In-depth Analysis of the Full Process of Daily Chemicals Import Customs Declaration and Key Compliance Points Sorting in 2026

From European Factories to Shanghai Shelves: Hidden Thresholds for Daily Chemicals Import

In Q1 2026,the import declaration volume of daily chemical products at Shanghai Port increased by 17% year-on-year,while the rejection rate also rose to 8.3% simultaneously.A batch of baby care sets shipped from Hamburg Port,Germany was detained at Pudong International Airport for two full weeks because the formula contained a new type of preservative; a batch of South Korean brand facial masks faced whole batch return as the ingredient ranking on the outer packaging label was inconsistent with the filing certificate.These are not isolated cases.Daily chemicals import seems to have unified standards,but in fact each SKU may trigger different supervision logics.EU CPNP notification,South Korea KFDA certification and the revised version of China’s Regulations on Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics are intertwined on the same batch of goods,forming the most realistic compliance maze for daily chemicals import in 2026.

Zhongshen has served foreign trade enterprises in Caohejing Development Zone for more than 20 years.Among the daily chemical customs declaration forms it has handled,about 40% have various problems in the first declaration.The core contradiction is that the quality systems of overseas factories are not compatible with China’s port supervision requirements.A complete EU safety assessment report may not directly correspond to the toxicological data required by China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA); the INCI names of ingredients provided by South Korean original manufacturers need to be compared one by one with the 2026 latest version of the Catalog of Used Cosmetic Raw Materials.This information asymmetry leads many importers to find that the compliance cost far exceeds expectations after the goods arrive at the port.

Document Pre-audit: Block 90% of Risks Before Cargo Shipment

The actual customs declaration work starts before the goods leave the overseas warehouse.Zhongshen’s operating practice is to launch the document pre-audit mechanism within 48 hours after receiving the customer’s purchase contract.The core task of this link is to change post-incident remedy to pre-event inspection.

Pre-review of Ingredient Compliance

The supplementary version of the Catalog of Prohibited Raw Materials for Cosmetics,implemented on May 1,2026,adds 12 restricted substances. The first step of pre-audit is to import the full ingredient list provided by overseas suppliers into the self-built database,and conduct cross-comparison with the latest negative lists of NMPA and the General Administration of Customs.There was once an Italian perfume brand,whose classic product contained 0.03% hydroxycitronellal.This ingredient is classified as an allergen requiring labeling in the EU.Although it is not prohibited in China,it must be clearly marked on the Chinese label.After Manager Sun found this problem in the pre-audit stage,he required the foreign party to modify the label design draft in advance,avoiding the container detention charge caused by rectification after arrival at the port.

For products claiming special effects,such as whitening,sun protection and anti-hair loss products,it is necessary to check whether they have obtained the registration certificate or filing certificate issued by NMPA in the pre-audit stage.The 2026 supervision trend is that port customs will conduct real-time online comparison with NMPA’s registration database,and customs clearance cannot be achieved only with an acceptance notice.Zhongshen’s team will obtain the product registration and filing number in advance,and actively attach the webpage query screenshot when declaring.This practice reduces the inspection rate by about 30%.

Hazardous Goods Attribute Identification

Many daily chemical products contain flammable and explosive ingredients such as alcohol and propane,which fall into the scope of the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals.In the pre-audit stage,it is necessary to obtain an accurate MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and entrust a professional institution to conduct hazardous characteristic classification and identification.There was once a batch of dry cleaning spray imported from Spain,whose MSDS showed that its propellant was butane with a flash point lower than 60℃,and it was judged as Class 2.1 Dangerous Goods.Zhongshen coordinated with the shipping company to arrange dangerous goods shipping space in advance,and guided the customer to handle the Inspection Result Form on Performance of Outbound/Inbound Goods Packaging,ensuring seamless connection between transportation and declaration links.

Port Customs Declaration: Data Logic is More Important Than Complete Documents

In 2026,the customs declaration system has been fully integrated with the AI document review module,and machine review accounts for more than 85%.The system no longer simply checks whether the documents are complete,but deeply excavates the logical correlation between data.Low-level errors such as declaration price lower than customs risk parameters,contradiction between certificate of origin and loading port on the bill of lading,and total ingredient content exceeding 100% will be directly intercepted by the system.

Zhongshen’s customs declaration team adopts a "three-level review system" at the declaration end: the first level is completed by junior document reviewers to check document completeness; the second level is completed by senior customs declarants to check data logic,such as whether the dutiable value composition is reasonable and whether the freight allocation conforms to international practice; the third level is completed by industry experts to conduct policy applicability review,especially for goods enjoying preferential tariffs under free trade agreements,it is necessary to ensure that the rules of origin meet the substantial transformation standard.

