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How to ship from China to French Guiana

French Guiana is a French overseas department on the north coast of South America, and it is one of the more unusual destinations a Chinese exporter can be asked to quote. It is part of France, it is part of the European Union's outermost regions, and it borders Brazil and Suriname.

That combination produces a rulebook that looks European and feels South American. You file a European customs entry, you need an EORI number, and the tariff is the EU's TARIC. But there is no French VAT here. Instead you pay octroi de mer, a local levy on goods entering the department, set and varied locally.

This page covers the gateway, the entry procedure, the tax that replaces VAT, and the categories of goods that regularly get stopped.

An EU customs border sitting in South America, with no EU VAT behind it

French Guiana is an outermost region of the European Union. The Union Customs Code applies, the customs tariff is the EU's, and goods released here are in free circulation in the European Union.

It is not, however, inside the EU VAT area. Article 294 of the French General Tax Code keeps the overseas departments outside the scope of TVA. So the entry you file looks European, but the tax line at the bottom of it is not a VAT line.

Getting this wrong in a quotation is expensive in both directions. Model the landed cost on octroi de mer, and do not tell a buyer that import VAT will be recoverable, because there is none to recover.

Octroi de mer: the levy that stands in for TVA, and who fixes the rate

Octroi de mer is a tax on goods entering the overseas departments, and in French Guiana it is collected on imports from outside the department as well as on local production. It has two parts: an outer rate applied to goods coming from outside, and a regional additional rate set by the local authority.

The outer rate is banded by product rather than flat. Published figures put the average external rate at around 15 per cent, with an additional regional rate of about 2.5 per cent on top, and some sources describe a band running from zero to 30 per cent depending on the product. These are the numbers to work with as an estimate, not as a tariff.

Because the local assembly sets the additional rate, the figure can change. Confirm the band that applies to your HS code with a Guianan broker before you commit to a landed-cost figure.

Dégrad des Cannes, the single container gateway, and the approach off Cayenne

Dégrad des Cannes, a short distance from Cayenne on the Mahury river, is the department's main commercial port and handles virtually all container traffic. General cargo, fuel and some bulk also move through it.

There is no second container port to fall back on, so congestion and weather on the Mahury approach translate directly into your delivery date. Build the possibility of waiting into your plan rather than assuming a berth on arrival.

Road distribution inland and toward the Brazilian and Surinamese borders is limited by distance and by the road network. If your consignee is outside Cayenne and Kourou, confirm the last leg before you quote door delivery.

EORI, TARIC and DELTA: filing a European entry from a South American port

Because the Union Customs Code applies, your consignee needs an EORI number and the declaration is filed through the French customs system. The tariff you classify against is TARIC, which carries the EU's common tariff plus the specific measures attached to each code.

Practically, that means the HS code matters more here than it would for a non-EU South American destination. Get it right in China, before the goods sail, and make sure the commercial invoice carries enough detail for a French customs officer to accept the classification.

Origin also matters. Goods of EU origin arriving from metropolitan France are inside the customs union, so no customs duty is due, but octroi de mer still applies to goods entering the department. Do not assume that a European origin exempts a shipment from the local levy.

Air freight to Cayenne-Felix Eboue and the Kourou space cargo channel

Cayenne–Félix Éboué Airport serves the department, with links to metropolitan France and to the region. For air freight it is the gateway, and capacity is shaped by passenger services rather than by dedicated freighters.

The Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, a short distance along the coast, generates its own cargo flows: launch-related equipment, sensitive instrumentation and time-critical spares. That traffic competes for the same limited air and port capacity, and during launch campaigns it can absorb it.

If your shipment is urgent, ask whether a launch campaign overlaps your dates. That question is not on most forwarders' checklists and it is often the reason a cargo waits.

Gold, mercury and mining inputs: the consignments that get stopped

Gold mining, much of it informal, is one of the department's most heavily policed activities. Mercury, cyanide, explosives, fuel and equipment associated with extraction are tightly controlled, and enforcement is backed by military and gendarmerie operations.

For a legitimate exporter the risk is not that your goods are illegal but that they look adjacent to an illegal activity. Pumps, hoses, generators, prospecting equipment and chemicals of any kind should be documented precisely, with an end-use statement from the consignee.

Declare honestly and in detail. A vague description on a shipment of industrial equipment into French Guiana is the fastest way to turn a two-day clearance into a fortnight.

Dual-use goods, sanctions and CITES: the EU rulebook applies in full

Because this is EU territory, the European Union's dual-use export control regulation applies, as do EU restrictive measures and sanctions lists. Screening your consignee and the end-use is not optional here; it is the same obligation you would face shipping to Rotterdam.

CITES controls on endangered species apply as well, and French Guiana's own rainforest makes enforcement of wildlife and plant rules a live concern. Timber, live plants and animal products need permits.

Weapons, ammunition and controlled pharmaceuticals are prohibited or licensed. If there is any doubt, ask before booking rather than after the container is on the water.

Pricing in euros when the inland leg is already inside the European Union

The euro is the currency, so goods, duty and local charges are all settled in euros. That removes one translation step but not the exposure: your Chinese supplier will quote in US dollars or renminbi and the transit is long, so somebody is carrying the movement.

One advantage worth knowing. Goods released into free circulation here are EU goods. If your buyer has onward distribution into the European Union, the customs side is already done, and only the octroi de mer of the next territory would come into play.

That does not make French Guiana a back door into the European market. All the EU's product-compliance, safety and certification rules apply to goods placed on the EU market, wherever they first clear.

Packing and marking for a humid, high-rainfall destination

The climate is equatorial: hot, very humid, and with heavy rainfall through much of the year. Containers sit in the sun at Dégrad des Cannes and cartons absorb moisture quickly.

Use barrier packaging with desiccant for anything moisture-sensitive, avoid unsealed wooden crates for electronics, and specify corrosion protection on machined metal. Marking should be in French where the consignee needs French-language handling instructions.

Where the delay happens, and how long the whole move really takes

Sea freight from a Chinese port to Dégrad des Cannes typically runs 40 to 55 days including transshipment, most often through a Caribbean or European hub. Air freight is commonly 7 to 14 days door to airport, subject to capacity.

The delays are concentrated in three places: waiting for a transshipment connection, waiting for a berth at the single container port, and waiting on a customs examination triggered by a vague description.

Two of those three are within your control. Write a precise commodity description, and transship through a hub with frequent onward sailings rather than the cheapest one.

Case notes from the Degrad des Cannes gate

Five shipments bought in China and delivered into French Guiana, told end to end — where the order came from, how it moved, where it nearly went wrong, and how it finished. Client names are withheld at their request; the situations and the handling are what we deal with on this lane.

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