Import from China to Australia in 2026: Duties, Documents and Landed Cost

Last fact-checked: 9 November 2026.

A Melbourne hardware buyer ships one LCL lot of cabinet fittings, handed over FCA at the Ningbo container terminal, for clearance into home consumption in Melbourne. The factory calls the price FOB. For a container, ICC recommends FCA rather than FOB, because the cartons are handed over before the ship is loaded. Write "FCA Ningbo container terminal."

To import from China to Australia, start with the value of the consignment and the tariff classification, not with a single duty percent. Importing from China to Australia still means reading the Border Force page for this shipment. The Australian Border Force page on import declarations, read on 9 November 2026, says that for most goods with a value of AUD 1,000 or less there are no duties, taxes or charges to pay. Tobacco, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages pay regardless of value. Goods over AUD 1,000 pay the relevant duties, taxes and other charges, including an import processing charge. The page is Import declarations.

A typical Melbourne lot

You lodge an Import Declaration (N10) when the consignment has a combined value over AUD 1,000 and the goods are cleared into home consumption. You pay the applicable duties, taxes and charges before the goods are released. Goods of AUD 1,000 or less are free of duty and GST, except tobacco, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, and they can move on a short-format self-assessed clearance. Cabinet fittings in commercial quantity are over AUD 1,000. They are an N10, not a courier slip.

The duty rate is the current tariff classification for the fittings, not a rate borrowed from another country guide. The lookup ABF points you to is current tariff classification, and the classification pages start at tariff classification. Australia import duty on China origin is that classification. This page does not print a percent, because ABF does not print one percent for every fitting.

The declaration page says GST is payable with the duties on goods over the threshold, and that goods at or under AUD 1,000 are free of GST except the tobacco and alcohol cases. It does not print the GST percentage. The Australian Taxation Office page that usually states the rate did not return a readable copy on 9 November 2026, so the percent is not repeated here. Open the Tax Office page yourself before you put a GST figure on a quote. Do not borrow 10% from an old brochure or from another buyer's invoice.

Who files

ABF says importers can use a licensed customs broker. The broker files. The broker is not automatically the person who owns the goods or the person who will sell them in Melbourne. If your company is the buyer, your company should be able to explain the N10. A DDP offer that leaves a Chinese forwarder as the importer is how fittings get released to someone you cannot invoice back.

The how-to-import index is How to import. Read it for the permit questions that sit beside the declaration. If the fittings include timber, a food-contact claim, or material a border officer would treat as plant or animal product, ask ABF before the cartons are closed. A forwarder cannot write that answer on the quay.

Landed cost before the deposit

Use the landed-cost sheet. Customs value follows the WCO valuation method your broker applies. The combined value of the consignment is what decides SAC versus N10. Splitting one commercial lot across paperwork to stay under AUD 1,000 is the mistake the "combined value" wording is there to stop.

Where this lane goes wrong

• Pricing a commercial lot as if it were under AUD 1,000 because each carton is small.
• Assuming fittings are free of GST because someone remembers a low-value rule. Over AUD 1,000, ABF says you pay the taxes before release.
• Printing a GST percent the Tax Office page was not opened for.
• Leaving the importer name as the Chinese forwarder on a DDP quote.
• Paying the balance to an account that does not match the seller. Check it before the TT, the way the supplier check describes.

The wider file is the first-time compliance checklist. After the ship berths, the clocks are the arrival sequence. How LCL is built is the LCL walkthrough and the LCL service. New Zealand's threshold is a different statute: see the New Zealand guide. The UK parcel line is a different statute again: the United Kingdom guide. The hub is import from China.

Questions buyers ask

Can I start with LCL?

Yes. The test is the combined value of the consignment, not the size of the container. An LCL lot over AUD 1,000 is still an N10.

What is the GST rate?

Not stated on this page. ABF's declaration page says GST is due above the threshold and not due at or under AUD 1,000 for most goods. The percentage lives on the Tax Office page, which was not readable on the day this was checked.

Who pays duty?

The importer who lodges the N10, before release. FCA Ningbo means that person is on your side of the freight, unless a real importer in Australia has agreed to be named and can show you the entry.

See also which Incoterm to use and the customs clearance sequence.

Official sources

• ABF import declarations: AUD 1,000 threshold, N10, SAC, processing charge. Read 9 November 2026.
• ABF how to import.
• Tariff classification.
• Current tariff: the duty lookup. No duty percent is copied here.
• Incoterms 2020.
• WCO customs valuation.

The GST percentage is not repeated here. The Tax Office page did not open on 9 November 2026. Use that office's own page for imported goods, and do not take the rate from a third-party blog.

If you want the Ningbo handover checked before the deposit, use the RFQ form.