Sourcing buckles, eyelets and rivets

2% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, hooks, eyes and eyelets, tubular or bifurcated rivets, and other clasps, buckles and frames with clasps of base metal carried 2% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure. Press studs and snap fasteners are classified with buttons, and zips in their own heading, both at 0%, so a trims order often spans several commodity codes.

Nickel, lead and child safety

Entry 27 of REACH Annex XVII limits nickel release from articles in direct and prolonged contact with the skin, and names rivet buttons, tighteners, rivets, zippers and metal marks used in garments. The limit is 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week, tested to EN 1811, with EN 12472 wear simulation first for coated parts, so a nickel-free or well-plated finish matters for jeans rivets, belt buckles and bra hooks. See UK REACH for importers.

Entry 63 limits lead in parts of articles that children could put in their mouths, which catches buckles and trims on children's clothing and bags, and BS 7907 sets the code of practice for mechanical safety of children's clothing, including the attachment strength of trims. See the baby clothing guide and the leather belts guide.

Worked duty example

Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 1 million zinc-alloy belt and bag buckles under 8308 90 00 90. At £60,000 free on board and £1,500 to ship and insure, the customs value is £61,500. Buckles at 2% pay £1,230 of duty; VAT is then worked out on value plus duty, £62,730, giving £12,546. Of the £13,776 paid at import, only the £1,230 of duty stays a cost for a VAT-registered business. Metal trims are small and dense, so they often travel by air with the fabric order. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.

What goes wrong

Metal trims fail on finish, strength and fit. Plating wears through and releases nickel, antique and gunmetal finishes rub off or tarnish, zinc-alloy buckles crack at the bar under load, and eyelets pull out of fabric because the setting tool does not match the part. Rivets from different lots vary in shank length, so they split or loosen on the garment line, and colours drift between batches.

Test nickel release on each finish and plating batch, check lead content on children's trims, pull-test buckles and attached eyelets and rivets on the real fabric, run abrasion and salt spray checks on plated finishes, measure shank lengths and diameters against the setting dies, and compare colour against the approved finish panel for each batch.

Cambridge China Bridge sources buckles, eyelets, rivets and other metal trims for clothing, bag and footwear makers, with nickel and pull tests agreed before production. See how we source metal trims.