Nigeria
Duty on a container of glass bottles is not one number you can look up — it is a chain of charges assessed on the CIF value against your HS code, and it only lands once Form M and a PAAR exist. This page walks the sequence in the order it happens, and tells you which parts you can control and which ones sit with your bank and your agent.
Reply within 24 working hours — MOQ, price and the next sailing date.
Most first-time importers ask us for a number — “what is the duty on glass bottles?” — and the honest answer is that no supplier can give it to you, because duty is assessed on your CIF value and your HS line, not on our price list. What we can do is show you the full sequence, tell you which documents have to exist before the vessel arrives, and be explicit about where the money actually goes. Everything below is the process as it applies to a normal commercial import into Lagos; your clearing agent’s assessment notice is the only figure that counts.
Perfume bottles, droppers, cream jars and similar containers for packing goods sit under HS heading 7010.90. The sub-line depends on what the container is and how it is presented — capacity, whether it is a bottle or a jar, and whether closures ship with it. This matters because the CET band is attached to the line, not to the words “glass bottle”. Two shipments described almost identically on paper can land in different bands. Give your agent the product photos, the capacity in ml, the neck finish and the packing list before the goods sail, and have them confirm the classification in writing. If the declared line later turns out wrong, the reclassification cost is yours.
Four things stack in sequence. First, customs value — normally the CIF value, so your goods value plus freight and insurance, not the FOB price you paid us. Second, import duty: a CET band percentage applied to that CIF value. Third, levies and fees that Nigeria applies on top of the CET, including an Import Adjustment Tax on a published list of tariff lines. Fourth, VAT at 7.5 %, charged on the duty-inclusive value rather than on the goods alone — which is why a small duty change moves the VAT line too. We deliberately do not publish percentages here: the CET is a banded schedule, the IAT list is revised, and the rates on it are scheduled to step down annually from 2027. Ask your agent for the assessment notice and treat that as the only number you budget against.
Form M, first and non-negotiably. It is opened by your bank in Nigeria against our proforma invoice, and it has to be in place before shipment — an import that arrives without it cannot be processed normally. Next, the PAAR: your agent applies for a Pre-Arrival Assessment Report against the Form M, and it must be issued before the vessel berths or the container cannot be declared. If the goods are regulated, SONCAP sits alongside these: a Product Certificate registered in Nigeria, then a Certificate of Conformity per shipment. On our side we prepare the commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading and certificate of origin, and supply the test reports and factory details the SONCAP filing needs. What we cannot do is issue Form M, PAAR or SONCAP from China — those are Nigerian instruments and they stay with you and your bank.
Nigeria’s 2026 fiscal policy measures, in force since 1 April 2026, list 17 categories of goods that cannot be imported from outside ECOWAS. Item 15 is hollow glass bottles above 150 ml — “carboys, bottles and flasks” of a capacity exceeding 0.15 litres. That is a prohibition, not a duty rate: no declaration and no agent can clear a 200 ml bottle legally. It is the single most common misjudgement we see from first-time buyers, and it has nothing to do with whether the product would sell. Everything we quote for Nigeria sits at or below 150 ml for exactly this reason.
Three places, and none of them is the duty rate. The first is dwell time — cargo sitting at Apapa or Tin Can Island while documents are queried, which averages around three weeks and is billed as storage and demurrage. The second is document mismatch: a capacity on the invoice that does not match the product, an HS line that does not match the description, a packing list that does not match the B/L. Any of these triggers an examination and restarts the clock. The third is a container that had to be re-quoted because the size was wrong from the start. All three are avoidable, and all three are cheaper to fix before the vessel sails than after it berths.
We quote FOB Lianyungang as standard, which is the cleanest basis because it separates our price from your freight and your duty. If you would rather compare on a CIF Lagos basis, we can arrange it through the forwarder we book with, so freight and insurance are added to our invoice. What we will not do is quote DDP Lagos — duty is assessed in your name against your Form M, the importer of record has to be your Nigerian entity, and a supplier in China cannot stand in for that. Freight moves week to week, so any CIF figure we give you is tied to the sailing we book, not to a price list.
| Step | Who handles it | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Proforma invoice issued | Us, from Xuzhou | Same week you confirm the model and quantity |
| Form M opened | You, via your authorised dealer bank | Before shipment — the bank works from our proforma |
| Product Certificate + SONCAP | Your agent in Nigeria | Before shipment, for goods on the regulated list |
| Goods sail | Us, FOB Lianyungang | 30–38 days to Apapa / Tin Can Island |
| PAAR applied for | Your clearing agent, against the Form M | Before the vessel berths |
| Declaration and assessment | Your licensed clearing agent | On arrival; duty and VAT assessed on CIF |
| Duty and VAT paid, cargo released | You, as importer of record | Average dwell time runs around 21 days |
Transit times are typical sailing days from Lianyungang and exclude production; confirm the current schedule when we book your container.
It is a banded percentage of the CIF value, set by the HS line your agent classifies the goods under, plus levies and 7.5 % VAT on the duty-inclusive value. We do not publish a percentage because the CET is a five-band schedule (0/5/10/20/35 %), an Import Adjustment Tax applies to a published list of tariff lines, and those rates are scheduled to step down annually from 2027. Ask your clearing agent for the assessment notice on your specific HS line — that is the only figure worth budgeting against.
We can tell you what you need to give your agent so they can answer it in a day: the product, its capacity in ml, the neck finish, whether closures ship in the same carton, and the CIF value. With those, a Nigerian agent can price the line. Without them, any number you are given is a guess, and an optimistic guess at the quotation stage becomes a demurrage bill at the port.
It depends on whether the specific product is on the regulated list, and your agent confirms that. If it is, the route is a Product Certificate registered in Nigeria, then a Certificate of Conformity per shipment. We supply what the filing needs — product photos and dimensions, HS codes, FDA and LFGB test reports, MSDS for coatings, and factory details — but the certificate itself is issued inside Nigeria and cannot be raised from China.
7010.90 is the heading for glass containers used for packing goods, which is where perfume bottles, droppers and cream jars normally sit. The sub-line is where shipments get separated, and it turns on capacity and presentation rather than on the product name. Because the CET band attaches to the sub-line, we send photos, capacities and the packing list with every shipment so your agent classifies from the actual goods rather than from a one-word description.
Customs reclassifies, re-assesses, and the difference plus penalties falls on the importer, with the container held while it is resolved. It is the most expensive failure mode in the whole process because it stops the clock after the vessel has already berthed. The defence is cheap: get the classification confirmed in writing by your agent before the goods sail, and make sure the invoice description matches what is physically in the carton.
No, and be careful with anyone who offers it. Duty is assessed against your Form M and your Nigerian entity as importer of record — a Chinese supplier cannot legally stand in that position. What we can do is quote FOB Lianyungang, or CIF Lagos if you want freight and insurance in the same number, and prepare every export document your agent asks for.
Not from China. Hollow glass above 150 ml is on Nigeria’s import prohibition list under the 2026 fiscal policy measures, item 15 of 17, in force since 1 April 2026 and applying to non-ECOWAS origin. It is a prohibition rather than a duty, so there is no rate that makes it clearable. If your pack must be larger, the practical alternatives are another material or filling from bulk locally.
Send the jar size, quantity and finish you need. We reply with price, MOQ and the next sailing date — usually within one working day.