How US Customs Calculates Duty on Chinese Furniture
Customs and Border Protection doesn't tax what you paid the factory. They tax the CIF value — that's Cost (goods), Insurance, and Freight — all added together. The formula is dead simple: Duty = CIF Value × Duty Rate. For most furniture out of China, the base MFN (Most Favored Nation) rate lands around 8.0%, though individual HTS subheadings swing between 3% and 12%. Metal furniture and chairs often come in lower — 0% to 5.5%. Wooden storage pieces and beds tend higher — 8% to 10%. Rattan and bamboo pieces can hit 12%. Add Section 301 tariffs on top — we'll get to those — and your effective rate climbs to 15.5% before factoring in any anti-dumping exposure.
Here's a real example. Say you buy $2,500 of wooden dining tables from a factory in Foshan. Ocean freight to Long Beach runs $400 for your share of the container, and marine insurance is folded into that shipping line item. Your CIF is $2,900. At 8.0% base MFN, the duty line is $232. Before any broker fees, port charges, or inland trucking, your landed cost sits at $3,132. That's the number you budget against — not the factory invoice.
Notice shipping bumped your dutiable base by 16%. For bulky, low-density freight like furniture, that ratio can hit 30% or more. A $1,200 sofa that costs $600 to ship has a CIF of $1,800 — and CBP wants 8% of the whole thing, not just the factory price. This is why running the calculator on CIF, not EXW, matters. Skip it and your margin math is off from day one.
Duty is collected at entry. Your customs broker files the 7501 entry summary, CBP liquidates it, and the money's due within 10 days of release. No payments plans, no "I'll get you next month." The importer of record is liable — if you're doing DDP terms, that's you.
A couple of other line items that don't show up in the headline duty rate but absolutely hit your wallet. The Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) is 0.3464% of the entered value, with a $31.67 minimum and a $614.35 cap per formal entry. On a $2,900 CIF furniture shipment, that's about $10. The Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) is 0.125% of CIF on ocean freight — another $3.63 on the same load. Small numbers alone, but across a year of regular imports they add up. Your broker fee is separate — budget $125-$250 per entry for a standard furniture clearance. And if you're bringing in a full container rather than LCL, you'll need a customs bond. A single-entry bond runs about 0.5% of the total entered value (minimum $100), while a continuous bond for frequent importers costs $500-$600 per year and covers unlimited entries up to your bond limit.
One more thing about the CIF formula that trips up new importers: currency and payment timing. CBP wants the entered value in USD. If you paid the factory in RMB at 7.15 and the exchange rate moves to 7.35 by the time of entry, your USD-declared value might differ from your wire transfer amount. CBP takes the exchange rate on the date of export (the date the goods left China), not the date you paid the invoice. Your broker should handle this, but know that large currency swings between order and shipment can create discrepancies. For most furniture importers, a $2,500 order moving 0.20 on USD/CNY is a $50-$70 swing in declared value — not huge, but if you're doing six figures a year in imports, the cumulative difference matters at audit time.
The Anti-Dumping Trap — Chinese Wooden Bedroom Furniture
This is the section you can't afford to skim. Chinese wooden bedroom furniture has been under US anti-dumping orders since 2005 — case number A-570-890 — and the rates are brutal. Depending on the specific manufacturer in China, the AD deposit rate runs from 0% to 216%. Two hundred and sixteen percent is not a typo. That means a $10,000 order of wooden beds can generate a $21,600 customs bill before a single dollar of regular duty or Section 301 tariff even hits.
The DOC assigns a cash deposit rate to every Chinese wooden bedroom producer. Factories that cooperated with the investigation and proved they weren't dumping got rates of 0% — or close to it. Factories that didn't respond got the China-wide rate, which the DOC has set as high as 216% in annual administrative reviews. The rate isn't fixed either — Commerce runs reviews every year, and a factory's rate can move. A supplier who was 0% three years ago might be 41% today if they stopped responding to review questionnaires.
