Buying from China is straightforward. Importing legally is the part that takes work – and the rules that apply are not China’s. They are the rules of the market you are selling into.
The rules belong to the destination, not the factory
A factory in Shenzhen will make whatever you ask, to whatever standard you specify. What decides whether the goods can be sold is whether they satisfy the law of the market you are selling into. That law is yours, not the factory’s, and the factory has no duty to know it. In our experience this is the most common misunderstanding in the trade, and the most expensive.
Eight families of requirement
Most product regulation falls into a small number of families. Which of them apply, and how deeply, depends on the product, the market, and the way it is sold.
- Product safety – a general duty that covers everything, with far stricter regimes for certain categories
- Conformity assessment and marking – CE in the European Union, UKCA in Great Britain
- Testing – evidence that the product meets the standard it is measured against
- Restricted substances – REACH, RoHS, POPs, and their equivalents in other markets
- Labelling and instructions – the language, the warnings and the identification the market requires
- Packaging, batteries and end of life – producer responsibility and disposal obligations
- Customs – commodity codes, origin, valuation, declarations, duty and tax
- Sector regimes – medical devices, toys, electrical equipment, machinery, cosmetics, PPE, food contact materials and others
Why it becomes technical
Two products that look alike can fall under different regimes, because the answer follows from what the product is, who it is for, and how it reaches the buyer. The same object sold as a child’s toy and as an ornament is not the same product in law. A cable sold on its own and the same cable supplied inside a machine are not either.
The rules are not secret. Working out which of them apply to your particular goods, and what evidence proves it, is a judgement – and that is where the technicality sits.
And one requirement that is not about the product at all
Social accountability – evidence that the goods were made under acceptable conditions. Your own customer asks for it, and it is now routine rather than exceptional.
The obvious way to answer it means handing your customer a description of your supplier, which is a compliance answer and a commercial risk at the same time. It has its own page, because it deserves one.
The duty is the importer’s
If you are bringing goods in to sell, you are the importer, and the obligation is yours. Not the factory’s, not the agent’s, not the freight forwarder’s. This is worth knowing before the order is placed rather than after the goods arrive.
How we help
We work through it product by product: what applies, what evidence proves it, what has to change, what it costs, and what happens if it is wrong. Testing arranged, reports read, labels corrected, papers prepared before the goods move.
And where we do not know an answer, we say so and tell you who does. That is part of the service too.
If you are not certain which of these applies to what you are buying, that uncertainty is the thing we remove.