Sourcing woven rugs and carpets from China
Woven carpets and rugs from China, not tufted or flocked, pay 8% UK duty on most pile and flatwoven lines, 4% for coir and 2% for genuine hand-woven kelims, with no anti-dumping duty. Home rugs must be safe under product safety rules, carpets for buildings are construction products, and pile weight, colour fastness and stability decide quality. Cambridge China Bridge sources rugs.
Machine-woven Wilton and Axminster rugs, flatweaves, jute rugs and kelims from China pay 2% to 8% UK duty. Pile weight, colour fastness and an example.
2% to 8% duty
Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, woven carpets and floor coverings, pile or flatwoven, made up or not, of wool, man-made fibres, jute, sisal or other materials carried 8% duty on goods from China, while coir floor coverings carried 4% and kelem, schumack and karamanie-type hand-woven rugs 2%, with no anti-dumping measure. Tufted carpets are in heading 5703 and needle-felt and other rugs in 5705; see the tufted carpets guide, the flatweave and bath mat guide and confirm the commodity code.
| Goods | Commodity code | Duty | Anti-dumping duty on China |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kelem, schumack, karamanie and similar hand-woven rugs | 5702 10 00 00 | 2% | None |
| Floor coverings of coir | 5702 20 00 00 | 4% | None |
| Pile, made up, of man-made textile materials | 5702 42 00 00 | 8% | None |
| Not pile, made up, of wool | 5702 91 00 00 | 8% | None |
| Not pile, made up, of polypropylene | 5702 92 10 00 | 8% | None |
| Not pile, made up, of jute | 5702 99 00 10 | 8% | None |
Safety, fire and claims
Rugs for homes are covered by the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, so edges and backings must not create trip hazards and any anti-slip backing claim should be tested. Carpets supplied for fitting in buildings are construction products, declared against BS EN 14041 with a floor covering reaction to fire class under BS EN 13501-1, which contract buyers and specifiers ask for.
A hand-woven claim changes the duty as well as the price, so it must be true, and wool content and fibre names on labels must match the fibre. Jute and sisal rugs brown if wetted and shed fibres, so care labels matter. See UK REACH for importers for dye and backing chemicals.
Worked duty example
An invented example rather than a quote: 3,000 machine-woven polypropylene rugs, commodity code 5702 42 00 00, bought for £45,000 free on board, with £5,000 of freight and insurance, so £50,000 is the value customs works from. Duty at the 8% rate for woven rugs is £4,000. VAT at 20% applies to £54,000, so £10,800. A VAT-registered buyer usually recovers the VAT, so the border adds £4,000 to the landed cost. Genuinely hand-woven kelims under 5702 10 00 00 would pay 2% on the same value. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.
What goes wrong
Woven rugs fail on pile, colour and shape. Pile weight and density are lower than the approved sample so rugs flatten and shed, colours fade in sunlight or bleed when cleaned, and rugs do not lie flat because the weave tension or backing is uneven. Sizes run short, edges curl, jute rugs brown after a spill, backings smell of latex, and hand-woven claims turn out to be machine-made.
Measure pile weight to ISO 8543 and size and squareness on samples from each lot, test colour fastness to light and rubbing to ISO 105-B02 and ISO 105-X12, test dimensional stability after wetting and drying to ISO 2551, check that rugs lie flat, check edges, backing and odour, and verify hand-woven construction before accepting the claim or the 2% code.
Cambridge China Bridge sources machine-woven, flatweave, jute and wool rugs for retailers and contract buyers, with pile, colour and dimensional tests agreed before production. See how we source woven rugs.
Frequently asked questions
What is the UK import duty on woven rugs from China?
Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, most woven rugs carried 8%, coir 4% and hand-woven kelims 2%.
Where do tufted rugs go?
Tufted carpets and rugs are in heading 5703, not 5702.
Do carpets for buildings need a fire class?
Yes. They are construction products under BS EN 14041 with a reaction to fire class under BS EN 13501-1.
What fails most often?
Low pile weight, fading or bleeding colours, rugs that do not lie flat and short sizes.