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

Last fact-checked: November 9, 2026.

An Almaty wholesaler buys household storage bins from Ningbo, FOB, and is told to file "the EAEU import form everyone uses." China is not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union. Goods from China cross the Union customs border. The Commission's 2020 guidance on Union trade regulation says foreign goods are declared so they can be placed under a customs procedure, and that release for internal consumption is the procedure that puts them into free circulation in the Union. Importing from China to Kazakhstan is that declaration. It is not the indirect-tax return used when goods already inside the Union move from one member state to another.

A typical case

The bins are ordinary plastic housewares. The invoice is FOB Ningbo. A forwarder offers a sea-and-rail route to a Kazakh border point, or a truck after the boxes reach a Union frontier. This page does not state a transit time, a border post, or a freight rate. Those change with the operator. What does not change with the sales pitch is the legal shape: the goods are foreign, they are declared, and duty, value added tax and excise where it exists are among the payments the guidance says are made so customs can release them.

The guidance says the declarant is, as a rule, a person of a Union member state who is party to the transaction with the foreign seller, and that in some cases a foreign person may declare, for example when they move goods for their own needs without a transaction. A customs representative may perform the operations for the declarant, on a contract. A Ningbo factory is the foreign seller. It is not, by that sentence, the Kazakh declarant. Agree who in Kazakhstan will be the declarant before you pay the deposit.

What this page will not invent

The national VAT percent is set in Kazakhstan's tax law and published by the State Revenue Committee. On 9 November 2026 the Committee's regional pages that state the rate did not return a readable response. The request timed out. The official legislation site served a script shell without the article text. This page therefore does not state a VAT percentage. Do not fill one in from a broker's memory or from a blog. Ask the declarant to show the rate on a Committee or Adilet page that loads on the day you price the order.

Duty is not a single number either. The 2020 guidance says that under most-favoured-nation treatment the Union applies the import duties in the Common Customs Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union. The rate is the line for the heading on the day the declaration is registered. A storage bin and a toy and a textile can be three lines. The HS code is how you ask for the line. If a preference is offered, the guidance's logic is that a preference is a granted treatment, not the ordinary tariff. Ask which decision grants it, and which origin document proves it. The certificate of origin is the usual paper. It is not automatic for Chinese goods.

The 4 hours, with the date on the document

The Commission's guidance, a 2020 publication, says release is completed within 4 hours from registration of the customs declaration, if the declaration was registered at least 4 hours before the end of the customs office's working day. It says there are exceptions when customs control takes longer. That is the guidance's statement of the code, not a stopwatch from November 2026. Use it to plan the day of filing. Do not promise a customer the bins will be on a truck four hours after the train arrives.

The Commission's English page on customs declaration says goods moved across the customs border are declared so duties can be calculated, and that the declaration is accompanied by the documents that confirm the data in it. Declaration is, in the cases the page describes, the goods declaration rather than a passenger form. Your commercial bins are not a traveller's baggage entry.

Price the Ningbo offer without a fake VAT

FOB Ningbo leaves freight, insurance, the border declaration, duty from the tariff line, VAT at the rate you still have to confirm, and delivery to Almaty. Put "VAT: see the State Revenue Committee rate in force" on the landed-cost sheet rather than a percent this page refused to guess. The FOB term explains why the factory price is not the border price. Consolidation of several Ningbo suppliers into one declaration is a document problem as much as a freight problem. The consolidation service is the operational side. Each supplier's invoice still has to be classifiable.

A UAE import will not answer this file. Importing from China to the UAE is a different customs territory. Borrow the habit of checking the official page. Do not borrow the Gulf percent.

When the goods reach the border

They are stored and declared, payments that the procedure requires are made, and release is what lets them circulate. If the declaration is late or the heading is wrong, the goods wait. The pattern of arrival, hold and delivery is the same shape as any customs border. See what happens when cargo arrives. The declarant, not the Ningbo shipper, is who customs will question.

• Do not file the mutual-trade indirect-tax return for goods that just left China.
• Name a declarant who can be a person of a member state on this contract.
• Take the duty from the Common Customs Tariff line on the registration day.
• Leave the VAT percent blank until a State Revenue Committee page loads.
• Match every supplier invoice to the declaration. A mixed load is still one legal file.

Mistakes

• Using an EAEU-neighbour worksheet because the forwarder said "it's all the Union."
• Typing a VAT percent from a 2025 memory. The pages that would confirm the 2026 rate did not load for this check.
• Treating the 4-hour sentence as a guarantee. The guidance dates from 2020 and it lists exceptions.
• Letting the Chinese seller be the declarant without reading the sentence about who may declare.
• Comparing an Almaty delivered price with an FOB Ningbo price and calling the gap freight.

Questions buyers actually ask

Is there one VAT rate for imports from China?

There is a legal rate. This page does not state it, because the State Revenue Committee pages did not return on 9 November 2026. Get it from the Committee or from Adilet on the day you calculate.

Do I pay EAEU duty and Kazakh VAT?

The guidance says release depends on payment of the customs payments the procedure requires, including import duty under the Common Customs Tariff and value added tax. Duty is the tariff line. VAT is national. They are not the same number.

Can a Chinese supplier clear the goods?

The guidance's general rule is a person of a member state who is party to the deal. A foreign person is the exception it describes, not the default. Appoint the declarant in the contract.

What should I send for a quote?

The invoice, the heading you think is right, and the place in Kazakhstan where you need the goods. The map of other countries is on import from China. Send the Ningbo file through the RFQ form if you want the declaration scoped before the deposit.

The quote and the entry are covered in which Incoterm to use, importing into Turkey, and the customs clearance sequence.

Official sources

• Eurasian Economic Commission: Guidance on EAEU trade regulation, 2020. Declaration of foreign goods, release for internal consumption, who may be the declarant, most-favoured-nation duties from the Common Customs Tariff, and release within 4 hours when the declaration is registered at least 4 hours before the office closes.
• Eurasian Economic Commission: customs declaration, release and customs check. Goods crossing the customs border are declared, and the declaration is filed with the documents that support it. Read 9 November 2026.

State Revenue Committee pages that publish the VAT rate were requested on 9 November 2026 and did not return a body. No percent from those pages is repeated here.