Importing From China to Norway: Customs, VAT and Steps in 2026

Norway imported goods worth 1,115,801 million kroner in 2025, of which 132,505 million came from China, excluding ships and oil platforms, according to Statistics Norway. Furniture, cosmetics, toys, textiles, apparel and electronics rank among the most commonly sourced categories.

Norway is not a member of the European Union, but belongs, alongside Iceland and Liechtenstein, to the European Economic Area (EEA) through EFTA. The EEA agreement opens the single market to Norwegian goods, but excludes agriculture and does not create a customs union: Norway sets its own customs duties toward third countries, including China. Customs clearance falls under Tolletaten.

Norway is a member of EFTA, which has concluded free trade agreements with a dozen partners in Asia-Pacific, including Singapore and Vietnam. The official list of these agreements, as of September 27, 2026, does not show China in any of the four zones listed: no free trade agreement between Norway and China exists as of that date.

Bilateral talks were frozen in late 2010, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Chinese dissident, before diplomatic relations later normalized. Practical consequence: no certificate of origin opens a preferential tariff on a Chinese good, the duty depending solely on the code in the Norwegian customs tariff.

Norway's customs value is calculated as follows, according to Tolletaten: the price of the goods, plus insurance, packaging, commissions or fees, plus transport to Norway. The applicable duty depends on the goods code in the Norwegian customs tariff: with no agreement with China, the general rate applies.

Several common sourcing categories are exempt: furniture, footwear and cosmetics carry no duty at all. Apparel remains the notable exception, with a duty most often set at 10.7% of the customs value. For any other category, electronics in particular, the rate needs checking line by line, as no confirmed general rule covers the whole family.

VAT is calculated on the customs value increased by the duty and any special taxes, at the standard rate of 25%. Example for a garment: on a customs value of 10,000 kroner, transport and insurance included, the 10.7% duty comes to 1,070 kroner; VAT then applies to 11,070 kroner, or 2,767.50 kroner, for a total cost of 13,837.50 kroner. On a batch of furniture of the same value, the duty is zero and only VAT applies, on 10,000 kroner, or 2,500 kroner, for a total cost of 12,500 kroner.

Any goods entering Norway must be declared to Tolletaten. They arrive at a customs warehouse generally managed by a freight forwarder, who submits the declaration electronically via TVINN. The importer can also connect directly, but remains responsible for the compliance of the customs clearance.

Important change on September 15, 2026: the direct clearance scheme, which allowed a declaration to be filed before crossing the border, closes at midnight that day. Declarants move to Digitoll, the new digital portal, or to a customs warehouse, whose declaration itself becomes mandatory on March 1, 2027. An importer working with a Norwegian freight forwarder should check their Digitoll connection now.

Norway is not a member of the European Union, but the EEA agreement extends a large share of European technical regulation to its market. Toys must carry the CE marking, with individual marking for higher-risk models intended for children under three, and requirements on their physical, mechanical, chemical, electrical, flammability and noise properties, under the supervision of the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB).

Cosmetics may contain substances considered medicinal, to be checked before ordering, according to Tolletaten. For electrical and electronic goods, the EEA applies the same directives as the EU, including RoHS; each category needs checking product by product. A pre-shipment quality inspection, along the lines of the ISO 2859-1 standard, remains the best safeguard against a defect; no Norwegian body publishing standardized rates for this inspection at a Chinese factory has been identified, so this is handled case by case.

Tolletaten warns that goods lacking the required permits, approvals or labelling can be held and, as a last resort, seized and destroyed.

The Port of Oslo, the main entry point for general and containerized cargo, handled 262,530 TEU in 2025, up 10% year on year, according to the Port of Oslo's annual report (2025 figure, to be checked for a more recent year). Drammen rounds out port capacity for containerized freight and vehicles. From southern China, freight from Guangzhou or Shenzhen most often reaches Norway via a transshipment port in Northern Europe, with sea transit time counted in weeks.

FOB southern China suits cases where the buyer arranges transport; CIF or CFR to a European port when an intermediary handles it. DDP remains inadvisable as long as the Chinese seller is not itself a registered customs declarant and liable for VAT in Norway, which remains rare.

On payment, the practice remains a deposit followed by a balance before shipment, paid into the Chinese company's business account, never a personal account, with any change of bank details verified by a direct phone call. The krone fluctuates against the yuan and the dollar: an importer of large volumes has an interest in tracking the exchange rate rather than being at its mercy.

A first import into Norway follows a precise sequence: specifications, factory verification, approved sample, proforma invoice with incoterm, identification of the Norwegian tariff code, CE or DSB compliance where the product requires it, pre-shipment inspection, freight to the chosen port, then declaration via TVINN or Digitoll by the client or their freight forwarder.

Sorva is a sourcing and trading house based in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, backed by a Chinese subsidiary whose corporate purpose covers buying, reselling and exporting goods, and by a parent company in France. Our Chinese-speaking team finds and verifies factories, negotiates, has quality checked before loading and arranges freight to the chosen Norwegian port. We never act as the official importer of record in Norway, do not clear customs in the destination country, and do not export vehicles without a licensed Chinese exporter. Our base offer is invoiced in dollars; no certificate specific to Norway has been identified, with support focused mainly on CE or DSB compliance, quoted on request.