do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

ramliw
Community Member

do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

Anything with a value of over $20.00 Canadian is subject to Canadian taxes.

 

Duty,  Maybe,

 

Sometimes customs let items slip by , but always be prepared to pay.

 

If sent by mail and checked by customs you will also pay customs

a $9.95 fee on top of any duty and taxes.

Message 2 of 8
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

China does not have a free trade treaty with Canada.

Applicable duty can be found at  http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/mobile/est-cal-eng.html

 

Note that it is the origin of the phone that makes it dutiable. So a phone made in China but purchased in the USA will be dutiable, while a phone made in the USA (or Mexico or Chile) and purchased in the USA will not.

 

 

Message 3 of 8
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

In order for an item to qualify under NAFTA, the importer must fill out and file a Certificate of Origin form - then that form must be accepted.
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

kootsys
Community Member

This is a great question and one which ebay itself has not answered sufficiently to reflect the Canada-US free trade agreement.

 

You need to contact Canada customs, and have them give you a list of what items go across the Canada-US border, duty-free.

 

Musical instruments are duty free between Canada and U.S.;  I've gotten this from many sources.  If you are purchasing a duty-free item that is to go over the border, you need to consider a few things:

 

1.  If the seller ships via USPS, as they are a government sponsored mail organization, they will not charge duty on anything that's duty free.

 

2.  UPS charges a hidden brokerage fee of $50. that you'll not hear about until they notify you that your item is being held until you agree to pay $50. to release it.  I question the morality of this, yet it can likely be argued legally that this is a company policy for 'brokerage fees'.

 

3.  ebay has a new 'Global Shipping Program' which they've set up this year, which is tricky and misleading at best, and which I consider to be a practice of false advertising and non-compliance with the Canada-US free trade act.   Please carefully pay attention to the listing and keep an eye open for 'Global Shipping Program' in which ebay lists three different costs to the buyer:  1.  Item cost  2. Shipping Cost    3. 'Import Charges'        I've spent hours trying to find any ebay rep prepared to address this misleading advertising, giving simple solutions to fix the problem, as this 'Global Shipping Program' does not differentiate between a duty-free item and an item that should be charged duty.  You might think that 'import charges' would not be applied to duty-free items.  Not the case.

Message 5 of 8
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

Cell phones are not musical instruments.
China is not part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although Chile is, which is strange.
UPS' brokerage charges start around $20-25, but increase with the value of the item being brokered.
UPS' brokerage charges are only an addon, at the doorstep charge if the cheapest Surface service is purchased by the shipper. The Express service includes the brokerage charges and those charges are lower than the doorstep charges.
The Global Shipping Program has been discussed endlessly and most questions have been answered pretty clearly. The designers of the program evidently had never actually done any eBay buying or selling, but with the exception of too many packages being opened, sellers unaware of how to ship when they are signed up for GSP, and returns (Oh Ghu! returns!!), most answers are now available.
However, the GSP is only used by US shippers, not Chinese.
Message 6 of 8
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

According to http://www.dutycalculator.com/, no duties on cell phones imported from China or the US, only pay PST and GST.

Message 7 of 8
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do i need to pay canadian customs and duty whe i buy cell phoe fom china?

The countries that are signatories to the North American Free Trade Agreement are Canad, USA, Mexico and Chile.
China is not a signatory, nor does Canada have any free trade agreement with China.

The upcoming TransPacific Partnership discussions include Canada, USA, Japan, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, and Vietnam, but is not yet signed or in effect. China is not part of the discussions.
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