2. speakers
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Shipping Floor Standing Speakers to the US from Canada

I have a pair of floor standing speakers for sale ~($7250 CAD - 110 lbs each). I have an offer to purchase from the US. Shipping is not so bad as you have to ship via Freight and the ground services are pretty good, as long as you really package well. Double boxed and padded all to heck. The issue comes up with customs clearance.

US Customs calls this a commercial shipment because it is over $2000. A number of customs brokers and I have looked at the duties and under the US Universal Tariff Codes for 2021 (8518.22) the Loudspeakers look to be duty free. You would think life was easy, ...no way. Each broker comes up with a list of fees, bonds, extra insurance and on and on that costs $100's of dollars, not just $50. Even with no duty.

Has anyone done this process before and come up with an economic way of clearing US customs? I have tried UPS and FEDEX regarding these issues.

wbrownaudio

Showing 1 response by cindyment

cindyment's avatar
cindyment
351 posts
 

Here are the fees you as the shipper cannot avoid:

- Shipping charges

 

All the rest are technically the buyer, unless you are sending DDP, deliver duty paid.  The only fee that your buyer cannot avoid is taxes. Depending on state they are going to get dinged for taxes. That is difficult to avoid.

There is nothing that says you have to use UPS, of FEDEX for your brokerage services of a broker at all. You can usually do it yourself, it is just a pain. In this case however, your potential customer needs to do that.

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-418?language=en_US

 

What does matter is "who" is importing. Is it your customer, or will you be acting as the  non-resident importer? If your customer, the above is applicable. If technically you are importing as a non-resident importer, then you need to look after brokerage. There are online companies that do this cheaper than FEDEX / UPS who are easy, not cheap.

 

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