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How to ship from China to Martinique

Martinique is a French overseas department in the eastern Caribbean with a population around 350,000. It is an outermost region of the European Union, so the customs entry is a European one, while the taxes at the border are the department's own.

Two numbers explain most of what surprises first-time shippers here. VAT runs at 8.5 per cent rather than the mainland 20 per cent, and there is a substantial list of categories exempted from it entirely. Yet forwarding costs, including dock dues, take roughly a third of the price of imported goods, which is why the shelf price on the island looks the way it does.

This page covers the port, the tax structure, the documents and the timings.

A French department in the Caribbean with a VAT rate of its own

Martinique is part of France and part of the European Union's customs territory. The Union Customs Code applies, the tariff is TARIC, and goods released here are in free circulation in the EU.

Tax is a different matter. The department is outside the EU VAT area and outside the EU excise area, and it levies its own much lower rates together with the local dock dues. The European Commission's own description draws exactly this line: EU territory yes, EU VAT rules no, EU excise rules no.

The result is a destination that behaves like a third country for tax purposes while behaving like an EU port for customs ones. Plan for both.

VAT at 8.5 per cent, and the categories that are exempt from it

The standard VAT rate in Martinique is 8.5 per cent, with a reduced rate of 2.1 per cent for certain foodstuffs and medical items and a super-reduced 1.05 per cent for specific press and live-performance categories. Exports are zero rated.

There is also a meaningful exemption list. Under the cost-of-living agreement concluded with the French state, VAT has been removed for a large number of product categories covering several thousand food references, while dock dues were abolished for a separate group of food categories. The local assembly has offset part of that by raising dock dues elsewhere.

That is the reason a blanket 8.5 per cent is also wrong. Some goods carry no VAT at all, and some carry a higher dock dues rate than before. Check your HS code rather than assuming.

Fort-de-France and the Pointe des Grives container terminal

The port of Fort-de-France is managed by the Grand Port Maritime de la Martinique and sits in a sheltered bay on the Caribbean coast, with about 2.7 kilometres of quay across more than 30 hectares. It is the island's commercial gateway.

The container business is handled at the Pointe des Grives terminal: roughly 16 hectares, a 460 metre quay with about 14 metres of draught, three post-panamax gantries and a fleet of shuttle carriers. Reported throughput is around 150,000 TEU a year.

Solid and liquid bulk and Ro-Ro traffic are worked at Pointe des Carrières, while cruise calls use the town quays. Name the right terminal on your instructions, because the two sites are not interchangeable.

Dock dues, forwarding costs and why the shelf price looks the way it does

France's competition authority has measured the structure of import prices here, and the numbers are worth knowing. Forwarding costs account for roughly 33 per cent of the price of goods imported by distributors, up from about 28 per cent a few years earlier. Within that, logistics and port activity is the largest component at about 12.8 per cent, shipping about 10.9 per cent and dock dues about 9.6 per cent.

That is why a cheap ocean freight rate does not translate into a cheap landed price here. The local components are large and they do not move with your negotiation in China.

It is also why the authority has recommended that dock dues rates be made simpler and more predictable, and abolished where no locally produced equivalent exists. If you are quoting a long-term supply arrangement, ask what the current schedule says for your code rather than assuming last year's rate.

Dock dues reach goods sent from France too

This is the point most exporters get wrong. Goods moving from mainland France or another EU member state to Martinique are an intra-EU movement for customs purposes, so no customs duty arises. Dock dues are not customs duty, and they apply to goods entering the department regardless of origin.

Published guidance puts many dock dues rates between 7 and 15 per cent, with a regional addition commonly at 1.5 or 2.5 per cent, and specific products sitting well outside that range. As an illustration used in removals guidance, new furniture has been assessed at 8.5 per cent VAT plus 15 per cent dock dues plus a 2.5 per cent addition.

Do not tell a buyer that European origin means no local tax. It does not, and getting it wrong at quotation stage is expensive.

Air freight to Aime Cesaire and the Paris connection

Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport, code FDF, is roughly 10 kilometres from the port and handles the island's air traffic, with the main links running to mainland France.

Air cargo capacity therefore follows the passenger network, and the Paris connection is the one that matters. For time-critical parts, electronics, medical supplies and samples it works well; for heavy cargo it does not.

Confirm the aircraft type and the piece dimensions before you commit. A pallet that flies out of Guangzhou without difficulty may not fit the aircraft that lands at FDF.

French-language inventories and the documents customs insists on

The standard set applies: commercial invoice with HS codes and a precise description, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill, and any permit or certificate your goods require. French is the working language of the administration.

Removals and personal-effects guidance is emphatic on one point that also affects commercial cargo: inventories must be in French, dated, valued and signed. English-language inventories are not accepted, and original bills of lading are expected rather than express releases in some procedures.

Wood packaging must meet ISPM 15. Controlled categories include firearms and ammunition, which need authorisation from the prefecture, alcohol and tobacco, which carry excise and dock dues, and plant and food products, which face phytosanitary control.

CARICOM, and the regional question behind it

Martinique's local authority signed an agreement in February 2025 to move toward joining CARICOM, the Caribbean Community and Common Market. It is an early step toward deeper regional integration rather than an immediate change to customs procedure.

For a shipper the interest is prospective. If regional integration progresses, sourcing patterns and routing options in the eastern Caribbean may broaden, which would matter for anyone using Martinique as a base for onward distribution.

Nothing changes in your documentation today. Treat it as context, not as a routing plan.

Packing for the tropics and the reefer capacity at the port

The climate is hot and humid year-round, with a wet season that overlaps the hurricane months. Use barrier packaging and desiccant for moisture-sensitive goods, and specify corrosion protection on exposed metal.

The port handles chilled and frozen cargo, and a large share of what arrives is food and consumer goods, so reefer capability exists. If your goods need temperature control, say so at booking rather than on arrival.

Pack for handling in the open. Containers stand on the quay, and cartons that would survive a covered warehouse will not survive a fortnight of tropical sun and rain.

How long it takes, and which hub to route through

Sea freight from a Chinese port to Fort-de-France typically runs 35 to 50 days including transshipment, most often through a European or Caribbean hub. Air freight is commonly 7 to 12 days door to airport.

Around 80 per cent of the goods arriving here come from mainland France, so the services that exist are shaped around that trade rather than around Asia. Choose a transshipment point that connects into those services frequently.

Then plan for the port component. With forwarding costs at roughly a third of the import price, the cheapest ocean rate is rarely the cheapest landed one.

Field notes shipping into Martinique

Five shipments bought in China and delivered into Martinique, 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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