Why the "Import charges" when buying in Canada from the US? seems unfair.

[crystalharv]

$20.80 on a $99.00 purchase...seems so high!

[momcqueen]

Import charges are a combination of the duty and sales tax (mostly sales tax) and a handling fee.

Depending on what firm handled your item, it might be a high or low amount. 

[silverdreamfilm]

Are you purchasing from a Seller that uses the Global Shipping Program (G.S.P) in the USA.

Secondly, if you are going to be buying from a Seller in the USA pick Sellers that use USPS Shipping. 

There are less chances of paying "duty" when the Seller ships through USPS. 

[jacques1400]

More than likely you purchased an item part of the "Global Shipping Program".

If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a third party company that handles International shipments on behalf of the seller with no real affiliation with EBay as far as I know.

It's Ebay's poor answer to AmazonGlobal, but at an outrageously higher cost since it's contracted out.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

More views.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/Global-Shipping-Program/qaq-p/122911

In short, you buy an item, it gets shipped to the third party company, then they process your shipment by filling out the paperwork required for the destination country,  collect the duties and taxes on the government behalf, and re-ship the item using a service that guarantees proof of delivery, It's all done by the book.

I personally never buy from any seller using global shipping, the International shipping rates are already way out of control in the US, tagging on all kinds of additional fees, taxes and imaginary charges simply adds insult to injury.

The CSBA does not bother with low value shipments (Under $100) which contain common legal merchandise. They have a spot check system in place, the odds of being hit with any additional costs is lower than getting hit by lightning. I've had boxes of DVD's shipped with a declared value of $80.00 USD, CSBA agents actually verified the contents since they are required by law to to inform you that the shipment was opened for inspection (Usually a Yellow sealing tape), and simply sent it on it's merry way.

[krivak.2007]

The Global shipping program is a little fuzzy when it talks about "customs" charges. The reason for this is that the customs office of Canadian government is not interested in charging duty on any package that values under $250.00 Canadian unless it falls under a very narrow group of products. Some products are completely exempted under the free trade agreement with the USA.  

Most US sellers are unaware of the actual rules when it comes to sending stuff to Canada - the fact that Canada is their largest trading partner not withstanding. The GPS adds some services but seems to charge a lot for it. Many of the same "traceability" functions are available through the US postal service for less. Many US sellers assume GSP is just the best way to do it.

I have had several discussion with US sellers about this. Some seem not to care (because Canada may be a tiny part of their business) while others have been quite surprised. It seems to be not as big an issue with expensive items but it can make smaller priced items quite unreasonable in the total cost.