>Eric Smith wrote:
> > A gentleman in Canada has some hardware that he's willing to give
> > me (old computers in questionable state). Thing is, neither one of us is
> > sure if there's any paperwork required to bring these boxes
> > over the border.
> If the equipment was originally made in USA, it's no problem. Just
> tell US Customs that you're reptriating it. They may want some proof
> that it's made in USA. A label stating that is best, but even just
> the address of the manufacturer being in the USA may be sufficient.
>
> Failing that, you can just tell them that it's old scrap with no
> commercial value. That's true, isn't it?
>
> It might help to buy the equipment from him for a nominal price rather
> than get it as a gift. If you buy it (for $25, perhaps) and have
> a bill of sale, the import duty would be based on the sale price. But
> if it's a gift, Customs would try to determine the value and assess the
> import duty based on that.
>
> I'm not an expert, but I've brought computer equipment into the US from
> Canada twice without problems.
Jerome Fine replies:
While my experience has MOSTLY been in the opposite
direction form the US to Canada, the few times I have
sent items to the US, it has not been a problem.
If you don't need to insure the shipment, then I still strongly
agree that a nominal value of $ US 10 is MUCH better
than zero since immediately the US customs (as is the same
in Canada - all bureaucracy is really the same) will want
to make an evaluation.
HOWEVER, from what I understand, the value of the
shipment and the insurance "tend" to correspond - although
we both know that repairs are very often more than the
worth of something. BUT, the shipper will not insure the
merchandise for more than the declared value - of course,
they are cooperating with customs, but when was that not
the situation.
One possible method is to say that the shipment is being
returned under warranty for repair in the US where it was
built. I expect that might get by most of the time, but not
always. After all, if it had been sent to Canada and arrived
broken, there would be a record of it being shipped in the
first place.
Normally, on shipments of a reasonable value, the country
of origin is not questioned if stated as the US and the stuff
has the name of the company which is located in the US.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
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Received on Thu Oct 03 2002 - 18:14:00 BST