Here's what happens on the ground. You wire $8,000 to a factory in Dongguan for a container of bedroom sets — dressers, nightstands, bed frames. The goods land at the Port of LA. Your broker pulls the AD case lookup and finds the factory has a 216% cash deposit rate. CBP demands $17,280 as an AD deposit before they'll release the shipment. That's more than double what you paid for the furniture. You either pay it, abandon the goods, or re-export them. None of those options are good.
Before you place a single purchase order for wooden bedroom furniture from China, look up the manufacturer's AD rate. Go to the ITA's ACCESS database, search case A-570-890, and pull the current cash deposit rate for that specific exporter. If the factory can't give you their producer case number, walk away. A legitimate supplier who exports to the US knows their AD rate and will tell you. One container of wooden beds with the wrong factory can sink a small business. I've seen it happen.
Note that the AD order covers wooden bedroom furniture — dressers, beds, nightstands, armoires, chests of drawers. It doesn't cover kitchen cabinets, office desks, or living room shelving. But CBP looks closely at anything that could be classified as bedroom. If your "cabinet" looks like it belongs in a bedroom, expect scrutiny at the port.
How to check an AD rate yourself — it takes five minutes. Go to access.trade.gov, click "AD/CVD Search," enter case number A-570-890, and look for the exporter's name in the current review period. Each factory gets a unique producer case number (e.g., "A-570-890-123"). That number is their AD identity. If the factory you're talking to doesn't have one, they fall under the China-wide rate — which has historically been 216%. You don't want the China-wide rate. Ask the factory for their producer case number. If they give you a blank stare, they either don't export to the US directly or they're not on the cooperating list. Either way, find another supplier. Also worth knowing: AD cash deposits are just that — deposits. Commerce does annual reviews and can adjust the final rate retroactively. You might pay 41% now and get a bill for another 20% (or a refund of 15%) two years later when the review concludes. Budget for uncertainty. For the full mechanics of AD/CVD orders, who sets the rates, and how they stack with MFN and Section 301, read our Anti-Dumping & CVD guide.
Section 301 Layer — 7.5% Extra on Top
On top of the base MFN rate, Chinese furniture gets hit with Section 301 List 3 tariffs at 7.5%. This covers virtually all furniture under Chapter 94 — seats, desks, tables, beds, cabinets, mattresses. The two rates stack: CBP applies the MFN rate first, then layers the 7.5% Section 301 on the same dutiable value. Your combined effective rate for most furniture pieces is 15.5% (8.0% MFN + 7.5% Section 301), not 8%.
Using our earlier example: $2,900 CIF at 8% MFN = $232. Section 301 at 7.5% on that same $2,900 = $217.50. Total duty before any AD = $449.50. Your landed cost jumps from $3,132 to $3,349.50 — and that's for regular furniture with no anti-dumping exposure. If this were wooden bedroom furniture from a factory with a 41% AD rate, add another $1,189 in AD deposits, and suddenly a $2,500 factory order costs you over $4,500 to land.
Section 301 tariffs apply based on country of origin — China — not the shipping route. Transshipping through Vietnam or Malaysia doesn't change the origin if the goods are substantially manufactured in China. CBP is not stupid about this, and the penalties for origin fraud include seizure. Don't let a sourcing agent sell you on a "transshipment solution" that's really just fraud with extra steps. Read our Section 301 China tariffs guide for the full breakdown.
One thing that trips people up: Section 301 rates can change — and they have before. List 3 started at 10% in 2018, went to 25% in 2019, then was cut to 7.5% under the Phase One trade deal in early 2020. That 7.5% has held for years, but it's not a permanent tariff. The USTR reviews exclusions periodically, and furniture has had some subheading-specific carve-outs that expired, got renewed, expired again. If you're building a multi-year import plan around Chinese furniture, build in a margin cushion for Section 301 going back to 10% or 15%. When it moved from 10% to 25% overnight in 2019, importers who'd been running 3% net margins got wiped out in one quarter. Don't be that importer.
