Regulations & Compliance

Customs, compliance, and material regulations — CITES, CPSIA, REACH, ISPM-15, GSP, and more.

Regulation guides explain the product rules that decide whether a handmade good can legally be sold in your market, and what evidence you need from the workshop to show it can. They are organised by what triggers the rule — the material, the intended user, or the marking on the item — because that is how the obligations actually attach.

Rules that attach to the material

Some obligations follow the substance the object is made of, regardless of what it is:

  • Protected species — certain woods, corals, shells and animal products fall under CITES controls, which can require permits or prohibit trade outright.
  • Legal harvest — plant and timber declarations require you to state species and country of harvest and to have exercised due care about their legality.
  • Wood packaging — the crate or pallet a shipment travels on is regulated separately from the goods inside it, under the IPPC's ISPM-15 standard.
  • Chemistry — dyes, tanning agents, glazes, solders and finishes bring restricted-substance rules with them, particularly for textiles, leather and anything that touches food.

Rules that attach to who uses the product

The same ceramic bowl is treated differently as decor, as tableware and as a child's item. Children's products carry the heaviest obligations in most markets, including composition limits, third-party testing by accredited laboratories, tracking information on the item, and a certificate issued by the importer. Food-contact use brings its own set, which is where lead and cadmium release from glazes becomes a testing question rather than a marketing one.

Getting compliance evidence out of an artisan supplier

The practical difficulty is not knowing the rule; it is that a village workshop has never been asked for a material declaration and does not have a laboratory relationship. The guides deal with this directly: which questions to ask at sample stage, when to pay for testing yourself rather than wait, how to write the requirement into the purchase order, and why an emailed photograph of somebody else's certificate is not evidence about your goods.

What these guides will not tell you

These guides give general principles and name the authority. They do not state limits, thresholds, tariff treatments, effective dates or enforcement policy, because those are exactly the details that are amended, differ by jurisdiction, and carry consequences when they are wrong. Confirm current requirements directly with the body that owns the rule — the CITES Secretariat, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the European Chemicals Agency, the relevant customs authority — or with a licensed broker or compliance consultant before you ship.

Every regulations & compliance article

Textile Labelling Rules for Handmade Imports

Fibre content, care instructions and origin are three separate obligations. What each requires, where handmade textiles go wrong, and how to fix labels at source.

Geographical Indication Marks in Handicrafts

A GI protects a name tied to a place and a method. What it guarantees, what it does not, how it differs from a trademark, and how to check a supplier's claim.

Prop 65 Warnings for Imported Home Decor

Explain California Proposition 65 for imported home decor and ceramics: listed chemicals (lead, cadmium in glazes), warning labels, and testing

REACH Compliance for Textile & Leather Imports (EU)

REACH for textile and leather handicrafts entering the EU: restricted dyes and tanning chemicals, substances of very high concern, supplier declarations.

The Lacey Act and Wood Handicraft Declarations

Explain the US Lacey Act for imported wood handicrafts: the plant declaration (PPQ 505), species and country reporting, and due care

CITES and Wood, Shell & Ivory Handicraft Exports

How CITES controls handicrafts made from protected woods, corals, shells and ivory: the three Appendices, permits, banned materials and staying compliant.

CPSIA Compliance for Handmade Toys & Children's Goods

What CPSIA asks of imported handmade toys and children's goods: composition limits, third-party testing, tracking labels and the certificate you must issue.

Country of Origin Marking Rules for Handicrafts

Explain US and EU country-of-origin marking requirements for imported handicrafts: how items must be marked, exceptions, and penalties

ISPM-15: Wood Packaging Rules for Importers

Why the pallet under your handicraft shipment is regulated: heat treatment and fumigation, the IPPC mark, and how non-compliant wood gets a container held.

GSP: Duty-Free Handicraft Imports Explained

How preference schemes such as GSP let eligible handicrafts from developing countries enter at reduced duty, who qualifies, and the paperwork it takes.

Other categories