Most buyers treat duty as a footnote — a percentage the broker deals with, discovered after the decision is made. That is a mistake, because duty is one of the few lines in a landed cost you can actually change without changing anything about the stone. Three trade agreements now sit between India and major stone-importing markets, and each of them can move your landed cost meaningfully. All three depend on a single document that costs nothing and is routinely forgotten.
A note before the detail: this is general information for importers, not customs or legal advice. Rates change, and the official tariff tool for your own market is always the authority.
Why duty is a lever, not a footnote
Landed cost is the number that decides whether an order works: the stone, the freight, the duty, the local taxes, the handling. Of those, the stone price is negotiated, freight is largely set by the market, and local taxes are fixed by your government. Duty is the one line that can swing between a real percentage and zero depending on paperwork you either did or did not prepare.
On a container of stone, that difference is not academic. It is the margin on the order.
United Kingdom — CETA
The India–UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is the most significant recent development for British stone importers. Under it, Indian-origin natural stone is treated at a zero duty rate, claimed with a Certificate of Origin.
The India–UK CETA entered into force on 15 July 2026, eliminating UK duty on the vast majority of Indian-origin goods — worked natural stone included — when the shipment carries a valid proof of origin. Confirm the current rate for your exact HS code on the UK Integrated Online Tariff before quoting.
Verify live before you cost a shipment. Search your product’s HS code on the UK Trade Tariff service and confirm both the standard rate and the preferential rate for India at the date of import.
United Arab Emirates — CEPA
The India–UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has been operating for longer and is well understood by Gulf importers. It provides zero or reduced duty on qualifying Indian goods, against a standard applied rate in the region of five percent for many imported goods.
The India–UAE CEPA has been in force since 1 May 2022, giving qualifying Indian stone 0% or reduced duty against the 5% MFN rate when claimed with an eCoO Certificate of Origin. Confirm the live line rate for your HS code before quoting.
The claim is made with an electronic Certificate of Origin. Verify live — confirm the current rate and the eCoO procedure with your customs broker, since Gulf implementation details are handled at emirate level.
Australia — ECTA
The India–Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement gives qualifying Indian goods preferential or zero duty against the standard rate, claimed at entry with a Certificate of Origin.
The India–Australia ECTA has been in force since 29 December 2022, giving qualifying Indian stone 0% or preferential duty against the MFN rate — but only when the Certificate of Origin is claimed. Arrive without it and MFN applies. Verify the current 6802 rate before quoting.
Verify live on the Australian tariff schedule. Australian importers should note that duty is only one of two things to get right — biosecurity clearance is the other, and it is the one that more often causes delay. We cover both in our guide to Australia’s engineered-stone ban and natural granite benchtops.
The United States — the contrast
The US position has moved sharply. Rather than a long-standing free trade agreement, Indian stone now enters under a bilateral tariff arrangement — and the rate has been anything but stable.
As of early 2026, Indian natural stone enters the United States at approximately 18% under the US–India bilateral tariff arrangement (effective around March 2026), down from a 50% peak in 2025. US rates remain volatile — verify the live HTS 6802 rate on the USITC schedule before quoting a landed price.
Verify live. For US importers this is the single most volatile number in the whole costing, and last quarter’s figure should never be reused. Check the Harmonized Tariff Schedule at the time you commit to the order.
The European Union — already open
The EU picture is simpler. Worked natural stone generally enters the EU at zero duty under the standard MFN tariff, without needing a preferential agreement to get there.
Verify live on Access2Markets or TARIC. Note that zero duty does not mean zero obligation — CE marking and a Declaration of Performance still apply to construction products, and import VAT is separate.
The through-line: one document unlocks all of it
Read those five sections together and the same sentence appears in each. Preferential duty is never automatic. It is claimed at the point of entry, and the claim must be supported by a valid Certificate of Origin proving the goods meet the agreement’s origin rules.
Arrive without it and customs applies the standard rate. Not as a penalty — simply because, as far as the entry is concerned, nothing established that the goods qualified. Every negotiated advantage in CETA, CEPA and ECTA collapses to nothing on a missing certificate.
This is worth being blunt about because it is one of the most common and most expensive administrative failures in stone importing. The document is routine for a competent exporter. The cost of not having it is the entire duty saving on the container.
Note too that duty is not the whole landed cost. Domestic taxes such as VAT or GST usually still apply on top, as do any anti-dumping or safeguard measures in force in your market.
What a buyer should ask a supplier
Before you place an order, five questions settle it:
- Do you issue a Certificate of Origin as standard, for every shipment? The answer should be yes without hesitation.
- Which authority issues it, and how long does it take? It should be ready with the rest of the document set, not chased afterwards.
- Will the goods meet the origin rules under my country’s agreement with India? Stone quarried and processed in India ordinarily will, but ask the question.
- What HS code will you declare? Duty follows classification, so a mismatch between your broker’s expectation and the exporter’s declaration causes delay.
- How quickly does the full document set follow the vessel? Invoice, packing list, bill of lading, Certificate of Origin and ISPM-15 certification should arrive promptly after sailing.
Our guide on how to import natural stone from India covers the full document set and Incoterms in sequence, and how many monuments fit in a 20 ft container works through the weight arithmetic that sits alongside duty in a landed cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Certificate of Origin and why does it matter? It is the document proving the goods originate in India under a trade agreement’s rules. Preferential duty is claimed at entry and must be supported by it; without it the standard rate applies.
Does a trade agreement mean no duty at all? Not necessarily. Agreements reduce or remove customs duty on qualifying goods, but VAT or GST and any trade remedies still apply.
How do I check the current rate? On your own country’s official tariff tool, by HS code, at the time you are costing the shipment.
Verify the rate, and we will supply the paperwork
The honest advice on duty is short. Look up the current rate for your HS code on your country’s official tariff portal — the UK Trade Tariff, Access2Markets or TARIC for the EU, the Australian Border Force tariff schedule, the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule, or your own broker for the Gulf. Do not rely on any article, including this one, for a live figure.
Then make sure your supplier issues the Certificate of Origin as a matter of routine. Gemarix exports through Mundra and JNPT (Nhava Sheva) with a full document set for every shipment; our export operations and certifications pages set out what accompanies a container, and quality control covers what happens before it is sealed. Tell us your destination market and we will confirm exactly which documents your entry will need.