Packing List: Definition and Mandatory Contents

The packing list is a document describing the physical contents of an international shipment, package by package. The European Commission's official glossary on external trade defines it as follows: it "indicates how goods for export are packed" and "specifies the contents of the packages, as well as the volume, weight and dimensions of each package in the consignment." The same text adds that customs officers request it at both export and import, and that both the sender and the recipient must be able to produce it.

This document replaces no other paper: it complements the commercial invoice and the transport document, without taking over their role. It first serves a physical and logistical purpose, from loading the container through to warehouse checks, before becoming a supporting document during customs clearance.

A complete packing list has two levels of information: a header identifying the transaction, and a line-by-line detail for each package. The header states the identity and address of the seller and the buyer, the date it was drawn up, the number of the invoice or order the list relates to, and the planned mode of transport.

For each package, the list states its identification marks and numbers, its product reference, the quantity it contains, its net weight, its gross weight and its dimensions. This information matches the European Commission's definition quoted above: the volume, weight and dimensions of each package in the shipment.

The commercial invoice is the value document: it sets the unit price, the currency, the Incoterm and the payment terms, and it is on this basis that customs calculates duties and taxes. The packing list, on the other hand, carries no price: it only describes what is physically inside each package, its quantity and its weight. The two documents are complementary, never interchangeable.

This complementarity explains why customs systematically cross-checks the packing list, the commercial invoice and the transport document during an inspection: it is the consistency between these documents that allows a shipment to clear without being held up. This assumes the list matches exactly what the shipment actually contains.

In practice, a packing list is presented as a table, one line per package. The following column layout covers the most common cases and can be supplemented depending on the product, for example with an HS code or a batch number for products subject to traceability.

The packing list is drawn up by whoever packs the goods, in practice the factory or its freight forwarder, at the point the packages are made up and weighed. It is sent to the buyer before or with the shipment's departure, together with the commercial invoice, so that the two documents can be compared before arrival at destination.

On a case followed by Sorva, the Chinese-speaking team in Guangzhou checks this list directly with the factory before shipping: it verifies that the detail per package matches the order placed and what was actually produced, before the container leaves.

Most packing-list-related hold-ups do not come from fraud, but from an inconsistency between documents. Customs systematically cross-checks the packing list, the commercial invoice and the transport document: a discrepancy in quantity, reference or weight between these documents is enough to delay the goods, until the discrepancy is explained or corrected.

A net weight higher than the gross weight is a physically impossible inconsistency, since the gross weight includes the packaging: this type of data-entry error draws attention first. An undated list, one with no related invoice number, or one that omits the end-of-list totals, also complicates the documentary check.

Sorva is a brokerage and sourcing house active between Europe and China. On every case, our Chinese-speaking team in Guangzhou checks the packing list directly with the factory before departure: matching against the order, consistency of weights and quantities with the invoice, presence of the totals. A pre-shipment inspection, at the same time, physically verifies what these documents state.

In most cases, you do not pay any fees: you open a case, we negotiate the goods for you, and we take a commission on their value ex-factory. For a larger project, the Produce and Deliver package covers production follow-up, the pre-shipment inspection and arranging transport to your warehouse, consistent documents included.