Import glossary

Importing from China, in plain English.

The trade, shipping, customs and quality terms you'll meet on a quote, a contract or a customs entry, explained in a sentence or two.

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Trade terms

1688.com: Alibaba Group's domestic Chinese wholesale marketplace, listing factories and traders in Chinese with RMB prices aimed at buyers inside China.
CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight): An Incoterms rule where the seller pays freight and minimum insurance to the destination port, but risk passes to the buyer once goods are loaded in China.
DAP (Delivered at Place): An Incoterms rule where the seller delivers goods to a named destination ready for unloading, but the buyer clears import customs and pays the duties.
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): An Incoterms rule where the seller delivers to the buyer's door with import duties, taxes and customs clearance paid, ready for unloading.
EXW (Ex Works): An Incoterms rule where the seller only makes the goods available at its own premises and the buyer handles everything else, including export clearance.
FOB (Free on Board): An Incoterms rule for sea freight: the seller clears the goods for export and loads them on the ship at the named port, then the buyer takes over.
Incoterms 2020: The International Chamber of Commerce's 11 standard trade rules that set who pays for and bears the risk of each step between seller and buyer.
Landed cost: The total cost of getting a product to your door: factory price plus freight, insurance, duties, customs fees and delivery, usually worked out per unit.
L/C (Letter of credit): A bank's written promise to pay the seller once it presents documents that comply exactly with the credit's terms, such as the bill of lading and invoice.
MOQ (Minimum order quantity): The smallest quantity a factory will produce or sell in one order, often set per item, color or material because of setup and raw material costs.
PI (Proforma invoice): A preliminary invoice a supplier issues before production or shipment that sets out the goods, price, terms and bank details for the deposit.
T/T (Telegraphic transfer): An international bank wire, usually sent over the SWIFT network, and the standard way to pay deposits and balances to suppliers in China.
Trading company vs factory: The difference between a supplier that makes the goods itself and one that resells or outsources production, affecting price, control and accountability.

Shipping

20GP / 40GP / 40HQ (20GP, 40GP and 40HQ containers): The three standard dry containers in sea freight: the 20-foot and 40-foot general purpose boxes and the taller 40-foot high cube.
B/L (Bill of lading): The carrier's transport document for shipped cargo: a receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and, as an original, a document of title.
Chargeable weight: The weight a carrier bills on: the greater of the actual gross weight and the volumetric weight, so light but bulky cargo pays for the space it takes.
Consolidation: Combining goods from several suppliers or orders into one container at a warehouse in China, so they travel together as a single load.
CBM (Cubic meter): The volume unit used to price and plan sea freight: length × width × height in meters, measured on the packed cartons, not on the product itself.
D&D (Demurrage and detention): Charges for keeping a carrier's container too long: demurrage while it sits at the terminal, detention while it is out of the terminal past its free time.
Freight forwarder: A company that organizes international shipments for cargo owners, booking carriers and coordinating pickup, documents, customs and delivery.
FCL (Full container load): Ocean shipping where one shipper books a whole container and pays a flat rate per box, full or not; it is sealed at origin and opened at destination.
LCL (Less than container load): Ocean shipping for loads too small to fill a container: your cargo shares a box with other shippers' goods and you pay by volume or weight.
Telex release: Release of cargo at destination without the paper original bills of lading, after the shipper surrenders the originals to the carrier at origin.

