You probably are not.
Have a seat this is complicated.
If your (USonly) seller has been signed up for the Global Tracking Program, his responsibility for your purchase ends when it is recieved in Kentucky by Pitney Bowes who run the GTS.
When you made the purchase you saw and agreed to pay 'import fees' , which are NOT exactly duty, but may included duty, sales tax and a service fee to PB/GTS.
You paid those fees with your purchase price and shipping fee. Then the seller shipped to Kentucky/GTS/PB.
And now PB takes over.
They all too often open your seller's carefully packed item and confirm it is dutiable (which can mean a lot of things). Then they repack it (often badly) and add it to a truckload of other purchases that are all imported under one cargo manifest to Canada.
Your duty-free item is part of a truckload of stuff.
This is important too-- you are not the importer. The seller is not the exporter. Pitney Bowes is the importer and pays appropriate duty and taxes to Canadian governments.
This is exactly what The Bay or WalMart does. A cargo of mixed goods are all on one manifest and imported together.
Canada Border Services Agency doesn't open every box. CBSA accepts that PB is not lying on the manifest.
Once across the border PB subcontracts actual shipping within Canada to other companies who bring it to your doorstep.
The reason you see 'import fees' is because PB did this. The fee may include duty. It will include sales tax, which varies from 5% to 15% depending on province, and it will include a service fee of $5 or so.
PB does not break down how much they, as importers, allow for each of these.
But remember PB did pay those duties to the Canadian goverment. Whether they should have or not.
The only ways out of this are:
Don't buy anything that is advertised as being sold through the GSP
Customs services and international tracking provided
Watch for this and do not buy
Contact the seller and ask if the item could be shipped by USPS First Class International which carries up to 4 lbs and is Delivery Confirmed to Canada (The seller may not know about the DC).
If the seller has agreed, Don't pay until he re-invoices you, probably directly from Paypal. Don't worry, this is 'eBay legal'. When he marks the item Paid, eBay gets its fees.
More generally, CBSA and Canada Post have tended to ignore shipments valued under $20 and not charge the applicable duty, tax and service fee. Couriers like UPS and Pitney Bowes can't legally do this.
If you want the duty-free import limit to be raised from the current $20 ,write (on paper):
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
House of Commons
OTTAWA ON K1A 0A6
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