Shipping from France to the USA

France ships the United States roughly $69 billion of goods a year, and very little of it is commodity cargo. The largest flows are aircraft, engines and parts from the Toulouse, Bordeaux and Paris aerospace clusters, pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery, and the products France is known for: wine and Champagne, Cognac and other spirits, perfume and cosmetics, cheese and fine food, and antiques, art and design furniture. Most of it is high in value for its weight, regulated at the US border by an agency other than customs — TTB, FDA, the FAA's airworthiness system, the Fish and Wildlife Service — and sensitive to heat, handling or theft. Ocean cargo leaves through Le Havre, France's largest container port and the natural gateway for Paris, Normandy, Champagne and the north; Marseille-Fos, which serves Provence, the Rhône valley and the south; and Dunkirk. Urgent and high-value freight flies from Paris Charles de Gaulle. Transit from Le Havre is roughly 9-16 days on the water to New York and about 15 days to Savannah; Los Angeles, via the Panama Canal, takes roughly 28-36 days.

Last reviewed: October 2026

Offices and representative on this lane:Glendale, USA

Services Available on This Route

AGF Advantage on This Lane

We work through WCA partner agents in France; AGF has no office there. Our partners collect from producers, domaines, dealers and factories, prepare the French export declaration and, for wine and spirits, the excise movement document, consolidate several suppliers into one container where that makes sense, and load at Le Havre, Fos or Dunkirk. AGF books the ocean or air freight as an FMC-licensed NVOCC, the US entry is filed by our licensed customs brokers, and our Glendale team runs delivery to your warehouse, distributor or showroom. What we add on this lane is the regulatory homework that French goods need before they sail: TTB permits and label approvals for alcohol, FDA Prior Notice and the import alerts that apply to French cheese, MoCRA registration and dangerous-goods paperwork for perfume, the civil-aircraft duty certification for aerospace parts, and age and export-certificate evidence for antiques. Quotes are door to door, with exclusions listed up front.

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