The first question from a buyer considering a sofa line is almost always about customs. It is the wrong question. Here is what really applies on entry into the European Union, and where the cost most dossiers underestimate actually sits.
Duty is zero, and you can check it
Upholstered seats fall under heading 9401 of the combined nomenclature. On code 9401 61 00 00, upholstered seats with wooden frames, the third country duty applied by the European Union is zero percent. That is the erga omnes rate, the one applying to every origin without a preferential agreement, China included.
The same holds on neighbouring codes. Upholstered seats with metal frames under 9401 71, other metal framed seats under 9401 79, and the residual category 9401 80 all carry a nil duty.
This is not specific to the Union. The UK integrated tariff shows zero percent on the same codes, also erga omnes. No anti dumping measure is in force on Chinese origin seats in either territory.
Checked on TARIC, the European Commission's tariff database, and on the UK Integrated Online Tariff, on 29 September 2026. These are living databases: the sound habit is to recheck your exact product code on the date you order rather than copy a figure from a guide.
VAT is not a cost, it is cash flow
Import VAT is due on entry, at the rate of the country of release for free circulation. Twenty percent in France, twenty one in Belgium, eight point one in Switzerland.
For a VAT registered business it is deductible. It leaves the account and comes back. What it actually costs is the gap between paying it and recovering it, on a container already tying up capital.
Several member states offer reverse charge on import VAT, which removes the advance entirely. In France it is automatic for any VAT registered business. If your funding plan was built on advancing VAT, it may be a whole line too cautious.
The line that actually decides: units per container
With duty at zero and VAT neutralised, three lines remain: the ex works price, sea freight, and handling on arrival. Freight on a forty foot high cube is a fixed amount. What changes everything is how many pieces you put inside.
An assembled three seater sofa is mostly transported air. The same sofa compressed into a carton is not. Between the two, the freight line per piece is not slightly different, it changes order of magnitude.
That is why you ask for units per forty foot high cube in writing, before discussing price. A supplier who cannot answer that question has not shipped enough to be a reliable partner.
The lead time, however, is very real
Where the European dossier hardens is on time. Sea freight from China to northern Europe runs around fifty days door to door. That is a fact, and no documentary optimisation shortens it.
For comparison, the same goods reach Jebel Ali in Dubai in fifteen to twenty days. A Gulf importer is closer to a Chinese factory than a European distributor is, in the only unit that matters commercially.
For a European retailer the practical consequence is simple: reassortment is planned a quarter ahead, or it is endured. A brand promising fast delivery from China with no buffer stock in Europe is promising something it does not control.