Toys sold into the UK, EU, US, Canada and Australia each carry their own safety testing regime — EN71 in the UK and EU, ASTM F963 in the US, and equivalent standards elsewhere. Testing is normally arranged by the importer or its nominated lab, not by the factory, and the test report needs to be in hand before destination customs clearance, not requested after a hold.
The shipping calendar adds a second layer of pressure. Toy orders for a given retail season are placed and shipped in a narrow production window that overlaps directly with the pre-Golden-Week and pre-Chinese-New-Year capacity crunches that affect every China-origin category. A toy shipment delayed by two weeks at origin can mean missing a retail reset date entirely, not just a late delivery.
Packaging carries category-specific rules too — choking hazard warnings, age grading, and in several markets a requirement that the importer of record appear on the retail packaging itself. We check that packaging and test documentation match the goods actually loaded, not just the purchase order, before export clearance is lodged.
The practical sequence for a toy importer: confirm testing and certification before production starts, build buffer into bookings ahead of peak windows, and treat the export documentation check as part of quality control rather than a formality after the fact.