Ebay in Canada is finished?

[sellmantra]

Has anyone else stopping buy from ebay.ca because of 'import' fees?  Ebay.ca used to be good because you could get things cheap. That is no longer the case. Why does everything shipping from the USA have import fees?

There is no suppose to be import fee to Canada from the USA???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

[pierrelebel]

To answer your question, NO, eBay-Canada is not "finished".

Your link refers to NAFTA which deals with import quotas and tariffs.  Nothing to do with Sales Tax (GST or HST) or brokerage fee.

For the official policy from the federal government regarding imports by mail, please take a look at:

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html

Now, quite often parcels containing goods valued at more than $20 will go through without tax and fees ($9.95) being charged.  However, the official government policy as it exists requires payment of tax (GST or HST) for items valued at Cdn$ 20 or more.

[sellmantra]

Why would anyone pay $22 import fee to ebay?

You can see it is illegal under nafta;

"The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. "

Way to go ebay bring us back to 1965!

   It cheaper to buy locally. Certainly the USA seller must notice that nobody is buy their products from Canada anymore. I guess they don't care ebay is America company for American only. Hopefully there is some good alternatives coming along that know how to business with Canadians. I think Amazon is better choice.

[pierrelebel]

"You can see it is illegal under nafta;"

No, it is not illegal, anymore than Canada Post charging you $9.95 handling fee when you receive a parcel from outside Canada on which tax (GST or HST) must be paid.

On the other hand, Canadian buyers do know that the Global Shipping Program (GSP) is not good for them in most instances and should be avoided.  Find sellers who do not use the program.

[craftycanadianarts]

It is really just a matter of shopping smarter.....

If you do not want too pay duties buy from a Canadian Seller by ticking products from Canada in your search.

Or for smaller items (actually for me it is all items unless the deal is good) I avoid US and now UK sellers that are using the GSP or I send them a note asking if they can send an item via USPS direct and avoid the rather high cost of the Pitney Bowes processing fees. 

One of the big problems is not everything has duty applicable, but all have GST and in some provinces where the cross border agreement is in place with CBS PST.  are collectable.  Plus a small fee too collect those from you now rather then at the door which of course they do not do anymore.

So it does take alittle bit more effort on the part of the consumer and that is a problem, as Amazon clearly has a better flow through because of that.  If ebay added alittle tick box to exclude GSP sellers from search results I would click it all the time.

But do not get too concerned whether you pay it at check out or at the Post office someone will get the GST and PST from your purchase if it is over the cap.

[art-in-the-making]

for items over $20 you have to insist that US sellers ship only by USPS (post office) - courier shipments are guaranteed to have the incredible $40, $60 or ? "customs clearance" charge added on to any other charges (gst, etc)

[reallynicestamps]

Yep, we paid $56 to FedEx this morning for imported goods from New York.

The goods were antique, but not NAFTA manufacture, and the seller undervalued the goods (not our request). Half the cost was the FedEx processing fee.