The $800 De Minimis — When It Helps (and When It Doesn't)
Section 321 de minimis says shipments valued at $800 or less enter duty-free — no MFN, no Section 301, no MPF. On paper, that sounds like a furniture importer's dream. In practice, furniture's physical size and weight make it the category where de minimis is least useful.
The $800 threshold is based on goods value only — not CIF. But here's the catch: once your goods value crosses $800 by a single dollar, the full CIF value becomes dutiable. And furniture shipping costs are brutal. A $600 accent chair seems like it should sneak under de minimis. But air freight or even LCL ocean freight to get one chair from Shanghai to Dallas can easily run $200-$350. The chair itself plus shipping lands at $800-$950 in total spend — but since the goods value is $600, it does technically qualify. The problem? You can't fit much furniture into a sub-$800 goods-value shipment. Once you're ordering a dresser ($400), a nightstand ($200), and a bed frame ($350), your goods value hits $950. De minimis is gone. Everything is dutiable.
The practical takeaway: de minimis works for samples, small accent pieces, and single-item e-commerce orders where the factory price is under $800. It doesn't work for container-load furniture importing. If you're building a furniture brand, plan on paying duty. The de minimis edge case isn't your business model. More detail in our de minimis value guide.
Also know the difference between informal and formal entry. De minimis shipments clear as informal entries — simpler paperwork, no bond required, no MPF. Once you cross $800 and move to formal entry, the full compliance apparatus kicks in: bond, broker, 7501, MPF, potential exam. For a furniture shipment that's close to the line — say a $900 goods value order — it's not the extra $8 in duty that hurts. It's the $150 broker fee, the $100 bond, the extra paperwork. The jump from informal to formal entry is a step-function increase in cost and complexity, not a gradual ramp. Budget for it when your order value creeps past $800.
Key HTS Chapters for Furniture
Furniture lands in HTS Chapter 94, but the subheading you pick changes your rate. Here's the lay of the land:
- 9401 — Seats and chairs. This is your dining chairs, office chairs, sofas, recliners, and upholstered seating. Subheading 9401.61 (upholstered wooden frame seating) is one of the most common codes importers use. MFN rates in 9401 typically range from 0% to 5.5%, which is lower than most other furniture — but upholstered pieces often attract more attention from CBP inspectors because fabric content and filling materials add complexity.
- 9403 — Other furniture. Desks, tables, cabinets, beds, shelves, storage units — basically anything that isn't a seat or a mattress. This is the big one. 9403.50 covers wooden bedroom furniture (the AD-exposed category). 9403.30 covers wooden office furniture. 9403.60 covers other wooden furniture — living room, dining, entryway. MFN rates in 9403 run 0% to 12%, with most wooden pieces at 8% to 10%. Metal furniture under this heading often gets lower rates, around 3% to 5%.
- 9404 — Mattresses, mattress supports, and bedding. Mattress innersprings, foam mattresses, mattress toppers, and foundations all fall here. Rates vary by construction — innerspring units can be free while foam mattresses carry 3% to 6%. Mattresses also face separate flammability standards (16 CFR Part 1633) that CBP and CPSC enforce at the border.
Classification isn't just academic. CBP will reclassify your goods if they disagree with the HTS code you declared, and they'll send you a bill for the difference plus interest. If you're between two codes — say, whether a storage ottoman is a seat (9401) or a storage unit (9403) — get a binding ruling from CBP before you import a full container. It costs nothing and takes 30-60 days. A wrong guess on a container can cost thousands in back duties.
One more HTS trap worth knowing: furniture parts. If you import a full table, it's 9403. If you import just the metal table legs and import the wooden tabletop separately (from a different supplier or in a different container), CBP can take the position that each component classifies separately — metal legs under Chapter 73 (iron/steel articles) or 83 (base metal parts), wooden top under 9403. The duty rates can be different, and the Section 301 treatment can differ too. If you're doing knockdown furniture in multiple shipments, classify carefully and talk to your broker about whether CBP will accept the "unassembled complete article" classification (GRI 2a) or treat it as separate parts.
