Fleece, plush and pile knit fabrics from China

A flat 8%

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, pile fabrics knitted or crocheted, including long pile fabrics, looped pile fabrics and other pile fabrics such as fleece, plush and velour, of cotton, man-made fibres, wool or other fibres, carried 8% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure and no suspension.

Woven velvet and corduroy are in chapter 58, covered in our velvet and corduroy guide, and plain knitted fabrics are in heading 6006, in our knitted fabrics guide. Confirm the commodity code from the construction and the fibre.

Fire safety and labelling by end use

Cover fabrics for upholstered furniture supplied in the UK must pass the match test in the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, either on their own or with an interliner, so tell the mill the end use before it finishes the fabric. Children's nightwear and dressing gowns must meet the flammability rules of the Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985, and plush for soft toys is tested for flammability to BS EN 71-2 and chemical migration to BS EN 71-3; see our toy safety guide.

Fabric sold to consumers by the metre must carry its fibre composition under the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012. Faux fur must not be described in a way that suggests real fur.

Worked duty example

For a made-up shipment of 8,000 metres of polyester polar fleece under 6001 92 00 00, add the £1,200 of freight and insurance to the £12,000 free-on-board price and customs sees £13,200. At 8%, duty on these pile knit fabrics is £1,056; import VAT of £2,851.20 is 20% of the value with duty added. Together that is £3,907.20, but a VAT-registered importer usually gets the VAT back. Once the fleece is made up into blankets or jackets it is classified as the finished article instead. The duty and VAT guide walks through the calculation.

What goes wrong

Pile fabrics fail on shedding, pilling and weight. Loose fibres shed from the pile onto clothes and seams; fleece pills after a few washes, especially on the unbrushed side; the weight per square metre and usable width come in under the order; brushing and shearing are uneven so the pile shows bands; dark shades rub off; and rolls are crushed so the pile is flattened.

Measure mass per unit area to ISO 3801 and usable width on every roll sampled, test pilling to ISO 12945-2, colour fastness to rubbing to ISO 105-X12 and to washing to ISO 105-C06, and dimensional change to ISO 5077, brush and tape-test samples to compare shedding with the approved sample, and check rolls on an inspection frame for bands, shade and crushed pile.

Cambridge China Bridge sources fleece, plush, faux fur and velour for garment, toy, blanket and upholstery makers, starting with lab dips and a sample length before bulk. See how we handle first orders.