Importing Jewelry from Canada?

[Jambalaya]

Hi, I wonder if some of the experienced folks on here can help me.

I live in the United States. If I bought an item of jewelry from the website of a Canadian jeweler, what kind of import fees/duties/taxes would be levied by the United States?

The item is 1,095 Canadian dollars from a Canadian jeweler called Maison Birks.

If anybody has bought Canadian jewelry and had it sent across the border to the US, I'd be very interested to know what the experience was like in terms of the cross-border issues.

Thank you so much in advance!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

What does your US Customs/Border services say...whenever I have had a question of this nature, I call. Is the US government website of any help?

cheers--Sharon

 

[Jambalaya]

I looked up info but it's complicated - however, it seems the US has a Free Trade agreement with Canada so there might not be any duty. I'm not sure if "trade" only applies to commercial items though - ie. businesses doing trade with other businesses.

I was just wondering if anybody in the US had had experience of bringing in jewelry from Canada. I know that usually on this website it's the other way round!

Thanks for your reply!

 

[aliceinwonderland]

Hi Jambalaya,

The trade agreement will not apply to you. I am in Canada and in reverse we pay duty on each purchase so I cannot possibly imagine that you would not pay duty in reverse. If you however ...cough cough lived close to the border and wanted to visit a fed-ex location in Canada and mail the box and paper work back to yourself.....well you can figure out what I mean. And the jewelry store you are referring to is a very reputable company (basically Canada's version of Tiffany) so it has that brand name appeal as well. It's commonly referred to as just Birk's for short. I don't however know what the specific duty fees will be for you sorry for the rambling post!

Alice

 

[kmarla]

We don't pay duty on jewelry imported to Canada from the U.S. as long as it is manufactured in the U.S. If the piece is purchased from the U.S. but was manufactured elsewhere then duty applies, but this doesn't happen often. We do always pay taxes however I suspect the same rules apply in reverse since we have the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and U.S. I would make a call to Border Services (U.S. Equivalent) just to double check. Good luck!

 

[MollyMalone]

Looks as if Maison Birks itself might be able to answer your question; on their Shipping Policy page, there's this notice:
When you place an order with Maisonbirks.com, you authorize our customs broker to act as your agent to US Customs to clear merchandise and process all duties and taxes....
http://www.maisonbirks.com/en/shipping-policy/

 

[Lady_Disdain]

I talked to a Canadian metalsmith and he tells me his American customers have never had problems with taxes and duties (neither have I, actually). He does warn that Canadian Post can take forever!

 

[Jambalaya]

I saw the info on the Maison Birks website but it doesn't mean anything; all websites that ship abroad say something similar and they never say approximately how much fees will be for the main countries they ship to. I've bought items from abroad online and haven't had anything levied when it should have been. Although I haven't bought that much from abroad, it seems to depend who in the US handles your package and whether they bother or not. So I was just wondering what others' experiences have been, in case there's some large handling fee or something that I hadn't found. The duty wouldn't be more than about 7% anyway. Thanks to everyone for your input!