Cross border shopping question.

October 1, 2006 12:28 PM

Is there anywhere that explains, in understandable english, what the duties & fees are for cross-border shopping? I'd like to know what to look for when shopping in the US.

I know I'll pay our taxes at the border and NAFTA rules, but there's about a bazillion exceptions to the rules, and the Canada Customs site is...stupid. My googling skills aren't helping me. What if my sweater is made in Spain, of wool? Or cotton? What then, Customs agents, WHAT THEN?

posted by Salmonberry to clothing, beauty, & fashion (7 comments total)

There's basically no way to know this for sure, as it's going to be up to the individual customs officer at the border, and what they determine your goods to be, what they determine they're worth, and a bunch of other stuff.
posted by oaf at 1:25 PM on October 1, 2006

Start with the I Declare document. It should give you a basic understanding of what to expect and where to go for more information.
posted by shoesfullofdust at 1:55 PM on October 1, 2006

I went through that I Declare PDF. I was hoping there'd be more on what duties to expect based on country of origin and what it was made of....last time I went through, the officer listed off linen from Israel, etc, as now being duty free. I didn't write his list down as I thought it'd be online somewhere. I was wrong, apparently.

When I cross the border, oaf, they always look at my receipts and the clothing label tag to determine where it was made and what the fibre content is, as well as value. As I said, I just assumed there'd be easy access to that sort of info. Maybe I'll ask at the border station before I cross next time I head down. Sounds like that'll be best.
posted by Salmonberry at 2:21 PM on October 1, 2006

Salmonberry, I've been in this situation before. There are different rules that apply for each country. For example, you might buy an article of clothing in an outlet store in the USA, but the garment is made in China. When you declare your purchases upon returning to Canada, the country of origin - not the country of purchase - will matter.

And indeed the CCRA site is difficult to navigate. When you are in the office paying taxes and duties, customs agents will look up the appropriate duty by country.

And this information is not on the web, alas. :(

A related question, one that has me stumped for a few weeks now --

Back in August, while waiting to cross into the USA from Canada by car, I noticed the Duty Free building. My bf took over the wheel, and I went into the duty free to browse about. I bought a three-pack of wine (duty free, what a deal) and returned to the car. I put the bottles of wine into the trunk in the bag, with the receipt still inside.

We crossed into the USA. We spent three days there, backpacking. We left the wine bottles in the trunk, had a great time camping, then returned back to the border to return home.

Given that we purchased the wine in Canada, and now we were bringing it back, should we have declared the wine?
posted by seawallrunner at 3:02 PM on October 1, 2006

Yeah, NAFTA would be great if anything was actually made in the NAFTA zone anymore.

I wouldn't have declared the wine, if you had the receipt showing you got it in Canada no problem.

I did find this borderpro site, which I will certainly bookmark before making any ebay purchases. It sure makes it easy to figure out real costs before I buy. I'll use it to guesstimate.
posted by Salmonberry at 3:15 PM on October 1, 2006

wow Salmonberry, that's a great resource - thx
posted by seawallrunner at 4:08 PM on October 1, 2006

My experience with buying clothing and other small goods in the US then driving back to Canada (same day) is that if they decide to have you pay duty, it consists of charging the GST on what you bought. It could be that other, more expensive goods, get a different reaction though. Also, if the declared value is less than $50, they usually wave me through. But I also suspect a lot of this is at the whim of the border inspector.
posted by drmarcj at 7:22 PM on October 1, 2006