What kind of extra charges should I expect if I order electronics from a US-based store and ship it to Canada?
In the past, I have received gifts from friends where I had to pay UPS some charges they incured at the border. Doesn’t NAFTA eliminate these charges? Does it matter whether the electronics goods are made in the US?
Please advise!
Yes, it matters whether the goods are made in the US. If the goods are not made in the US, NAFTA does not apply.
Even if the good is made in the US, the Canadian recipient may still have to pay duty, depending on the nature of the good. You’d think NAFTA would eliminate this hassle (which would be a huge boost to Canadian e-tailers selling to the US), but you’d be wrong. As a rabid libertarian friend of mine once said, “If NAFTA really mean free trade, it would be two lines long, not a couple of thousand pages.”
I do a fair bit of buying/selling via the internet, so I’ve got a fair bit of experience with this… while there are exceptions that are allowed duty free, most things incur a charge…
Unless the item is significantly cheaper in the US, you’re better off buying it in Canada (don’t forget the US item might not have a valid warranty here)
here’s a paste of a posting I made on usenet previously…
The policy is this
Anything that is a GIFT from a person can come in duty/tax free if the value
is less than $60 Canadian (these days, around $38-39 US approx)
Anything coming in from a company, or labelled as MERCHANDISE can only have a
value of $20 Canadian (about $12 US approx).
Anything above and beyond that means the whole value is subject to tax
(GST/PST + $5 Canada post handling fee).
If you are sent a package without any customs documentation on it, they will
search it, assign a value and charge you for it… I recall once getting a CD
that was worth about $5-$6 US from a friend… he didn’t put any documenation
on it… so customs assigned a value of something like $25 to it… ending up
paying almost $9 in tax/handling fee… I was not a happy camper!
I think the laws need to be drastically changed regarding these fees… the
allowable amount is incredibly low and outdated… with the Canadian dollar
being so weak, nobody buys in the USA to save money anymore, they do it
because what they want can’t be had in Canada… It a horrible feeling to know
that the govt. has such a strong control one what we do with out money that
I’m practically afraid to buy anything outside the country because they are
going to penalize me so heavily for it…
BTW, I have a friend that works for a company called borderfree.com
You are supposed to be able to order from the US via them… they calculately the final cost, taxes, duty, etc included…
I’ve not tried the service myself though…
I can’t top with wooba said, but I do have to say that I don’t order from the US unless it’s an item I can’t find here, in general. I would say that I $20 US item usually costs me $40 CAN (or more) by the time you add shipping and handling, convert the currency, pay GST and duty.