Needle-felt carpet and carpet tiles from China

6% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, carpets and other textile floor coverings of felt, not tufted or flocked, heading 5704, carried 6% on goods from China, whether tiles of up to 0.3 m² or other sizes, hand-made or not. There was no anti-dumping measure and no suspension, and the lines are declared by the square metre.

Tufted carpets are heading 5703, covered in our tufted carpets guide, and felt sold as a material is heading 5602, covered in our felt guide; confirm the commodity code from the construction.

Fire class and declarations

Textile floor coverings installed in buildings are covered by the designated standard BS EN 14041, so under retained [Regulation (EU) No 305/2011](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/305/contents) they are supplied with a declaration of performance and UKCA or CE marking. The key declared value is the reaction to fire class for floorings under BS EN 13501-1, such as Cfl-s1 or Bfl-s1, tested with the radiant panel method of BS EN ISO 9239-1.

Exhibition organisers and venues often set their own fire requirements for event carpet, so ask the venue before ordering. BS EN 1470 classifies needled floor coverings by use, from light domestic to heavy commercial.

Worked duty example

Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 3,000 m² of needle-felt carpet tiles under 5704 10 00 00. At £9,000 free on board and £1,500 to ship and insure, the customs value is £10,500. Carpet tiles at 6% pay £630 of duty; VAT is then worked out on value plus duty, £11,130, giving £2,226. Of the £2,856 paid at import, only the £630 of duty stays a cost for a VAT-registered business. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.

Inspection checklist

Fire and use class: check the declaration of performance, marking and test report cover the exact product and backing, and that the declared fire class and BS EN 1470 use class match the specification.

Tiles: measure side length and squareness of sampled tiles, and dimensional stability by ISO 2551 after the heat and wet cycle, because tiles that grow or shrink open gaps or ridge once laid.

Rolls and colour: measure roll width and length, weigh a cut sample for mass per unit area against the order, and compare colour between rolls and against the approved sample under daylight.

What goes wrong

Needle-felt fails on fire paperwork, stability and colour. Carpet arrives without a declaration or with a fire class tested on a different backing, tiles curl, shrink or grow so seams open, rolls differ in shade, and thin felt wears through or pills quickly in a heavy-traffic area.

Check the paperwork for the exact product, test tile stability, compare roll colours, and weigh samples before loading. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources needle-felt carpet and felt carpet tiles for exhibition contractors, flooring distributors and fit-out firms, usually by the container. See our container programmes.