Also important: the material composition of a piece can change its classification. A desk that's mostly wood with some metal brackets is 9403.60 (wooden furniture). A desk that's mostly metal with a wood top can flip to 9403.20 (metal furniture) — which might carry a lower MFN rate. CBP uses "essential character" analysis to determine whether a piece is wood, metal, plastic, or rattan for HTS purposes. If you're designing furniture and have flexibility on frame material, ask your broker to run the numbers both ways. Sometimes a metal-frame version of the same design lands at 3% MFN while the wood-frame version lands at 8%. On a full container, that's real money.
TSCA Title VI — Formaldehyde Compliance Actually Gets Checked
If your furniture contains composite wood — and if it's from China, there's a good chance it does — you need TSCA Title VI compliance documentation. This covers particleboard, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), and hardwood plywood. The rule says these panels must meet CARB Phase 2 / EPA TSCA Title VI formaldehyde emission limits, and you need paperwork from a third-party certifier to prove it.
This applies to finished furniture, not just raw panels. A particleboard-core dresser with a veneer overlay is still a composite wood product. An MDF nightstand painted white is still subject to TSCA Title VI. CBP has been checking this on furniture entries with increasing frequency since 2022 — brokers report that composite wood furniture from China gets flagged for TSCA verification more often than most importers expect. If your supplier can't produce certifier documentation showing CARB Phase 2 compliance, your container can get held at the port while you scramble for lab testing. That's weeks of demurrage and per-diem charges stacking up while your goods sit.
The fix is simple: require TSCA certification docs from your factory before production. Any Chinese furniture exporter selling into the US market should have these ready. If they don't know what TSCA Title VI is, find another supplier. Also relevant: if you're importing machinery or equipment alongside furniture (like assembly tools or workshop gear), check our China to US machinery duty page — different HTS chapters, different rates.
What happens during a TSCA hold isn't pretty. CBP flags the entry, puts a "TSCA hold" on the container, and sends a CF-28 (Request for Information) to your broker. You have 30 days to produce the certifier documentation. While you wait, the container sits at the CFS (container freight station) accumulating storage charges — $50-$150 per day depending on the port. If the docs don't come through, CBP issues a CF-29 (Notice of Action) proposing to exclude the goods from entry. You can either re-export them (expensive) or destroy them (more expensive, plus disposal fees). The paperwork is the cheapest part of the whole ordeal — get it from the factory before the container leaves China. For the full furniture-duty picture across every origin — including the anti-dumping landmine and TSCA rules — our Furniture Import Duty overview covers it.
Flat-Pack vs Assembled — Same Duty, Different Freight
HTS classification doesn't care whether your furniture ships flat-packed or fully assembled. A wooden desk is a wooden desk — the duty rate is the same either way. Every container has a weight and cube limit, and furniture's problem is almost always cube (volume) not weight — you cube out before you weigh out. That's why flat-pack changes the economics so dramatically. But the freight bill is radically different, and since duty is a percentage of CIF, lower freight means lower duty.
An assembled dining table might take up 3-4 cubic meters in a container. The same table flat-packed takes 0.5 cubic meters. You fit 6-8 times as many units per container. Per-unit ocean freight drops proportionally. Lower per-unit freight means lower per-unit CIF means lower per-unit duty. On an 8% duty rate, every $100 you cut from freight saves you $8 in duty — plus the $100 itself. Over a full container, that's real money.
The tradeoff is assembly complexity at the destination. Flat-pack means you need labor in the US to put things together, or your customer does it at home (IKEA's model). For DTC furniture brands, flat-pack is almost always the right call — the freight savings compound with duty savings, and the assembly burden is offloaded to the end consumer. For commercial/contract furniture going to hotels or offices, fully assembled may be worth the freight premium because the US-side labor to assemble hundreds of identical pieces wipes out the shipping savings.
