Freight · China → European Union
Freight is the easy half. The half that strands containers is everything around it: whether the goods were checked before they left, whether the documents match the cargo, and whether somebody established in the EU is ready to declare them.
The right mode is the one that hits the date you actually need at the lowest cost — which is not the same as the cheapest rate per kilogram.
The default for volume
Full containers into Northern European and Baltic ports. Goods from several suppliers can be combined in our warehouse to fill one. The lowest cost per unit by a wide margin.
The middle option
Faster than sea, cheaper than air. Useful for regular flows where you want to hold less stock without paying air rates every month.
Expensive, and sometimes the cheapest option
For launches, seasonal windows, urgent spare parts and anything where arriving late costs more than the freight bill.
The EU has one customs tariff: the duty rate depends on the commodity code (TARIC) and is charged on the customs value — the goods plus freight and insurance to the EU border. Then import VAT of the country of release is charged on the customs value plus duty, and a VAT-registered importer deducts it.
Checked 17 October 2026: EU standard VAT rates; Council agreement of 12 December 2025 on the EUR 3 duty; CBAM (50-tonne threshold, Regulation 2025/2083); GPSR, Regulation 2023/988, applicable since 13 December 2024.
Import VAT is 19%, duty follows the TARIC code, and the importer needs an EORI number. Alternatively we import on our Latvian company and deliver to Germany inside the EU: for a German VAT-registered buyer that is an intra-Community supply — 0% on the invoice, with VAT self-assessed and deducted in Germany.
Import VAT is 23%. The same two routes apply: import in your own name on your EORI, or buy from our Latvian company as an intra-Community acquisition with VAT accounted for in Poland.
Import VAT is 21%, 21% and 24%. Our EU company, SIA DEXTRO, is in Latvia: for a Latvian buyer, a sale from it is an ordinary domestic supply with 21% Latvian VAT. By sea, goods can enter the EU through Baltic ports, including Riga.
EU product requirements are cheapest to meet at the factory, where marking goes onto the product and the packaging, rather than being relabelled in a European warehouse. So we check them before loading.
| Requirement | What we check before shipment | Which products |
|---|---|---|
| CE and EU declaration of conformity | CE mark on the product or packaging, declaration of conformity and test reports from the manufacturer | Electrical goods, machinery, toys, radio equipment, PPE and other products under EU harmonisation law |
| EU responsible person (GPSR) | Name and address of the EU operator on the product, packaging or accompanying documents | Non-food consumer products |
| Product identification (GPSR) | Type, batch or serial number, manufacturer's name and contact details | Non-food consumer products |
| Instructions and warnings | In the language of the country of sale — built into the packaging at the factory | Products that need them for safe use |
| WEEE mark | Crossed-out wheeled bin on the product | Electrical and electronic equipment |
| Battery marking | Separate collection symbol | Batteries and products containing them |
| RoHS and REACH | Test reports on restricted substances | Electronics — RoHS; articles and materials — REACH |
| Food contact | Declaration of compliance and the glass-and-fork symbol or a statement of intended use | Tableware, containers, food packaging |
Booking space on a ship is a commodity service, and there are good forwarders everywhere. The parts that go wrong sit either side of it.
Control and predictability
We sell control and predictability in China
You are in Europe, the factory is in China. We sit on the factory's side and check EU requirements before the goods move.
Checked before it ships
Written into the contract before you pay
Import
Importing into the EU
Who declares the goods, who pays the duty, and what each structure means for your VAT.
Service
Quality control
Shipping a bad batch quickly is not an achievement. Checking it first is the point.
Market
Shipping to the UAE
Jebel Ali and Dubai, paid directly to our Chinese company.
The rate depends on the commodity code in the EU tariff (TARIC) and is the same in every member state. It is charged on the customs value — the price of the goods plus freight and insurance to the EU border. Some goods from China also carry anti-dumping or countervailing duties well above the normal rate. We check the code before you place the order.
At the standard rate of the country where the goods are released for free circulation — Germany 19%, Poland 23%, the Netherlands 21%, Latvia and Lithuania 21%, Estonia 24% — on the customs value plus duty. A VAT-registered importer deducts it as input tax.
The customs duty exemption for parcels under EUR 150 ended: a flat EUR 3 duty now applies to each item in such low-value e-commerce consignments. Commercial B2B shipments are cleared as before, at the rates in the EU tariff.
Anyone importing into the EU in their own name needs an EORI number. If you would rather not act as importer, we can clear the goods on our Latvian company, SIA DEXTRO (EORI LV44103144015), and sell them to you inside the EU on an EU invoice.
We quote per shipment and put the figure in the contract instead of publishing one. Real transit depends on the production queue at the factory, consolidation, sailing schedules, port congestion, customs and the final leg. The gap between a smooth run and a difficult one on the same route is measured in weeks, and a number in a brochure hides that rather than answering it.
By working backwards from the date you need the goods, not forwards from the cheapest rate. Sea is the default for volume. Rail sits between sea and air on both cost and time and is useful for regular replenishment. Air is for cargo where being late costs more than the freight — a launch, a season, a line stoppage.
Yes, and it is one of the more useful things we do. Goods from different factories come into our warehouse in Guangzhou or Yiwu, are checked, then shipped as one consignment. That means one set of documents, one customs entry and often a container instead of several part loads.
Yes. The final leg to your warehouse is part of the quote rather than a surprise afterwards, and we tell you upfront which port of entry we propose and why.
Describe the product and the volume. We come back with a workable structure, a quote including landed cost, and an honest lead time — or with the reasons we would not take it on.
