Customs duties are payable on every piece of furniture imported into India from China or elsewhere in the world.  The Indian Customs Act of 1962 stipulates how much duty is payable on imported furniture.  

A common man  thinks of sofa, dining table, curtains, lights, tableware, floor tiles, lights and decorative products as furniture. Unfortunately, there is no general provision in the Indian Customs Act to classify all household goods as furniture.  The Customs Act defines each item as per “International Trade Classification - Harmonized Code” (ITC-HS) and assigns the rate of duty payable for it.  They are logically arranged as Chapters drilled down to specific sub-headings within those chapters.  Here is a list of common furniture and their broad chapter headings.

Loading container is often considered less important part of the shipment process.  While many tend to think of it as some laborer putting things in a container as per packing list that does not warrant enough attention.  We tend to differ!  At CIS, we think that loading a furniture container is a very important job.  In fact, this represents the last moment when the container will leave the shippers warehouse towards buyer’s destination.  A container unloaded properly can cause many potential problems:

• Unbalance load may damage the container
• Heavier packages on top of the light one may damage products
• Improper loading and exposure to elements of the nature may weaken or destroy outer package

Cheap air freight is mission critical if you are using air cargo as a primary means of logistics and importing goods from China.  Please consider that airfreight can be 10% to 20% of your total cost of import so it is wise to shop around for cheap air freight.

Hong Kong is the first point of entry for many visitors to China because of its extensive and convenient international flight connections.  Visitors are often challenged to find a suitable mode of travel between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Does your company has well defined pre shipment policy in order to define the duties and responsibilities of each concerned party, be it a vendor, a clearing agent or in house staff.  We think that a pre shipment checklist is must for every organization.  We have defined a structured pre shipment policy and adhere to it while making shipment.  If your organization does not have one it is time to write and document one now.

We are giving a guideline for writing a pre shipment checklist.  Use these guidelines to develop a checklist to ensure that goods ship out as planned without any surprise.  In general, it is better to have a standard packing and pre shipment checklist for the entire organization.

I have been living and working in China for past 10 years.  International trade is some thing that I took for granted.  Let me make it clear that I am not a guru but what I am writing here basically sums up all steps in import with special focus on importing from China.

You can call it beginners guide to import from China.

Step 1: What to import
The most important decision in import is to find a product that you can import and sell easily for profit.  Know your customer and find out at what price they can buy.  This can be done by doing simple poll/survey or speaking to your existing customer.  It will help to know about your market potential, competitors and regulatory issues.

A small research before import from China will reduce your chances of ending up with dead inventory.