A typical scenario is imported perfume.The customs document review system will capture the declaration prices of products of the same brand and specification in history to establish a price comparison model.If the declaration price of a certain batch deviates from the average by more than 15%,the system will automatically transfer to manual verification.Zhongshen’s practice is to actively submit a price explanation letter when declaring,explaining the reasons for batch differences,such as packaging upgrade,exchange rate fluctuation and bulk discount,and attach the original factory invoice and bank foreign exchange payment voucher to form a complete evidence chain.This active disclosure strategy shortens the processing cycle of price objection cases from an average of 7 days to 2 days.

Commodity Inspection and Release: The Last Mile from Laboratory to Shelf

Daily chemical products are commodities subject to statutory inspection,and the port inspection rate is about 20%.The inspection content is divided into three categories: document verification,on-site inspection and laboratory testing.The 2026 supervision focuses on label compliance and microbial indicators.

Accurate Implementation of Chinese Labels

According to the Measures for the Administration of Cosmetics Labels,Chinese labels must mark nine items including product name,full ingredients,net content,expiry date,name and address of registrant/filer,name and address of manufacturer,and production license number.Zhongshen’s label review team will check word by word,focusing on:

• Whether the ingredient list is arranged in descending order of content,and whether ingredients with content less than 1% are arranged randomly
• Whether imported cosmetics are marked with the approval number of "Guozhuangwangbeijinzi" or "Guozhuangtejjinzi"
• Whether products claiming "no addition" illegally label absolute expressions such as "preservative-free"
• Whether the instruction for use includes safety warning statements such as "avoid contact with eyes"

There was once a batch of makeup remover oil imported from Japan.The original factory label marked "mineral oil" as "liquid paraffin".Although the INCI name matched,the Chinese label did not adopt the standard Chinese name in the Catalog of Used Cosmetic Raw Materials,so it was judged as unqualified label.Before the goods arrived at the port,Zhongshen required the Japanese party to provide a label design draft compliant with Chinese regulations and reserved a time window for rectification.

Cycle Management of Laboratory Testing

For products imported for the first time,the customs will sample and send them to the laboratory for testing,including microorganisms,heavy metals and prohibited substances,and the cycle is usually 10-15 working days.Zhongshen’s strategy is to suggest customers to entrust a qualified third-party testing institution to conduct pre-inspection and obtain a test report before the goods are shipped.Although there will be additional costs,the pre-inspection report can be actively submitted when declaring,and the customs will reduce or exempt some testing items according to the situation,compressing the release cycle to less than 5 working days.

Case Review: Customs Clearance of a Batch of French Face Creams

In March 2026,Manager Sun took over a batch of anti-aging face creams imported from Marseille,France,with a total of 15 SKUs and a value of 850,000 euros.When the customer declared by themselves before,the customs required to provide toxicological safety assessment data of "retinyl palmitate" contained in the ingredients,and the goods were stranded at Yangshan Port for a whole month.

After Zhongshen intervened,it first sorted out the regulatory status of this ingredient.Retinyl palmitate is a vitamin A derivative,which is listed in the Catalog of Used Cosmetic Raw Materials,but its use concentration shall not exceed 1%.The team reviewed the EU cosmetic safety assessment report and found that its addition amount was 0.8%,which met China’s limit.Then,the team contacted the French manufacturer,obtained the detailed production process description and purity test report of the ingredient,and entrusted domestic toxicology experts to issue a safety assessment summary in line with China’s regulatory format.

In the label link,it was found that the original label directly translated "Retinyl Palmitate" into "视黄醇棕榈酸酯" without marking its function "antioxidant".According to the 2026 new regulations,functional ingredients must indicate their functions on the label.Zhongshen guided the customer to redesign the Chinese label and added compliance notes.

Finally,the batch of goods took only 11 working days from order receiving to release.Compared with the customer’s previous experience,the time efficiency increased by 70%.More importantly,Zhongshen established a compliance file for the product for the customer,and the inspection rate dropped to less than 5% when importing subsequent batches.

Compliance Value: Convert Uncertainty into Predictable Cost

The complexity of daily chemical import does not lie in the technical difficulty of a single point,but in the variability of regulatory rules and information asymmetry.Zhongshen’s value lies in converting scattered regulatory provisions into implementable operation lists.Through pre-review,data pre-audit,label pre-verification and risk pre-control,the compliance risks that would occur at the port are resolved before the goods arrive at the port.

The 2026 regulatory environment puts forward higher requirements for importers.Data interchange between customs and NMPA,popularization of AI document review,and linkage between credit rating and inspection rate all mean that the extensive declaration mode will be unsustainable.Professional customs declaration agencies are no longer simple document transmitters,but designers and executors of compliance systems.The case base,database and expert base accumulated by Zhongshen over 20 years constitute the core competence to cope with uncertainty.For import enterprises,choosing such a partner is essentially buying a kind of certainty: determined time cycle,determined compliance cost,and determined market access.

When a batch of daily chemical products can appear on supermarket shelves on time,when the new product launch plan is no longer disrupted by customs clearance efficiency,when compliance risks change from black swan events to quantifiable and manageable cost items,importers can really focus on brand building and market expansion.This is exactly the ultimate purpose of professional agency services - let professional people handle professional affairs,and let enterprises return to the essence of business.