The European Commission recently released a report on the compliance of imported goods, showing that in 2024, 82% of the non-compliant products rejected by customs came from China. The number of rejected shipments from China saw a dramatic increase in 2024, reaching 2.3 times that of 2023 and 2.8 times that of 2022.
On August 29, the European Commission published the “Report on Compliance Control of Products Entering the EU Market in 2024.” The data provided in the report for the three-year period from 2022 to 2024 indicates that China has been the largest source of rejected goods for three consecutive years. In 2024, the quantity of rejected shipments from China surged to account for 82% of the total rejected goods in the EU, compared to 63% in 2023 and 66% in 2022.
In terms of the number of rejected shipments, China had 17,239 rejected items in 2022, 21,004 in 2023 (an increase of approximately 22%), and a significant surge of 129% in 2024, reaching 48,139 – which is 2.3 times that of 2023 and 2.8 times that of 2022.
The second-largest source of rejected goods was the United States, but the quantity of non-compliant items in 2024 significantly decreased from 5,268 in 2023 to 3,247, a 38% decrease. The third-ranked country was the United Kingdom, with 2,120 rejected items in 2024, a 16% decrease from 2,449 in 2023.
In a cross-country comparison, the number of rejected goods from China in 2024 was approximately 15 times that of the United States and 23 times that of the United Kingdom.
The report highlighted other countries worth noting, including Turkey, Hong Kong, India, and South Korea. Turkey and Hong Kong, which ranked fourth and fifth in 2022, both showed a decreasing trend in the number of rejected shipments in 2023 and 2024, while India and South Korea entered the top five in 2023 and 2024.
According to the report, the most rejected goods were in the categories of medical supplies, household appliances, and electronic products. The number of rejected medical supplies in 2024 was 4.6 times that of 2022.
Matthias Petschke, Director-General of Customs at the European Commission, stated in the preface of the report that only goods meeting high standards of public interest protection can enter the EU market, such as products ensuring health and safety, consumer rights, environmental protection, and other public interests.
However, the report showed that the sampling rate of customs departments accounted for only 0.0082% of all imported products, meaning that on average, only 82 items out of every million products were inspected. Apart from the low sampling rate, there were also significant differences in the inspection intensity of imported goods among EU member states.
The report indicated that in some member states, up to 175 non-compliant products were rejected per million imported goods, whereas three countries rejected fewer than one item. If all member states were as diligent as these three countries in controlling the quality of imported goods, the actual number of rejected goods in 2024 would have been significantly lower than the reported 64,322.
The EU is a single market with unified external tariffs and internal tariff exemptions, allowing free movement of goods among member states without tariffs and cumbersome customs procedures. Any inaction by a member state could lead to counterfeit and substandard goods entering the EU market and circulating to other countries.
Prior to this report, the European Commission released the annual report of the European “Safety Gate,” revealing that around 40% of unsafe products identified were imported from China. The full name of “Safety Gate” is Safety Gate: the EU Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Non-Food Products.
In 2024, “Safety Gate” issued a total of 4,137 alerts, the highest number recorded since the system was launched in 2003. Among these, cosmetics accounted for 36% of alerts, making it the most frequently reported product category posing health risks, followed by toys (15%), electrical appliances (10%), motor vehicles (9%), and chemical products (6%).
The most common risk factor was dangerous chemical substances, with 97% of cosmetics alerts containing the banned synthetic fragrance BMHCA, a toxic substance that could harm the reproductive system and irritate the skin, and has been banned in the EU.