Exporting Apparel and Footwear to Korea: Freight Is Cheap, but 13% Duty and FTA Origin Decide Your Buyer's Cost

If you manufacture apparel or footwear in China or Vietnam and sell into Korea, the ocean freight is the least of it. These goods are light, foldable, and stackable, so they cost little to ship, unlike bulky furniture or heavy stone. What actually decides whether your buyer's landed cost works is duty, and whether the goods you make qualify for the FTA rate that removes it. Get the origin process and the paperwork right and you make your price competitive in Korea; get it wrong and your buyer pays the full duty and blames the price.

Freight is small; duty moves the cost

Apparel and footwear are the lightest of cargo relative to value. They do not eat container space like furniture or hit a weight ceiling like stone, so the freight component is modest. That is exactly why the duty stands out.

Footwear (HS heading 64) and clothing (knitted HS 61, woven HS 62) sit largely in Korea's 13% base-duty band. It varies by subheading, and some lines are lower, but it is noticeably higher than furniture's 8% or the low-to-zero rate on rough stone. A 13% charge on the goods value quickly swallows the few percent saved on freight, so for your Korean buyer the duty, not the shipping, is what makes or breaks the landed cost. Which rate applies turns on the subheading, so start from what an HS code is.

FTA origin is the real lever, and it has a trap

The key that takes that 13% down to zero is the FTA. Both China and Vietnam have free trade agreements with Korea, so in principle your goods can enter at a preferential rate. The trap is that making the goods in China or Vietnam does not automatically earn that rate.

Textiles and apparel have stricter origin rules than most goods. Under the Korea-China FTA and similar agreements, the typical rule for clothing is a change in tariff classification: even if the yarn or fabric comes from outside the agreement, the country where the garment is cut and sewn is recognized as the origin. Simply buying a finished garment and relabeling it may fail the rule. A textile de minimis also applies, treating goods as originating when non-originating materials stay at or below 10% of value or weight.

For you as the exporter, the sequence is:

• Issue the certificate of origin: the preferential rate requires a certificate in the form the agreement specifies (authority-issued or self-issued). Your buyer cannot claim the rate without it, so build issuance into the order.
• Meet the process rule: wherever the fabric is from, what matters is that the cut-and-sew work is done in the agreement country. Make sure your actual production meets that.
• Retroactive claim: even if the certificate is missing at clearance, your buyer can generally claim the preferential rate within one year of import.

Which origin rule your subheading demands can be checked on Korea Customs' FTA portal. Issuing a clean certificate is one of the simplest ways to keep your price competitive in Korea; the mechanics are in certificate of origin and using FTAs.

Small, frequent orders mean LCL

Apparel and footwear follow seasons and trends, so buyers tend to import many styles in small quantities rather than filling one container at a time. That makes less-than-container-load (LCL) consolidation more common here than with bulky or heavy cargo.

LCL moves small volumes economically, but it runs on a different rhythm than a full container that ships straight out. Your goods are consolidated with other shippers' cargo and split again at a container freight station on arrival, which adds time and changes the surcharge mix. Once volume grows enough to fill a box, FCL becomes cheaper per unit. That crossover is covered in ocean freight LCL vs FCL, and measuring small-shipment volume is in CBM and volumetric weight. Because seasonal goods lose their selling window to a few days' delay, lock the consolidation schedule and lead time in early.

KC safety limits: your goods can be stopped at the border

For apparel, a safety rule catches shipments as often as duty does, and it is on the product you make. Household textile goods such as clothing and bedding must meet Korea's consumer-product safety limits for substances like formaldehyde, pH, and certain arylamines. A 2018 revision moved lower-risk items into a "compliance with safety standards" track that no longer requires pre-market testing or certification, but the duty to meet the limits themselves did not go away.

Infant and children's items are far stricter. Textiles and products worn or used by children fall under stronger safety controls, so treating them like adult goods gets them stopped at clearance. Because the category and the required tests vary by item, confirm which safety-control type your product falls under, by Korea's national technical standards, before you produce, so your goods are not held at the Korean border.

A pre-shipment checklist for shipping apparel and footwear to Korea

Before you ship, line these up.

1. Duty first: confirm the subheading and factor the roughly 13% duty into your buyer's cost, not just the freight.
2. FTA origin rule: made in China or Vietnam is not automatic, so meet the cut-and-sew process rule and prepare origin proof.
3. Certificate of origin: issue it in the form the agreement requires; if it is missing at clearance, your buyer can claim retroactively within one year.
4. Shipping mode: use LCL for small, mixed orders and switch to FCL once volume fills a box, and protect the seasonal lead time.
5. KC safety: confirm the safety-control type and substance limits for household, infant, and children's textiles before production.

Apparel and footwear are the cheapest cargo to ship, yet duty, origin, and safety rules decide the landed cost and the clearance. Planning the duty, the FTA origin, and the safety standards alongside the ocean leg from the start is what keeps your goods moving and your price competitive in Korea.

This guide is general information as of July 2026. Duty rates and FTA preferential rates and origin rules by HS subheading, and the safety-control category and required tests, vary by item and regulatory change, so confirm with Korea Customs' FTA portal, Korea's national technical standards body, and your forwarder before shipping.