Canada Post changes that may effect some international sellers

[hlmacdon]

Came across this email from the developer program mailing list. The bit that is relevant for most sellers would be the line regarding gift marking. I know some casual sellers will do this for international customers or openly advertise such. I'm not sure if these changes will get rolled into paypal shipping or if this is just for contract customers. Whether or not an "other" user editable entry will remain is an open question. For contract customers these go into effect April 18th. If you use the EST online shipping tool via the Canada Post website this will very likely reflect this change.

Recent changes in international customs regulations have necessitated the following requirements when creating a shipment in web services:

• Sender name or sender company name required. For shipments to the U.S.A. or international destinations, your shipping labels must include the full name of the sender or the sender’s company name. You will not be able to create a U.S. or international shipping label without this information.
• Gift as a reason for export no longer available. Please select another reason.

[lady.stark]

Wow... and what happens when the item sent is a real gift?

[aubreyclay56]

Personally i would not mark as a gift the transaction can get you in deep trouble for sure,i have been asked to ship that way but can you in trouble and is not worth it,easy for the buyer but it may come back to bite you if the item is worth more than the free amount for that country its not worth the trouble 

[xeposter]

One problems I see with gift wrapped items is that the seller could wrap up whatever they want...you would not want to open the item when you get it because the seller wrapped it for you. What if it is different that what you ordered or the order got mixed up?

I mean, you have to really trust the seller to ask them to gift wrap it for you.

Alex

[hlmacdon]

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@lady.stark wrote:

Wow... and what happens when the item sent is a real gift?

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I'll have to do some more digging to see what these changes in regulations are as I haven't come across anything specific as of yet. Through third party providers you do get the "other" reason and you can type in whatever. It strikes me as odd as any exemptions for gift classified items are set by individual countries, an import versus export issue. Nevertheless I would suggest checking whatever shipping program you use in April to see if anything has changed and how it may impact you.

[lady.stark]

To 'aubreyclay56'... I don't know if you were responding to me or to the post in general, but... if it was to me, I never said I mark my eBay sales as gifts. I don't. But sometimes, I send real gifts to my friends (don't you?) and use Canada Post website to print my label. What will I do then?

[xeposter]

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@lady.stark wrote:

I never said I mark my eBay sales as gifts. I don't. But sometimes, I send real gifts to my friends (don't you?) and use Canada Post website to print my label. What will I do then?

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Can ANYBODY answer this question? 🙂

Alex

[hlmacdon]

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@x..e wrote:

One problems I see with gift wrapped items is that the seller could wrap up whatever they want...you would not want to open the item when you get it because the seller wrapped it for you. What if it is different that what you ordered or the order got mixed up?

I mean, you have to really trust the seller to ask them to gift wrap it for you.

Alex

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The "gift" portion refers to the customs form section that is filled out when you ship a product outside the country. Some sellers or family members sending items abroad will select this as the stated reason for export as most countries have a higher exemption limit (duties and taxes) for "gifts" compared to items declared as merchandise.

[xeposter]

So, this topic has nothing at all to do with eBay then?

I'll just leave this thread......

Alex

[hlmacdon]

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@aubreyclay56 wrote:

Personally i would not mark as a gift the transaction can get you in deep trouble for sure,i have been asked to ship that way but can you in trouble and is not worth it,easy for the buyer but it may come back to bite you if the item is worth more than the free amount for that country its not worth the trouble 

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It is something that sellers should definitely keep in mind as there are export related considerations when you incorrectly declare an item. For buyers they are still taking a chance this way as the item can be opened and reassessed for duty/taxes regardless of what is written on the shipping label. You'll get many buyers asking for this as it is near-standard practice with most sellers in Asia. Unfortunately many countries, including our own, have extremely low exemption limits.

[pjcdn2005]

I wonder if this is just for online label printing. When someone fills out one of those forms by hand they could easily write gift. The average joe wouldn't even know about the change.

[femmefan1946]

Even if your zumu in Hong Kong sent you a gift, the maximum value would be $60CDN before duty kicked in.

And Hong Kong is not covered under either NAFTA or the TPP.

[aubreyclay56]

T0 lady stark, sorry i was just replying to the post in general sorry for the confusion,people have asked me to mark as a gift on the shipping label to the usa to avoid duties and customs taxes ect.which i dont do,too easy to get into trouble i was thinking

[pjcdn2005]

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@aubreyclay56 wrote:

T0 lady stark, sorry i was just replying to the post in general sorry for the confusion,people have asked me to mark as a gift on the shipping label to the usa to avoid duties and customs taxes ect.which i dont do,too easy to get into trouble i was thinking

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You wouldn't get into trouble as the importer is responsible for the declared amount. It's unlikely they would get in 'trouble' either...they would probably just have to pay more taxes if it was deemed that the item was undervalued on the custom form.

Actually, I'm surprised that anyone from the U.S. would want an item marked as a gift. Before the change, they were allowed $200 in merchandise....but only $100 if the item was a gift. I doubt that marking as a gift is all that useful anyway. In some cases it might make the package look more suspicious to customs.