Importing from China to the UK: UKCA, VAT, EORI
The UK importer's first-shipment checklist — EORI, VAT, UKCA vs CE, customs and the door-to-door route, explained without jargon.
Bolang Solutions is a trading company. We chose the model on purpose: it lets us buy across many factories instead of selling you one production line, inspect goods we don't manufacture, and put our own name on every export document as seller of record. The industry's trading-company horror stories are concealment stories — so we run the opposite playbook: registered scope public, address public, and a standing invitation to verify us on gsxt.gov.cn the same way we verify suppliers.
Source: https://bolangast.com/about, retrieved 2026-08-11
On shipments we trade, the commercial invoice, packing list and bill of lading carry Bolang as seller of record. One counterparty, legally on the hook, answering in English.
Verify us the way we verify suppliers — our registered name, address and Unified Social Credit Code are published on this site; look us up on gsxt.gov.cn.
Importing to the UK is a short checklist wearing a long reputation. Four registrations and one marking question cover most first shipments — the trouble comes from learning them in the wrong order, usually at the port.
The first-shipment checklist, uk edition
EORI number — the customs identifier; without it goods stop. Free, fast, do it first. VAT position — import VAT applies; registration thresholds and postponed VAT accounting decide the cash-flow shape, and both are set by HMRC and revised — check the current figures before you model it. UKCA vs CE — Great Britain's marking regime continues to recognise CE for most product categories [ verify per category at build — the deadline history has moved repeatedly ]; the honest rule is check per product, not per headline. Importer of record — you, on the documents, with your details on the labelling where the category requires it. Incoterm — DDP quotes feel simple and hide the duty math; FOB plus your own freight keeps the invoice honest — duty is charged on the invoice shown to customs.
The line that saves first-timers money: duty is calculated on the customs value — an inflated pass-through invoice inflates your duty. One accountable counterparty whose name is on the export documents makes the invoice the real one.
Common questions
No — but you need an EORI tied to your status, and VAT treatment differs; the checklist maps both routes.
For most categories at time of writing — verified per product in the compliance step, because the recognition rules have shifted more than once.
Door-to-door with documents in English is exactly the service shape — see logistics.
Related
Two ways to start
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