One nuance: flat-pack can trigger other agency requirements beyond CBP. If your flat-pack furniture includes assembly hardware (screws, bolts, Allen keys), those fasteners technically fall under their own HTS codes. In practice, CBP treats them as part of the furniture classification under GRI 5 (packing materials and containers), but if you're shipping fastener kits separately as replacement packs after the fact, they're hardware — different chapter, different rate. And if your furniture has any electrical components (LED strips in a headboard, USB ports in a nightstand, motorized recliner mechanisms), you've just added CPSC and potentially FCC compliance to your plate. Those don't change the HTS code necessarily, but they change the agency jurisdiction at the port. CBP can and does flag furniture with electrical for CPSC review, even if the furniture itself is properly classified under Chapter 94.
Your Full Landed Cost — Beyond Duty
Duty gets the headlines, but it's rarely the biggest line item on a furniture import. Here's what a real landed-cost stack looks like for a typical LCL furniture shipment from Shanghai to a warehouse in Dallas:
- Factory cost: what you pay the supplier — FOB Shanghai.
- Ocean freight: LCL furniture runs $80-$180 per cubic meter from Shanghai to LA/LB, depending on spot rates. Full container (40HC) runs $3,000-$6,000.
- Marine insurance: 0.3%-0.5% of CIF — cheap, never skip it. One container of water-damaged furniture with no insurance will teach you this lesson the hard way.
- US duty (MFN + Section 301): ~15.5% combined on CIF for most Chapter 94 pieces.
- AD deposit (if bedroom furniture): 0%-216% of CIF depending on manufacturer — see the anti-dumping section above.
- MPF + HMF: ~0.47% combined of CIF (0.3464% MPF + 0.125% HMF) — small but real.
- Customs bond: $100-$600 depending on single vs. continuous.
- Broker fee: $125-$250 per entry.
- Drayage (port to CFS/warehouse): $350-$850 per container at LA/LB, more at East Coast ports.
- Warehouse receiving / transload: $4-$8 per CBM or $8-$15 per pallet.
- Last-mile delivery to final destination: highly variable — LTL carriers, FTL, or white-glove delivery for consumer furniture.
On a $10,000 FOB furniture order, the non-duty costs can easily add $3,000-$5,000. Duty (at 15.5%) adds another ~$1,700. Your total landed cost is roughly 1.5× to 1.7× the factory invoice. That's your real COGS. If you're pricing retail at 3× landed cost and your competitor is pricing at 2.5×, one of you did the math wrong. Make sure it's not you.
Sourcing Furniture From China Despite the Tariffs — Is It Still Worth It?
With a 15.5% combined duty and potential AD exposure, you'd think furniture importers would have fled China years ago. Some did — Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia picked up share, especially in wooden bedroom and office furniture. But China still dominates because the ecosystem is unmatched: raw material supply chains, skilled woodworking labor at scale, component manufacturers who can produce custom hardware on short runs, and a logistics network that can fill a container to any US port in 4-6 weeks. Vietnam's furniture export infrastructure is growing fast but doesn't yet match China's depth in mid-to-high-complexity pieces.
The math often still works. Say a solid wood dining table costs $180 FOB from China and $240 FOB from Vietnam. The 15.5% duty on the Chinese table adds $35 (landed FOB + freight at ~$225 total CIF). You're at $215 landed from China vs. $250+ from Vietnam. China wins on price even after tariffs for most standard furniture pieces. Where it doesn't win: wooden bedroom furniture from a factory with a 41%+ AD rate. Those are the cases where Vietnam or Mexico sourcing pulls ahead — and it's why you run the numbers per factory, per product, not per category.
