Enamel mugs and printed tea towels from China

0% for enamel, anti-dumping for ceramics

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, enamelled table and kitchenware of iron or steel, including enamel camping mugs, carried 0% duty on goods from China, as did stainless steel mugs. Ceramic mugs are a different matter: stoneware tableware carried 4% and porcelain 12%, and both carry anti-dumping duty on Chinese ceramic tableware, at company-specific rates or a residual 36.1% for exporters without their own rate.

Cotton tea towels, classified as kitchen linen, carried 12% whether flat woven or terry, and linen tea towels also 12%, with no anti-dumping measure. Confirm the commodity code for each item, and check a ceramic supplier's anti-dumping rate before comparing prices. Our homeware and kitchenware guide covers the wider range.

Food contact and textile labelling

Mugs are food contact materials under retained Regulation 1935/2004 and the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2012, and should come with a declaration of compliance. Enamel is tested for lead and cadmium release to ISO 4531, ceramic mugs are covered by the Ceramic Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2006 with their own lead and cadmium limits, and decorations on the rim, where the mouth touches, need particular care. See our food contact materials guide.

Tea towels need fibre composition labels under the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012. Printed designs should be original or licensed, because a copied illustration or a well-known character on a gift range is the most common intellectual property problem with printed merchandise.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: 5,000 printed cotton tea towels, commodity code 6302 91 00 90, bought for £7,500 free on board, with £900 of freight and insurance, so £8,400 is the value customs works from. Duty at the 12% rate for printed tea towels is £1,008. VAT at 20% applies to £9,408, so £1,881.60. A VAT-registered buyer usually recovers the VAT, so the border adds £1,008 to the landed cost. The same value of enamelled steel mugs under 7323 94 00 00 would pay no duty at all. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

What goes wrong

Enamel mugs chip at the rim and rust where the steel is exposed, decals fade or peel in the dishwasher, and a mug fails a lead or cadmium release test because of the decoration colour. Tea towels shrink out of shape, printed colours bleed or fade after a few washes, the cloth does not absorb water because of a finish or synthetic content, and hems come undone.

Test each mug decoration for lead and cadmium release in an accredited lab, run dishwasher and rim impact checks on samples, and inspect for chips and exposed steel. For tea towels, test colour fastness to washing to ISO 105-C06, dimensional change to ISO 6330 and ISO 5077, check absorbency by a simple water drop test against the approved sample, and inspect print registration and hems on each lot.

Cambridge China Bridge sources enamel mugs, printed tea towels and other gift and merchandise ranges, with food contact and wash testing agreed before production. See how we source gift and homeware ranges.