Ask three suppliers to quote the same ceramic dinner set to the same warehouse and you may receive three numbers that cannot be compared: one FOB, one "taxes included" without saying whose taxes, one DDP with duty hidden inside a round figure. A duty-inclusive quotation fixes this by showing every line — product, freight, duty, VAT, clearance, delivery — with the rates named. This article gives you the template, a worked example, and the red flags that expose a padded or careless offer.
Seven lines every serious ceramic quote shows
| Line | What it contains | Who verifies it |
|---|---|---|
| Goods value | Unit price by SKU and quantity, at FOB or EXW | You, against market benchmarks |
| Inland and export costs | Origin trucking, export clearance, loading | Seller |
| Freight | Air, sea or rail, per mode and Incoterm | Carrier quotation |
| Import duty | Base tariff plus trade-remedy layers — anti-dumping, Section 301 and 2025-onward layers | Customs broker |
| Import VAT or GST | Where applicable, charged on the duty-paid value | Broker or tax adviser |
| Clearance and brokerage | Entry filing, documentation, port handling | Broker schedule |
| Delivery | Port or airport to the named destination | Carrier |
The duty line is where quotes diverge most, because it is the line a careless seller can inflate or omit. Everything else is checkable against carrier and broker schedules. Note that the duty line has two properties no other line shares: it is set by regulation rather than negotiation, and since 2025 it has changed often enough that an undated calculation is worth very little. A quotation that treats duty as a fixed round number — "taxes included" — is telling you it has not been recalculated recently, which in this category means it is wrong somewhere between a little and a lot.
Duty lines differ sharply by market
| Market | Duty structure for Chinese ceramic tableware | What the quote must name |
|---|---|---|
| United States | No AD/CVD order on HS 6911/6912 as of our September 2026 retrieval — verify before contracting; Section 301 List 3 adds 25% on most codes; further 2025-onward layers apply and change frequently | The 10-digit code and the dated, combined rate used |
| European Union | Single 79.0% anti-dumping duty under (EU) 2026/274, in force since 7 February 2026; national import VAT on top | The 79.0% line and the member state of entry |
| United Kingdom | Company-specific rates of 13.1–36.1% under AD 2378; the rate follows the exporter's legal entity; import VAT on top | The exporter entity and the rate matched to it |
A worked example (illustrative)
Take one SKU: FC-DW-01, an Everyday White 16-Piece Dinnerware Set in high-fired white porcelain, 500 sets — a typical stock-program MOQ — at an illustrative FOB value of USD 8.60 per set, USD 4,300 total. The goods, freight and clearance assumptions are identical in all three lanes; only the duty line moves.
| Destination | Duty line | Illustrative duty | Quote must also show |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Section 301 List 3 at 25% | USD 1,075 | Current 2025-onward layers, verified per 10-digit code at quoting date |
| European Union | 79.0% under (EU) 2026/274 | USD 3,397 | Member-state import VAT on the duty-paid value |
| United Kingdom | Exporter rate, e.g. 17.9% under AD 2378 | USD 770 | The exporter entity whose annex rate was used |
The duty line alone moves the EU total more than USD 2,300 above the US example on identical goods. That is the entire argument for duty-inclusive quoting: the spread between careless and careful offers is now wider than most negotiation discounts. All figures are illustrative.
Red flags in a "duty-inclusive" quote
- "Taxes included" with no rate, regulation or date named anywhere in the document.
- No HS codes given for the SKUs — the duty cannot be verified without them.
- Duty and VAT merged into a single line, hiding both the 79.0% EU rate question and the recoverable-VAT question.
- A DDP price with no named destination, so "delivered" means nothing checkable.
- "Current rates" without a quoting date — in a 2025–2026 duty environment, an undated rate is a guess.
- Refusal to itemize freight, which masks the margin on a line you could benchmark yourself.
Five questions to send back before accepting
- Which Incoterm and named delivery point does this price assume?
- Which HS codes are the duty calculations based on, per SKU?
- Which duty instruments and rates were used — and on what date were they verified?
- How does the price behave if the duty rate changes while goods are in production or transit?
- Who appears as importer of record, and who files the entry?
Duty is only half the hidden-assumptions problem. Compliance is the other: the same quotation should state the food-contact basis for the goods — the limits and test reports behind them are summarized on our compliance page.
Frequently asked questions
Does duty-inclusive mean VAT is included too?+
Not necessarily. Duty and VAT are different lines: duty is a cost that never returns, while VAT is usually recoverable depending on your registration position. A serious quotation shows them separately so you can see both the true cost and the cash-flow picture.
Why are EU quotes suddenly so much higher than US quotes?+
Because the duty structures diverged in 2026: the EU applies a single 79.0% anti-dumping duty on Chinese ceramic tableware, while the US stack is built on a 25% Section 301 layer plus current additional layers. Compare the structures on our tariffs hub before assuming a supplier is overcharging.
Can the duty rate change after I accept a quote?+
Yes — February 2026 demonstrated that rates can move sharply between signature and arrival. Build a rate-change clause into purchase agreements that states who absorbs differences for goods in production or in transit.
If you want a quotation built this way — every line named, duty verified at the date of quoting, EU, US and UK lanes side by side — send your product list and we will price it transparently.
