Importing Furniture from China to Germany and the EU: Duties, Compliance, and What to Budget

EU Import Duties on Chinese Furniture

The EU applies Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff rates to Chinese furniture imports. Unlike earlier periods when anti-dumping duties added meaningful cost to specific wood furniture categories, those measures have largely expired or been removed. The current landscape is relatively benign on the duty side, though the administrative complexity has grown considerably elsewhere.

Rates vary by HS code. Most wooden furniture (HS 9403 30–9403 90) enters at 0%. Upholstered seating (HS 9401 61 and 9401 69) carries a 6.5% rate — relevant for sofas, dining chairs with fabric or leather, and office chairs with upholstered seats. Metal furniture falls at 0%. Kitchen units and cabinets are typically 0%. Lighting (HS 9405) runs between 2.7% and 4.7% depending on the specific subheading.

These rates apply at EU entry — meaning you pay once into the EU, and goods move freely to Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, or any other member state without additional customs. If you are importing on DDP terms with delivery into Germany, your supplier or freight forwarder will handle EU customs clearance, typically at Hamburg or Rotterdam, and the applicable VAT and duty get resolved there.

German Import VAT: What Buyers Need to Understand

Germany’s standard VAT rate is 19%. On imported goods, this is charged at customs clearance as import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer, or EUSt). For VAT-registered businesses in Germany, this is fully recoverable as input tax in the next VAT filing — which means it is a cash-flow item, not a real cost, provided your business is properly registered.

For buyers who are not VAT-registered in Germany — a private homeowner importing for a villa project, for example — the 19% is a real additional cost to budget. It applies to the customs value of the goods plus the freight and insurance charges to the EU point of entry. In practice, on a EUR 50,000 furniture shipment, expect to set aside roughly EUR 9,500 in import VAT if you cannot recover it.

Compliance: EUDR, REACH, and What Has Changed

The compliance landscape for furniture entering the EU has shifted materially. Two regulations deserve close attention by any buyer sourcing wood furniture or upholstered pieces from China.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that specified products — including wooden furniture — placed on the EU market are not linked to deforestation. Operators placing goods on the EU market must conduct due diligence on the origin of the wood raw materials and submit statements via the EU’s information system. If you are reselling or importing on behalf of a commercial project in the EU, you are likely in scope as an operator. Enforcement timelines have shifted; confirm the current status with your customs broker before shipping wood furniture in volume.

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) applies to chemical substances in products placed on the EU market. For furniture, the most practically relevant restrictions concern formaldehyde emissions from wood-based panels, azo dyes in textile upholstery, SVHC (substances of very high concern) in foam and finishes, and certain flame retardants. Reputable Foshan factories supplying EU markets will have relevant test reports — but you need to ask for them explicitly, by substance and standard, rather than accepting a general “EU compliant” claim.

Ports of Entry: Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Antwerp

Three ports handle the bulk of Chinese furniture container traffic entering northern Europe. Each has different characteristics for buyers shipping to Germany.

For most buyers with delivery addresses in Germany, Hamburg is the default choice because goods clear customs in Germany directly and the post-arrival trucking leg is short. Rotterdam is frequently used when the shipping line’s schedule offers better frequency or when the buyer’s forwarder has established relationships there. What matters is confirming the port of discharge with your freight forwarder before finalising Incoterms with your supplier.

LCL vs FCL for EU Orders

Full container loads (FCL) are the standard for established importers bringing in a full room set, hotel order, or development project. A 20ft container holds roughly 25–28 cubic metres of furniture; a 40ft high-cube holds 65–68 cbm. For villa or apartment projects where the furniture is sourced from multiple suppliers in Foshan, a consolidation warehouse can combine items from several factories into a single FCL.

Less-than-container-load (LCL) shipping is available for smaller volumes — typically below 15 cbm — but adds two complications for EU buyers. First, consolidation and de-groupage at the destination port add time and cost. Second, EUDR and REACH documentation becomes harder to manage when a container holds goods from multiple shippers. For sample orders or first-time buyers testing a single supplier, LCL is reasonable. For any project-scale order, FCL is worth the higher freight cost for the predictability it provides.

Practical Checklist Before Your Container Leaves Foshan

Incoterms for German Buyers

FOB (Free On Board) is the most common term for experienced importers with an established freight forwarder in Germany. You control the freight, insurance, and customs process and pay them directly, giving you full visibility into costs.

CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) is offered by many Chinese suppliers and can be convenient for a first order. The caution: you lose visibility into the actual freight cost embedded in the supplier’s price, and you have limited recourse if the freight forwarder the supplier uses is slow to resolve issues at destination.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) places the maximum obligation on the supplier — they deliver to your door with duties and VAT paid. For buyers who are not VAT-registered in Germany and want simplicity, this can work. The cost will be higher, and for VAT-registered German importers the inability to recover import VAT as a separate line makes DDP an inefficient structure. FOB or CIF is almost always preferable for commercial buyers in the EU.

Multi-Supplier Projects and Foshan Consolidation

Large residential or hospitality projects — a villa, a hotel fit-out, an apartment development — rarely source all furniture from a single factory. The practical approach in Foshan is to use a consolidation warehouse where goods from multiple suppliers are received, inspected, repacked if needed, and loaded into a single container bound for Germany. This reduces freight cost compared to shipping individual factory orders and allows one customs entry rather than multiple.

The logistics fee for consolidation — warehouse receipt, inspection, and loading — typically runs RMB 150–300 per cubic metre depending on the facility and services included. A working relationship with a Foshan-based sourcing agent or freight forwarder who manages this step is worth establishing early if you are running multi-supplier projects regularly.

What to Budget Beyond the Goods Price

For a project buyer doing a first EU-bound container, the numbers that tend to surprise are not the import duty — which is often zero on wooden furniture — but the surrounding costs. A realistic total landed cost model for a 40ft container of mixed wooden and upholstered furniture into Germany should include: sea freight (USD 1,200–2,500 depending on carrier and season), destination handling and port charges (EUR 400–700), customs brokerage (EUR 150–300), inland trucking from Hamburg or Rotterdam to site (EUR 500–1,200 depending on distance and access), import VAT at 19% on CIF value (recoverable if VAT-registered), and any consolidation or pre-shipment inspection fees in China.

The upholstered seat duty of 6.5% is the one line-item that regularly catches buyers who quoted projects based on FOB price alone. On a large sofa order at FOB value of EUR 20,000, the duty alone adds EUR 1,300 before freight, VAT, and handling. Build this into your margin calculation before you quote your client.