Import duty from China to the UK: 2026 rates by category
There is no single China rate: duty depends entirely on your commodity code, and codes for ordinary consumer goods currently run from 0% to 12%, occasionally higher. Below are nine codes we checked directly on the UK Trade Tariff on 22 September 2026, spanning bicycles, clothing, toys, furniture, footwear, jewellery, lighting and phone parts, so you can see the shape before checking your own.
Nine commodity codes checked on the UK Trade Tariff on 22 September 2026, so you can see the range before you look up your own product.
Why a single figure would be a lie
Every "UK import duty from China" page, ours included, has to answer a question that does not have one answer. Duty is set per ten-digit commodity code, not per country and not per product category in any loose sense, and two products that look identical on a shop shelf can sit on codes eight percentage points apart. A page that gives you one number is giving you the number for whatever it happened to check, not for what you are importing.
What we can honestly give you is a reading, taken on a stated date, across a spread of categories wide enough that you can see roughly where your own product is likely to fall — and then tell you to check the actual code, because that is the only step that produces a number you can rely on.
Nine categories, checked today
Each row is one commodity code, looked up directly on the UK Trade Tariff on 22 September 2026, for goods of Chinese origin. The code is there so you can check it yourself and confirm your product actually matches the description — commodity codes are specific, and "toys" or "furniture" covers dozens of different codes with different rates.
Import VAT is 20% on top of duty in every one of these categories; none of the rows below carry a reduced VAT rate. What varies is the duty.
| Category | Example commodity code | Duty |
|---|---|---|
| Bicycle tyres | 4011 50 0000 | 4% |
| Cotton T-shirts | 6109 10 0010 | 12% |
| Toys (puzzles, other) | 9503 00 6900 | 4% |
| Wooden office furniture | 9403 30 1900 | 0% |
| Upholstered seating | 9401 61 0000 | 0% |
| Men's leather footwear, other | 6403 99 9690 | 8% |
| Imitation jewellery, base metal | 7117 19 0090 | 4% |
| LED lamps | 8539 52 0000 | 0% |
| Telephone parts (including smartphone parts) | 8517 79 0000 | 0% |
What this table cannot tell you
It cannot tell you your own rate. It cannot tell you whether anti-dumping duty applies — several categories carry it on top of the ordinary rate, sometimes adding tens of percentage points, and it is checked separately on each commodity page under Measures, not folded into the headline duty rate shown here. It cannot tell you whether a tariff suspension applies to your specific material or component, which some categories do carry. And it will be wrong the day the schedule changes, which is why every row above is dated rather than presented as a standing fact.
A page that hides that disclaimer in a footnote is not being straight with you. We are putting it in the second section instead of the last one: use this table to get your bearings, then use the UK Trade Tariff or our duty calculator to get your actual figure before you commit to an order. Our guide on finding your commodity code covers how to do that without guessing.
For the full mechanics — how duty and VAT combine, the £135 low-value threshold, postponed VAT accounting, duty deferment accounts, and what happens if you get the code wrong — see UK import duty and VAT on goods from China, which this page deliberately does not repeat.
Two categories worth a second look
Bicycles themselves, as opposed to bicycle tyres, are a different story: non-motorised bicycles of Chinese origin carry both a higher base duty and anti-dumping duty that can run past 48%, covered in full in our bicycle parts and tyres guide. The gap between a tyre at 4% and a complete bicycle at over 60% combined is the kind of thing a single-figure page would never surface.
Phone repair parts read as an easy 0% above, and for the commodity code checked, they are — but "phone repair parts" spans several different codes depending on whether you are importing a screen, a battery, a housing or a camera module, and not all of them land on the same heading. Our phone repair parts guide breaks out the codes that actually differ.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average import duty from China to the UK in 2026?
There is no meaningful average, because duty is set per commodity code rather than per country. Across the nine categories we checked on 22 September 2026, rates ranged from 0% (furniture, LED lighting, phone parts) to 12% (cotton T-shirts), with several categories carrying an additional anti-dumping duty on top that these headline rates do not include.
Does the rate depend on the product being made in China specifically?
Duty is set by commodity code and applies to that code regardless of origin, except where a country-specific measure exists — most commonly anti-dumping duty, which is applied to specific commodity codes for goods of Chinese origin and does not apply to the same code from other countries.
How do I find the exact rate for my product?
Look up the ten-digit commodity code for your specific product on the UK Trade Tariff, not a category description. Our guide on finding your commodity code covers how to do that, and our duty calculator turns the code into a landed cost once you have it.
Why does this page give ranges instead of one number?
Because one number would misrepresent almost every reader's product. A cross-category table dated to the day it was checked is more honest than a single average that quietly assumes your product looks like whatever was used to calculate it.