It’s a well-known secret among importers that Santa’s elves in China are the main manufacturer of Christmas decorations and lights. If you’re importing lights and decorations from China this year, we’re here to make the process quick and easy for you so you can get a jump on the holiday imports season.
China is the Christmas Epicenter
Thousands of miles from the North Pole sits China, where factory workers are hard at work making Christmas decorations and those popular flashing LED lights that Americans like to drape all over their houses.
The city of Yiwu, China alone has approximately 600 factories building more than 60 percent of the entire world’s Christmas decorations and accessories. You name it and they are producing it. We’re talking everything from tinsel and toys to glittering red stars that are hand dipped in glue first.
Do Your Holiday Merchandise Research
This is a big time of year for seasonal wholesale importers, which work with clients to import all sorts of Christmas decorations and lights. It’s always a good idea to do research on your competitors to make sure you’re pricing your imports properly. Here are a few seasonal wholesale seasonal importers to get you started with your homework:
Choose the Correct Tax Designation
Christmas decorations and lights have their own section in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). The HTS decides the amount your Christmas decoration imports will be taxed. A number classification code is given to your product’s name and/or the materials used to construct your imports. Use this import Christmas decorations duty classification calculator to crunch Christmas import tax numbers.
Christmas Decorations Inspections
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) take the inspection of imported Christmas decorations seriously. What could be harmful about Christmas decorations? Plenty. Just last year around the holidays, a popular plug-in laser light projector that promised to make the outside of your home sparkle with Christmas cheer when the sun goes down was recalled after pilots reported the light was shining straight into plane cockpits and disrupting flights. The CBP analyzes Christmas decoration imports closely to avoid such recalls.
Be Aware of Seasonal Lighting Safety Requirements
Seasonal lighting is designated as any light strands that are portable, plug-connected and have a normal 120-voltage rating. To prevent fire, the CPSC makes sure your seasonal lighting uses the proper wiring and fuses.
For importers, it’s important to note that inspections for seasonal lights are bypassed altogether if your lighting meets one of the following three safety standards:
- A proper minimum wire size for polarized and non-polarized plugs. Read more on wires sizes here.
- Sufficient strain relief load weight of 20 pounds
- Overcurrent protection fuses
If your seasonal lights meet one of the above requirements and skip inspections, your import clearance process just became much faster.