Anyone familiar w brining speakers in from Canada

Unless you have the appropriate documents to establish admission to the US, travelling on a German passport from Canada to the US virtually guarantees an extensive interview at US Immigration & Customs, with the possibility of exclusion from admission. The speakers are irrelevant. If you have any reason to be concerned about re-admission to the US then have the speakers shipped to you.

Whether you'll need to pay duty depends on where the speakers were made. If they're of U.S. or Canadian manufacture the NAFTA agreement means you won't need to pay an import duty. If they're European, or from any country outside the territory NAFTA covers, you'll pay duty.

It's important that you have documentation about the origin and value of the speakers when you come back into the U.S. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of what a customs officer thinks. You might be able to get through without declaring them but that puts you at risk if you do get checked.

I agree with Commcat, having a German passport will likely set you up for scrutiny at US border. I've had a number of bad experiences traveling with foreigners with Visas at US border. Save yourself the hassle, get them shipped or get a US citizen to bring them over.

I have to say my experience bears out the above comments re German passports. I went across with a pal once and we were delayed for hours. That was back in the Bush days, though. Things were tenser then. Today security seems just as tight but folks have been a lot less uptight... where I cross at least.

Uptight at the border or not, I have never had any problems taking gear across from Canada for a U.S. sale. IMHO that's the very best way to do it if you must ship ground. A delay only happened once, when I had no documentation on the goods.

Thanks guys for the quick responses.

The idea with the German passport came because years ago, before I actually moved here, I took some classes in Detroit and went over to Windsor on numerous occasions and always showed my German passport rather then my US drivers license, which I already had at the time.

Usually I went shopping at the duty free and every time brought over a bottle of Gin. Always told the guy that I had a bottle on me and was here for some software classes for two weeks and every time they sent me on my merry way. Needless to say, that was before 911 and things are different now.

The speakers are made in Europe and so I better get in touch with customs and see if they can tell me what I'd have to pay . Hope it won't be too bad.

Kinda funny that something imported from Europe into North America (Canada) gets charged once and then again once it comes to the US. Rather free and fair trade that is. But then again, the government needs money and free to take it from us they are when it comes to that, haha.

The Detroit and Port Huron entrances to US is where I've experienced problems. Going into Canada is always a problem for me as well, I get searched every time. I suspect my Canada problems stem from a time when I entered on my motorcycle years ago, tons of luggage for a trip around Lake Superior. I had to empty my luggage, dogs sniffing everything, go in for an interview, talk about profiling! I suspect I'm now on some list with Canadian border patrol, my drivers license must give me away. I hate going through borders!