EU-China Duties on Textiles: What Importers Need to Know Before the Beijing Trip

The EU has set China a deadline until October, and that deadline is now running out. On 8 and 9 October, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič travels to Beijing. Textiles appear in a European Commission list of sectors with a notable rise in imports. We summarise what is documented, what remains open and what you should check as an importer. This article is current as of 5 October 2026; we do not yet know the outcome of the trip.

What the European Commission is currently saying

Denis Redonnet, the Commission's chief trade enforcement officer, presented figures to the European Parliament's trade committee on 1 October 2026. The Commission sees potentially problematic developments in almost a quarter of goods imports into the EU, with China as the main driver. It names particularly strong and persistent increases in machinery, textiles, base metals and chemical products. In 2025 the EU imported goods worth 571 billion euros from China; the trade deficit was 360 billion euros and widened further in the first half of 2026 (MS Aktuell, 04.10.2026).

The Commission opened over 30 new trade defence proceedings in each of 2024 and 2025, and a further 27 by the beginning of October 2026. According to this report, a general new duty package on all Chinese goods has not been decided so far.

Where the negotiations stand

On 17 September, Šefčovič and China's trade minister Wang Wentao spoke in a one-hour video conference about market access and Chinese export controls on rare earths. The Commission demands that "first concrete results" be delivered, and that they must be "credible". If the talks fail, it intends to use anti-dumping duties, duties against unfair subsidies and further protective instruments (Euronews, 17.09.2026). According to MS Aktuell, no binding agreement to limit Chinese exports existed on the evening of 4 October.

Important: these reports name textiles as a sector with rising imports, but no concrete measures against textiles. The Euronews report does not mention textiles at all. Anyone speaking now of imminent textile duties is going beyond the available sources.

What already applies to clothing today

For a cotton T-shirt (HS code 6109 10), the EU duty rate on goods from China is 12 per cent according to the zolltarifnummer.com guide. No anti-dumping duties are listed for this example (zolltarifnummer.com, updated 16.07.2026). The rate depends on the HS code and may differ for other items. The binding information for your goods comes from the EU tariff database or from customs itself.

Anti-dumping duties that the EU has already adopted affect other product groups, such as tyres (4.3 to 45.3 per cent) and adipic acid (29.1 to 42.3 per cent).

What this means for importers

The sources give no cause for alarm, but they do give a clear to-do list:

• Know the HS code and duty rate of your items: If you do not know your code, you cannot judge whether a new measure would hit it.
• Calculate prices with a reservation: For deliveries in winter and spring 2027, quotations to end customers should include a duty clause or leave some room.
• Bring forward time-critical orders if possible: Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027. As described in our market overview for October 2026, orders for it should be fixed by the end of November. That coincides with the political uncertainty.
• Keep documentation in order: The more proceedings the Commission runs, the more important correct tariff codes, proof of origin and invoices become.

At DS Trading, we clarify the HS code before the order is placed and include duty and import VAT in the quotation, see Services. Quality control by our own team in China is unaffected by this, see Quality control. If you would like a specific order checked for duty risk, contact us via the contact page.