Well, I did say duty calculation complex, arbitrary, and almost impossible to
predict....I believe it's unlikely that US Customs will charge anything or
bother inspecting (beyond a drug dog sniff) a personal use item of < $200
declared value. If they do, it's probably an entirely random sample.
>>> garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 09:00:00 03/13/2001 >>>
At 10:27 AM 3/13/2001 -0500, Scott Nelson wrote:
[snip]
>The duty on lenses form [from] a MFN is typically 2.30r $46. Although, the
>duty calculation is incredibly complex and well, arbitrary, and the ten year
>NAFTA gradual tariff phase out makes everything even more complicated, so
>does the original country of manufacture being outside of Canada.
Actually, "the original country of manufacture being outside of Canada"
shouldn't matter at all. NAFTA rules state that initial purchases of equipment
from a MFN (Most Favoured Nation) into the NAFTA zone can be charged duty, but
once the equipment is being re-sold inside the NAFTA zone (either new at retail
or as a used piece of equipment), it's deemed to have already had the required
duty levied against it, and so should not be subject to duty again. That's "in
general," of course. I *know* it's true for camera equipment -- this point was
precisely the argument I had with a newbie Canada Customs agent a while back.
I don't know how it is for Americans, but for Canadians, if you're using a
courier as a Customs broker (and typically you are), the courier has to charge
you the following:
1. The $5.00 CDN "handling fee" imposed by the Feds several years ago, after
they realized that the NAFTA rules were causing more and more Canadians to
cross-border shop free from duties (what did they expect?); they wanted to
discourage Canadians from this advantageous practise;
2. GST (yes, you have to pay it even on transactions which occur outside of
Canada, though they can only police it in certain situations, so many such
"subject" transactions never get looked at).
The courier will also charge you any additional fees it incurs on shipping not
covered by the sender, as well as its own administration fees. These can be
substantial. I'm expecting more than $400.00 of total fees for the 250/2.0
Zuiko I won at auction -- possibly more than $500.00. I'm also expecting
delays (another "high-value item").
Garth
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