If you're sourcing from China, here's what you should be doing: (1) Know your factory's AD rate before you order — don't guess. (2) Get TSCA cert docs before production. (3) Run landed-cost math on every order, not just the first one — freight rates move and duty rates change. (4) Build relationships with 2-3 suppliers in different provinces so a regional disruption (port closure, power rationing, COVID lockdown) doesn't shut off your entire inventory pipeline. (5) For bedroom furniture specifically, always have a non-China backup supplier qualified and ready. Even if you're buying from a 0% AD factory today, their rate can change at the next administrative review.
What Happens When CBP Examines Your Furniture
About 3-5% of furniture entries get flagged for CBP examination — higher than average for consumer goods, because furniture is bulky, HTS classification is subjective, and AD scope questions are common. There are three exam types: VACIS/NII (non-intrusive X-ray — quick, container stays sealed, usually clears same day), tailgate exam (CBP opens the doors, looks at a few cartons, takes photos — 1-3 day delay), and intensive exam (CBP pulls the container to a CES — Centralized Examination Station — unloads everything, checks each SKU against the entry docs, may take samples for lab testing — 1-4 weeks delay).
Exams cost you money beyond the delay. The CFS charges for devanning (unloading) and revanning (reloading) — $800-$1,500 for a full container. Storage at the CES runs $50-$150/day. Your drayage carrier charges for the extra trip to the CES and back. And if CBP finds a problem — misclassified HTS, missing TSCA docs, AD exposure you didn't declare — the exam turns into a penalty case. Penalties for negligence start at two times the lost revenue (duty + fees) and can be reduced with prior disclosure. Penalties for fraud — knowingly misclassifying bedroom furniture to dodge AD — can reach the domestic value of the goods. Don't play games with classification.
How to reduce your exam risk: (1) Use a broker who knows furniture — a clean 7501 with correct HTS codes and complete AD/TSCA documentation is less likely to get flagged than a sloppy one. (2) If you're importing wooden bedroom furniture, declare it correctly under 9403.50 with the AD case number and cash deposit rate right on the entry — hiding it under a generic furniture code is exactly what triggers AD scope exams. (3) Have your TSCA certs, CPSC GCCs (General Certificates of Conformity), and supplier docs organized and ready to upload before your broker files the entry. CBP's ACE system flags entries with missing or incomplete PGA (Partner Government Agency) data automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the duty rate for furniture from China to the US?
The base MFN rate averages 8% across Chapter 94, with specific subheadings ranging from 0% to 12%. Add the Section 301 List 3 tariff of 7.5%, and your effective rate for most pieces is 15.5%. Wooden bedroom furniture (subheading 9403.50) also faces anti-dumping duties on top of both — those AD rates run from 0% to 216% depending on the specific Chinese manufacturer. For precise rate lookup, use the calculator above with the correct HTS subheading for your specific furniture type — the blended 8% is a planning number, not a filing number.
Is Chinese furniture under $800 duty-free?
Yes, under Section 321 de minimis — if the goods value (not the CIF total) is $800 or less per shipment. But furniture's bulk makes this rare. A single decent piece — a solid wood nightstand, an upholstered armchair — can hit $400-$600 from the factory. Add a second piece and you're over $800. De minimis is practical for samples and small accent pieces shipped individually. For anything approaching a room's worth of furniture, you're paying full duty.
Why is Chinese wooden bedroom furniture so heavily taxed?
The US Department of Commerce imposed anti-dumping order A-570-890 in 2005, finding that Chinese manufacturers were selling wooden bedroom furniture in the US below fair market value. Annual administrative reviews set cash deposit rates for individual factories. Some manufacturers cooperated with the investigation, proved their pricing was market-based, and got rates of 0%. Others — including the China-wide entity that applies to any factory that didn't participate — face rates of 216%. The order stays in place indefinitely unless Commerce conducts a sunset review and revokes it, which hasn't happened. Always check the manufacturer's specific AD rate in the ITA ACCESS database before ordering.
What's the difference between MFN duty and Section 301 on furniture?
