Guides Library / EU Import Basics
The three cost-and-compliance layers between a Chinese factory and your European warehouse — explained the way nobody explained them to us either.
The Three Layers
Get the order of operations right and the rest is arithmetic.
A percentage set by your product's HS code — typically 0–12% for most industrial goods — charged on the customs value: in the EU that's goods plus freight and insurance to the border (CIF). Same product, different HS code, different bill — which is why the code on your invoice deserves ten minutes of your attention, not the supplier's guess.
19–27% depending on the country, charged on customs value + duty. Here's what surprises most first-timers: if you're VAT-registered and the import is in your company's name, you reclaim it — it's cash-flow, not cost. This is also why "all-inclusive DDP" deals hurt you twice: imported in someone else's name, that VAT is gone for good.
On specific China-origin products the EU adds anti-dumping duties that dwarf everything else — historically up to ~70% on e-bikes, ~67% on ceramic tableware, and steep rates on various steel products and fasteners. Five minutes checking your HS code in the EU's TARIC database before ordering beats discovering this at the port.
Worked example — €10,000 of machine parts to Germany (illustrative)
Rates are examples, not your rates — run your own numbers in the landed cost calculator, check your duty and VAT rate by destination in the duty & VAT calculator (2026 rates), and verify the HS code in TARIC before you order.
Before Your First Container
An EORI number. Free, issued by your national customs authority, usually within days — and nothing clears EU customs in your name without it. Get it before the goods sail, not while they sit at the port earning storage fees.
A customs broker. Your forwarder almost always offers clearance for a modest fee per entry. Worth every cent on the first shipments — they file the declaration, you stay the importer of record, the VAT paper trail stays clean and reclaimable.
Your Incoterm, chosen on purpose. Who clears customs and who pays these taxes is decided by the trade term in your contract. If you haven't picked one deliberately, the Incoterms selector takes three questions — and explains why "DDP all-in" from China usually means grey-channel clearance with your name nowhere on the import.
The Compliance Layer
CE isn't a certificate someone awards — it's the manufacturer declaring the product meets EU directives, backed by documents. The part nobody tells first-timers: once you import, you carry the legal responsibility. If the paperwork is fake or missing, that's your problem at customs, with your insurer, and in court — not the factory's.
So before production starts, demand the pack — and check the company name on every page matches your supplier (a mismatch is the same red flag as in our factory-or-trader checks):
Declaration of Conformity (DoC) — naming your exact product/model, the directives it meets, and the manufacturer. One page; the legal anchor.
Test reports to the EN standards listed in the DoC — from a lab you can find on the internet, dated, with the supplier's name on them.
Technical file & manual — drawings, parts list, and a user manual in your market's language; machinery additionally needs the safety documentation.
Correct marking — the CE mark in legal proportions on product and packaging. Beware lookalike marks and stickers with no paperwork behind them.
Rule of thumb: a supplier who emails the full document pack within two days has done this before. A supplier who answers "CE no problem!" and sends one blurry certificate with someone else's name on it is telling you how the rest of the order will go.
Quick Answers
If you're VAT-registered and the customs declaration names your company as importer — yes, you deduct it in your VAT return like any input VAT (several countries even let you defer it so no cash leaves at all). If the import ran in someone else's name, there's nothing to reclaim. That single detail decides whether DDP offers are cheap or expensive.
Legally, the importer (you) is responsible for the classification on the declaration. Suppliers put codes on invoices for their own export paperwork — sometimes optimised for their rebate, not your duty rate. Look yours up in TARIC, and ask your broker to confirm on the first shipment.
Often it's real, sometimes it's wallpaper. The mark itself is just ink — the compliance lives in the documents behind it. Judge the DoC, the test reports and the name-match, not the sticker. Chinese factories that export to Europe seriously produce these papers routinely.
Same three layers, different labels: UK Global Tariff instead of TARIC, UK VAT with postponed accounting available, UKCA marking alongside CE (CE remains accepted for most goods). You'll need a separate GB EORI. The logic of this guide transfers one-to-one.
Want The Paperwork Handled At The Source?
We collect the compliance pack from the factory, check every name matches, and put the right paperwork on the container before it sails — part of the same zero-markup sourcing service.
Part of the Guides Library · Related: Incoterms 2026 explained · Shipping planner
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Run your own numbers and see the full cost picture before you import: