Frequent Customs Costs

[matriachamplification]

Hello GDIY

this is a genuine question that came about as result of constant customs costs at the Canadian boarder. Before we get the obvious answer that everyone is impacted by this, we have taken MAJOR hits in Customs charges coming from the UK and the US.

Has anyone noticed an increase in customs charges?

We partnered with a International Brokerage to take care of this from here on out.

Has anyone else used a Import/Export firm to aleviate the costs?

Thanks for any help

Wall

 

[user 37518]

Hello GDIY

this is a genuine question that came about as result of constant customs costs at the Canadian boarder. Before we get the obvious answer that everyone is impacted by this, we have taken MAJOR hits in Customs charges coming from the UK and the US.

Has anyone noticed an increase in customs charges?

We partnered with a International Brokerage to take care of this from here on out.

Has anyone else used a Import/Export firm to aleviate the costs?

Thanks for any help

Wall

I don't know about Canada, but here in Mexico we have several retail import services to import things, you will sign up, they will give you an address in the US in the border (usually Laredo, TX), so when you buy something anywhere in the wordld, you ship it over to that US address, they will do the entire customs process, and then send it over to Mexico City for like 15USD + taxes, but what I have noticed is that by using that service you end up paying way less taxes and less shipping than if you import it directly to Mexico, and its way faster aswell. So I don't know if you have similar services for Canada, also your country has different customs regulations so I couldn't tell.

The only restriction in my country for those services is that the value of the item can not be over $1000 USD, if you want to import something of a value higher than that you need to hire a customs agent or similar, and that is more expensive.

You may also want to take a look at what the new Free trade agreement between US, Canada and Mexico says.

 

[matriachamplification]

I don't know about Canada, but here in Mexico we have several retail import services to import things, you will sign up, they will give you an address in the US in the border (usually Laredo, TX), so when you buy something anywhere in the wordld, you ship it over to that US address, they will do the entire customs process, and then send it over to Mexico City for like 15USD + taxes, but what I have noticed is that by using that service you end up paying way less taxes and less shipping than if you import it directly to Mexico, and its way faster aswell. So I don't know if you have similar services for Canada, also your country has different customs regulations so I couldn't tell.

The only restriction in my country for those services is that the value of the item can not be over $1000 USD, if you want to import something of a value higher than that you need to hire a customs agent or similar, and that is more expensive.

You may also want to take a look at what the new Free trade agreement between US, Canada and Mexico says.

Great information. I was able to find out some details after your advice.


A General Tariff rate of customs duty of 35% applies to countries Canada does NOT have some form of trade treaty with Canada. In most cases Canada charges the amount that the country the item is being shipped from charges for Customs.

We are getting hit with 17% from UK and all over the ice from the US.

None the less, thank you for pointing us in the right direction. Now the Import/Export Brokerage company can take over.

We really like the idea of drop shipping for items in Canada. Wonder if there is any interest from Canadian DIYers.

 

[emrr]

Great information. I was able to find out some details after your advice.


A General Tariff rate of customs duty of 35% applies to countries Canada does NOT have some form of trade treaty with Canada. In most cases Canada charges the amount that the country the item is being shipped from charges for Customs.

We are getting hit with 17% from UK and all over the ice from the US.

None the less, thank you for pointing us in the right direction. Now the Import/Export Brokerage company can take over.

We really like the idea of drop shipping for items in Canada. Wonder if there is any interest from Canadian DIYers.

Several customers of mine in Canada were reporting 25% charge on shipments received through postal service from US, they found it normal.  Purchases were $500 and up.  This has been awhile, 5-10 years back.

 

[matriachamplification]

Several customers of mine in Canada were reporting 25% charge on shipments received through postal service from US, they found it normal.  Purchases were $500 and up.  This has been awhile, 5-10 years back.

Thanks Doug. We have done some digging and asking friends of my wife to explain.

UPS, FED EX, DHS will always charge the maximum plus our Ontario Canada Taxes.

Shipping by US/Canadian post is the cheapest way but you can sometimes still get dinged.

We also found out we can refuse a package from the 4 mentioned shipping companies and we can "Self Clear" a package and pay zero brokerage fees with a bit of paperwork.

Thanks again. This has been extremely informative.

 

[user 37518]

I'll tell you, you have to be well informed about the import laws in your country, I've been investigating a little bit about customs law here in Mexico because I buy a lot of stuff from all over the world, and there are some very weird restrictions besides the usual like no weapons, pornography, piracy, etc... for example, here, you can't import any toy which has a human figure, you need a special permit for that, why ? I dont know, not that I care, no medical equipment is allowed, even if it is like you know a massage machine or like a humidifier, that can enter the category of medical equipment, I once bought a spectrum analyzer and they thought it was a medical equipment and wouldn't let me import it, I had to convince them it was not and they finally yielded.

In my country, everything from China pays considerably more taxes, anything below $50USD is tax free, books are tax free, and stuff like that. You can't import any CD/DVD/Blu-Ray which are not original, meaning any burned CD-Rom is not allowed, I've had equipment witheld at customs because the e-bay seller sent me a burned CD with the manual along with the equipment. You can only import fake jewlery, like no real diamonds or precious metals, how can they tell? I don't know, nothing made out of glass, which makes things sketchy for example like the screen of a laptop is considered in the glass category or not? You can't import tires, you can't import baloons! haha no binoculars, no paintball guns, no used clothes, etc... make sure you ask for the list of non-allowed or controlled items from the service provider, they will usually have one.

So my advice, get well informed before you start using those services. There is nothing more frustrating than recieving an e-mail from the drop shipping service provider telling you that your item is witheld and that you need to go pick it up in the US, send it back to the seller (for a fee of course), or if you prefer, they will trash it.

A huge advantage of these services that I've seen, is that if you buy stuff from Europe or China, usually the seller will charge a lot less to ship it to the US than to Mexico, maybe its the same case with Canada, so even if you end up re-routing your item from Europe/China-US-Canada, it can be cheaper than straight to Canada.