Sourcing copier and printing paper from China

0% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, uncoated paper and paperboard used for writing, printing and other graphic purposes, including A4 sheets, other cut sizes, paper of 40 to 150 g/m² and paper in rolls, carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure. Coated paper, thermal paper and tissue have their own headings; see the coated paper guide and the thermal till roll guide, and confirm the commodity code.

Specification and timber due diligence

Copier paper is bought on grammage to ISO 536, CIE whiteness to ISO 11475 and brightness to ISO 2470, thickness, opacity, moisture content, curl and a low jam rate in high-speed printers, and archival paper can be specified to ISO 9706. Ask for a mill test certificate per lot and run a print trial on the machines your customers use.

Pulp and paper of chapters 47 and 48 are covered by the timber regulation Great Britain retained, Regulation 995/2010, which prohibits placing illegally harvested timber on the market and requires due diligence on the fibre's species and origin, and an FSC or PEFC claim needs a certified supply chain. See the printers guide and the paper shredders and office machines guide.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: a container of 1,500 boxes of A4 80 gsm copier paper, commodity code 4802 56 20 00, bought for £21,000 free on board, with £3,000 of freight and insurance, so £24,000 is the value customs works from. No duty is due on copier paper; import VAT at 20% of £24,000 is £4,800. If you are VAT-registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable. Paper is heavy for its value, so freight is about an eighth of the customs value. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

What goes wrong

Copier paper fails in the printer and in the carton. Grammage runs light, so an 80 g/m² ream is really 75, moisture is uneven so sheets curl and jam, cut edges are dusty or burred, and reams are short-counted. Whiteness and shade vary between lots, cartons collapse in humid containers, and the fibre source cannot be documented for due diligence or the FSC claim printed on the ream wrapper.

Weigh sheets to ISO 536 and count reams on samples from each lot, check moisture and curl, run a jam test on high-speed printers, check cut edges and dust, measure whiteness against the approved standard, check carton strength and use moisture-barrier ream wrap, and collect fibre species, origin and chain-of-custody documents before shipment.

Cambridge China Bridge sources A4 and A3 copier paper, offset paper and paper in rolls for distributors and printers, with grammage, moisture and fibre documentation checked before shipment. See how we source paper.