter, on top of the 12% standard rate for porcelain. Extended in November 2025, it runs to 16 July 2029.
• Ceramic tiles: rates of up to 69.7% have applied in previous UK investigations following EU measures retained post-Brexit.
• Bicycles: a longstanding measure with rates of 19.2%–48.5% depending on the exporter (48.5% is the residual rate for exporters without their own rate), in addition to standard duty.

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) maintains a register of all active measures. Always check this before placing a large order from China in a sector with known overcapacity or prior EU trade remedy history.

The £135 Threshold

Goods with a total consignment value of £135 or less are exempt from customs duty. Import VAT still applies, but for business-to-consumer orders under this threshold, the Chinese seller (or the marketplace) is typically responsible for collecting and remitting UK VAT at the point of sale.

Above £135, customs duty applies from the first pound, and import VAT at 20% is charged at the border on the full customs value — which includes the cost of the goods, shipping, and insurance. Getting your commodity code right before ordering is the single most important step.

A Worked Example

A UK clothing retailer places an order for £800 of garments from a Shanghai manufacturer, with £60 shipping and £10 insurance.

Duty, VAT and the handling fee add £314 to an £800 invoice — around 39%. If you're VAT-registered, the £195 import VAT comes back through your VAT return, so the real cost uplift is the £104 duty plus the £15 fee: roughly 15%. Still enough to sink a margin priced off the invoice alone — if you priced your goods at £800 without accounting for duty, that margin shrinks on arrival.

Getting Your Commodity Code Right

The difference between a correct and incorrect commodity code on a Chinese import can be a duty rate difference of several thousand pounds per container. Vague descriptions — "textile products" rather than the specific garment type — are the most common source of underpayment and penalty.

Use the UK Government's Trade Tariff tool to verify the exact 10-digit code before placing an order. If you're importing at volume, apply to HMRC for an Advance Tariff Ruling — a legally binding decision on the classification that protects you if HMRC later disputes it. A customs broker can prepare and submit the application for you, but only HMRC can issue the ruling. You can also check whether your goods might qualify under the UK's trade agreements or preference schemes — though for Chinese goods, this is rarely applicable given the lack of a UK-China FTA.

Practical Steps Before You Order

Confirm the 10-digit commodity code before you finalise the purchase order. Check the TRA anti-dumping register if you're buying steel, ceramic tiles or tableware, or bicycles. Calculate the full landed cost — duty plus import VAT plus freight plus handling — and build this into your pricing model. If the margin doesn't work at the landed cost, negotiate the goods price, not the logistics.

The businesses that manage Chinese imports profitably are the ones that calculate before they commit, not after the container arrives at Felixstowe.