MFN (Most Favored Nation) duty is the baseline WTO tariff rate the US applies to imports from most countries. For furniture, MFN rates average 8%. Section 301 is an additional tariff layer imposed specifically on Chinese goods under the Trade Act of 1974 — List 3 covers furniture at 7.5%. CBP applies both rates on the same CIF dutiable value. They add together, not multiply. So on a $1,000 CIF entry: $80 MFN + $75 Section 301 = $155 total customs duty — a 15.5% combined rate. The MFN rate varies by HTS subheading; the Section 301 7.5% is uniform across List 3.
Do I need a customs broker for furniture from China?
For any shipment over $2,500 in entered value, yes — a licensed customs broker is legally required for formal entry. Even below $2,500 (informal entry), you can self-file, but furniture's complexity — HTS classification nuances, AD scope questions, TSCA compliance — makes DIY filing a bad idea. A broker who knows furniture will catch the AD exposure before your container hits the water. They'll flag whether your "cabinet" is really a cabinet (9403) or whether CBP might reclassify it as bedroom furniture (9403.50 with AD exposure). They'll also handle the TSCA documentation exchange with CBP if you get pulled for a formaldehyde check. Broker fees for furniture entries run $125-$250 — that's cheap insurance against a classification mistake that could cost thousands. If you're importing furniture regularly, develop a relationship with a broker who knows Chapter 94. The generalist broker who mostly clears apparel or electronics won't know the AD landscape for wooden bedroom pieces and won't think to check.
How do I find the exact HTS code for my furniture piece?
Start with Chapter 94 in the HTSUS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States). Narrow down by function: is it seating (9401), other furniture (9403), or a mattress (9404)? Then by material: wood, metal, plastic, rattan/bamboo, or other. Then by specific use: office, kitchen, bedroom, or other. So a wooden office desk is 9403.30, a metal office desk is 9403.20, a wooden bedroom dresser is 9403.50. If you're stuck between two codes, request a binding ruling from CBP — it's free and gives you legal certainty. The alternative is declaring a code, hoping it sticks, and finding out during an exam or audit that CBP disagrees — at which point it's too late to avoid penalties. Also, do NOT just copy the HTS code from your supplier's commercial invoice. Chinese factories often put generic codes on invoices (like 9403.60 for everything made of wood) that don't match the correct subheading. You — the importer of record — are legally responsible for the classification, not the factory. If the invoice says one code and your broker files another, CBP will ask why. Get it right before entry.
Does furniture from China need to meet US safety standards beyond duty?
Yes — several, and CBP coordinates enforcement with other agencies. CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) regulates furniture stability (tip-over standards per ASTM F2057 for clothing storage units), flammability (16 CFR Part 1640 for upholstered furniture, Part 1633 for mattresses), and lead content in surface coatings (16 CFR Part 1303 — applies to painted or lacquered furniture). EPA TSCA Title VI covers formaldehyde emissions from composite wood as described above. USDA APHIS regulates solid wood packing materials (ISPM 15 heat-treated pallets and crates — non-compliant wood packaging can get your entire container quarantined). FTC enforces country-of-origin marking rules for textiles and upholstery content labeling. This isn't an exhaustive list — the specifics depend on your product — but the takeaway is: furniture compliance isn't just about paying the right duty rate. It's about having the right paperwork for every agency with jurisdiction. A customs broker who specializes in furniture will know which agencies apply to your specific pieces.
Importing furniture from China isn't getting cheaper, but it's also not getting simpler — and that's an advantage for importers who do their homework. Every duty, fee, and compliance requirement described on this page is knowable before you place an order. The importers who get burned are the ones who ship first and ask questions later. Run the calculator, check the AD database, get the TSCA certs, and build your landed-cost model before you negotiate with the factory. The math either works or it doesn't — but you need the right numbers to find out.
For the full picture — Section 301 List 3, the A-570-890 anti-dumping order, and how all four tariff layers interact across every Chinese product category — see the 2026 China–US Tariff Panorama.