John, Tom, et al,
The issue with U.S. duties is not really whether or not an imported item is
used UNLESS the U.S. Tariff Schedules specifically provide for a
classification and duty rate for used merchandise in a particular category.
>Tom, Who told you that there is duty to be paid on used equipment. SNIP
In the case of the U.S. duties, most film cameras carry a duty rate of FREE.
>And I will not assume the person at FEDEX had the updated regs either. SNIP
Chances are they and the other courier services have the updated regs. The
courier clearance business is much different than that of seafreight,
"normal" airfreight and truck freight in that the objective is to keep the
goods moving very quickly (at least once they arrive on U.S. soil). The
couriers and their importing customers are, for the most part, bound by the
same rules and regulations as anyone else. Practically speaking, it's just
that the nature of the beast causes it to be treated differently. The same
system that doesn't catch you importing as a "gift" a dutiable item that
cost you $800 also has hurried or sloppy clerks assigning the wrong tariff
number and assessing you a 10 0uty rate when there should be
none. Because so many courier shipments are typically of low value they
don't receive the pre or post clearance scrutiny that sea, air and truck
shipments do. Mind you, we're not talking about security scrutiny
here--merely old fashioned importing.
>Anybody have an idea where to look for the list of dutiable items for the US?
The first link leads you to chapter 90 which covers film cameras and their
lenses. If you think Lama's treatise on speakers glazed over the eyes of
the less than truly dedicated audiophiles be sure to read the three or so
pages of notes preceding the commodity listings. I'll give you a
hint: film cameras are under heading 9006. Can you find lenses? And what
about digital cameras? They're somewhere else besides Chapter 90. Five
gold stars and list published kudos to the person (list members in the
import/export biz excluded) who finds digitals.
http://dataweb.usitc.gov/SCRIPTS/tariff/0302c90.pdf
The second link is to the table of contents for the U.S. Tariff Schedules
http://dataweb.usitc.gov/SCRIPTS/tariff/toc.html
U.S. Customs home page is at
http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/home.xml
Representing primarily commercial importers I never had much to do with
Postal shipments into this country. What I do remember is that they took
care of clearance formalities with no problem and then notified us (the
Customhouse Broker) that we owed $_______ and once paid they would send it
on its way.
Gary, who's thinking of reactivating his Customhouse Broker's career with
an orientation towards auction site importers.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|