Customs & duties

AD/CVD (Antidumping and countervailing duties): Extra US duties on specific products from specific countries, set to offset sales below fair value (AD) or unfair foreign government subsidies (CVD).
COO (Country of origin marking): The US rule that imported goods, or their containers, must show the country of origin in English, legibly and as permanently as the item allows.
Customs bond: A surety bond guaranteeing that US Customs will be paid duties, taxes and fees and that the importer follows customs rules; most formal entries need one.
Customs broker: A person or company licensed by US Customs and Border Protection to prepare and file import entries and pay duties on behalf of importers.
De minimis (Section 321): The US exemption that let low-value shipments enter duty-free; it has been suspended for all countries since August 2025, so low-value goods now pay duty.
EAPA (Enforce and Protect Act): The US law under which Customs investigates evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties, such as transshipment or false product descriptions.
HMF (Harbor maintenance fee): A US fee on the value of commercial cargo loaded or unloaded at US seaports, collected by Customs and used to fund harbor maintenance.
HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule code): The 10-digit US classification number for an imported product, which sets its duty rate and statistics and shows whether special duties may apply.
IOR (Importer of record): The party legally responsible to US Customs for an import: filing the entry, paying duties and fees, and making sure the goods meet US rules.
ISF (Importer Security Filing (10+2)): Advance cargo data the importer must send to US Customs for ocean shipments, generally at least 24 hours before goods are loaded on the US-bound ship.
MPF (Merchandise processing fee): A US Customs user fee charged on most imports, calculated as a percentage of the goods' value with a minimum and a maximum for each formal entry.
MFN (Most-favored-nation duty): The normal US import duty rate in the HTS General column, applied to goods from WTO members such as China before any additional duties.
Scope ruling: A Commerce Department decision on whether a particular product falls within the scope of an antidumping or countervailing duty order.
Section 232 tariffs: US duties imposed on national security grounds under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, covering goods such as steel, aluminum, copper and wood products.
Section 301 tariffs: Additional US duties on Chinese-origin goods imposed by the US Trade Representative under the Trade Act of 1974, set by HTS code on top of normal duty.
UFLPA (Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act): A US law presuming goods made wholly or partly in Xinjiang, or by listed entities, involve forced labor and are barred from import unless proven otherwise.

Quality

AQL (Acceptance quality limit): The statistical sampling standard used in product inspections to decide, from a random sample, whether a whole production lot passes or fails.
CLS (Container loading supervision): An inspector's check while a container is loaded at the factory or warehouse, confirming the right goods, quantity, packing and loading method.
DUPRO (During production inspection): An inspection carried out while an order is in production, to catch defects and deviations from the sample while there is still time to correct them.
Factory audit: An on-site assessment of a supplier's legal status, production capacity, quality systems and working conditions before you place an order.
Golden sample: The approved reference sample that bulk production must match, signed off by the buyer and kept as the standard for inspections and disputes.
PPI (Pre-production inspection): A check before mass production starts that the factory's raw materials, components and setup match the approved sample and the specification.
PSI (Pre-shipment inspection): A final random inspection of finished, packed goods before they leave the factory, checking quantity, quality, function and packing against the order.

Manufacturing

First-to-file: China's trademark system, which generally gives rights to whoever registers a mark first rather than whoever used it first, inviting trademark squatting.
NNN (NNN agreement): A non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention contract with a Chinese manufacturer, designed to protect your product and your customer relationships.
ODM (Original design manufacturer): A factory that designs and makes its own products, which buyers can order as they are or with modest changes and their own branding.
OEM (Original equipment manufacturer): A factory that manufactures a product to the buyer's own design and specification, usually sold under the buyer's brand rather than the factory's.
Private label: Selling a manufacturer's product under your own brand, usually an existing design with your logo, labels and packaging rather than a new product.
Tooling and molds: The custom molds, dies, jigs and fixtures a factory makes to produce your parts, usually paid for by the buyer as a one-time cost.

Compliance

BIFMA (BIFMA standards): Voluntary US safety and durability standards for commercial furniture, published by BIFMA and widely specified for offices, schools and public spaces.
CE (CE marking): The mark a manufacturer puts on products covered by EU safety laws to declare they meet those rules, needed to sell them in the European Economic Area.
Lacey Act: A US law banning trade in illegally harvested plants and wood that also requires an import declaration of species and harvest country for many wood goods.
Prop 65 (Proposition 65): California's law requiring a clear warning before exposing people to chemicals listed as causing cancer or reproductive harm, such as lead or phthalates.
TB117-2013 (TB117-2013 and 16 CFR 1640): The US flammability standard for upholstered seating: California's smolder test TB117-2013, adopted nationally by the CPSC as 16 CFR part 1640.
TSCA Title VI: The EPA's formaldehyde emission rules for composite wood such as plywood, MDF and particleboard, including finished goods like furniture and cabinets.
UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed marking): The UK's product conformity mark for Great Britain, introduced after Brexit; for many product types the EU's CE mark is still accepted there as well.
NRTL (UL and ETL listing (NRTL)): Safety certification of electrical products by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, such as UL Solutions or Intertek (ETL), as US codes expect.

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