Certificates and Standards for Importing from China: CE, RoHS and Local Rules

Every country receiving a container from China requires proof that the goods are safe and meet its technical standards. For a sofa or a dresser with no electrics, this is fairly simple. But add a light fixture, a motorized drive, or ceramics meant for food contact, and without the right certificate the shipment gets stuck at customs — the cost of the delay and express testing quickly outweighs the savings from buying direct. Here is what documentation you actually need and how to avoid getting held up.

CE: what it is and when it’s required

CE (Conformité Européenne) is not a quality certificate — it is a manufacturer’s declaration that a product meets applicable EU directives. The CE mark is applied by the manufacturer or importer under their own responsibility, based on a technical file and, for some categories, an independent lab test report.

Plain furniture with no electrics does not need CE — there is no directive that covers it directly. As soon as a piece has an electrical component (LED lighting, a USB charging port, a motorized height adjustment), it falls under:

• LVD (2014/35/EU) — low-voltage equipment safety;
• EMC (2014/30/EU) — electromagnetic compatibility, so the device doesn’t create interference or get disrupted by it.

Light fixtures, appliances and power tools need the full package: a technical file, a Declaration of Conformity (DoC), the CE mark, and the details of an EU-based responsible person on the packaging.

RoHS and REACH: the hidden chemistry

RoHS limits hazardous substances in electronics and electrical parts: lead capped at 0.1% by weight, cadmium at 0.01%, with mercury, hexavalent chromium and certain phthalates also capped at 0.1%. This applies to light fixtures, LED strip drivers, appliances and electrical hardware.

REACH is a broader requirement covering chemical substances in any goods sold in the EU: if a material (sofa foam, textile, lacquer, adhesive) contains an SVHC-listed substance above 0.1% by weight, it must be declared. In practice this most often affects polyurethane foam, treated textiles and paint/lacquer finishes — the same categories covered in our guide to ordering furniture from China.

Local standards by country

Outside the EU, every jurisdiction has its own conformity mark, and confusing it with CE is a common mistake among first-time buyers.

Destination	Mark / system	What it typically covers	VAT / duty
European Union	CE, RoHS, REACH	Electrical items, light fixtures, appliances, chemistry in textiles/foam	VAT varies by country
Thailand	TISI (มอก.)	Electrical items, ceramics, some building materials	VAT 7%
UAE	ESMA / G-Mark	Electrical goods, cable, some building materials	VAT 5% + duty 5%
Indonesia	SNI	Porcelain tile, electrical items, children’s goods	VAT 11%
EAEU (CIS)	EAC	Electrical items, building materials, some furniture	Per destination country’s regulations

VAT and duty rates above are for basic categories as of 2026; the exact figure depends on the HS code of the specific item — the code determines both the rate and which certification is mandatory.

TISI in Thailand

For goods on the mandatory list (electrical items, ceramic tile, some fittings), the importer must be registered with TISI (Thai Industrial Standards Institute) as a permit holder, and a sample must be tested at an accredited lab. Without this, the shipment does not clear customs regardless of the product’s actual quality.

ESMA and G-Mark in the UAE

Electrical goods, cable products and some building materials are registered under the ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology) system; electrical items additionally need the Gulf G-Mark. Registration is tied to a specific SKU and manufacturer — changing the spec requires re-registering.

SNI in Indonesia

SNI (Standar Nasional Indonesia) is mandatory for a wide list of goods: porcelain tile, electrical items, and some children’s products and building materials. Testing and registration take weeks, so for recurring shipments to Bali or Jakarta, build that lead time into your sourcing plan alongside shipping logistics to Indonesia.

EAC in EAEU countries

EAC (Eurasian Conformity) is the unified mark for Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other member states. Electrical items and some building materials require a conformity certificate, while furniture and textiles more often go through a simplified declaration — but that declaration is still mandatory: without it the cargo will not clear customs at all, not merely get delayed.

How this works in practice

Certification is tied not to a product category in general but to a specific configuration: color, material, components. A test report the factory obtained for its standard light fixture does not cover your custom version with a different driver — customs and the lab look at the technical file for the exact SKU.

What to lock in before production starts:

1. Ask the factory whether it holds current SGS, Intertek or TUV reports for your exact configuration — large exporters in Guangdong and Zhejiang usually keep a base package for standard models.
2. Build testing into the schedule if the configuration is custom: a sample test takes 2–4 weeks and needs to run in parallel with supplier vetting and the golden sample stage — not after the goods have shipped.
3. Cross-check the HS code against the mandatory-certification registry of the destination country — the same product under a different code may or may not require a certificate.
4. Write certification into the contract as an acceptance condition, alongside Incoterms and payment terms.

Case: a batch of light fixtures with no RoHS report

A client ordered 400 pendant lights for a hotel in the EU, going off photos and pricing on 1688 — a platform built for China’s domestic market, where export-grade certification is often skipped entirely (more on the difference in 1688 vs Alibaba vs a direct factory). The factory confirmed “we have CE,” but what it actually meant was compliance with China’s domestic CCC standard, not the European CE mark.

EU customs held the shipment: there was no technical file and no RoHS report for the specific driver model used. An express lab test had to be arranged on short notice with the cargo already sitting at the port — three weeks in a bonded warehouse, storage overage fees, and re-labeling the entire batch. The final delay cost more than pre-shipment certification would have.

Bottom line

Certification is not a box-ticking formality — it is part of the technical spec you give the factory, on par with dimensions or material. The rule is simple: determine the HS code and destination country before production starts, find out the mandatory certificate list for that specific “code + country” pair, and require a test report matched to your exact order spec — not a generic certificate for a similar-looking model.

---

Not sure which certificates your shipment needs? Send us your item list and destination country — we’ll check the requirements against the HS code for free and arrange testing at the factory before the goods ship.