I am Canadian buying a product made in Canada but owned by an American. Why is duty being applied?

Summary: vannilajoe is perplexed about having to pay duty for used Tilley hats bought from a USA seller, shipped via DHL to Canada. They wonder why there's a duty charge on a Canadian-made product. marnotom! explains that the charge might be taxes or customs processing fees, not duty, especially if the "Item Specifics" are incomplete on eBay. reallynicestamps suggests appealing to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) for a refund if the hats can be proven "Made in Canada" but notes that without a label, they are considered dutiable. mrdutch1001 adds that the ownership changes of the Tilley company mean some hats are now made in China, complicating the issue of the hats' origin and duty applicability.

I bought a bunch of used Tilley hats from a USA seller. They sent it through to the eBay shipping structure. Ebay used DHL to ship to Canada. DHL sent an emai saying I owed Duty on the product. The purpose of Duty is to protect the country from products that are not made in the delivery country. What am I missing here? Was it that DHL blindly applies duty because they know the buyer can apply for the refund through customs? Or is there a way to know why a Canadian made product, Canadian owned company needs to have a Duty charge on a used lot of hats that have already been paid in full for things like importation into the USA? These things can be searched because it is a listed item on eBay.

vannilajoe

111 View listings

Posted 1 year ago·Last reply 1 year ago

4 comments

mrdutch1001

·1 year ago

View listings

This "Canadian owned company" does not necessarily have the Tilley hats "made" in Canada as the company has changed hands a couple of times in the past several years and some "Tilley" hats are "made" in China.

So, unless these USED hats have a "made in Canada" label still attached, it cannot be verified that they actually were "made" in Canada.

reallynicestamps

·1 year ago

View listings

You could appeal to CBSA (not DHL) for a refund of applicable duty (but not sales taxes) on the basis that the goods imported were Made In Canada.

But unless they have a label saying so, they are dutiable.

mrdutch1001

·1 year ago

View listings

Yes, if USED Tilley hats do NOT have a Made in Canada label still attached, they cannot be "verified" as Made in Canada.

marnotom!

·1 year ago

View listings

Did you pay taxes for the hats at Checkout? If not, and the value of the shipment is over CDN$40, those need to be paid for a couriered shipment. Canada Border Services isn’t very diligent about assessing and charging taxes due on items shipped through the postal system, so we’ve grown accustomed to purchasing items from the US not just duty-free, but tax-free as well, but technically, mailed shipments from the US with a declared value of over CDN$20 are subject to provincial and federal taxes.

The email from DHL may be boilerplate and is referring to “duty and taxes” when it’s just taxes and customs processing you’re being charged for. If there is a separate charge for duty clearly mentioned in the email with a dollar amount owing, it’s likely the result of the listing containing no information in the “Item Specifics” section of the hats’ country of manufacture. If the eBay International Shipping “bot” doesn’t have this information or the info is inaccurate, it will note that the item is dutiable.

Hope I’m making sense here. I’m doing the best I can here without being able to see the listing and the email that you received from DHL.