So my wife is in Argentina now visiting her parents. She's leaving tomorrow evening and will be bringing back with her the first batch of the crystal-clear front turn signal lenses that my father-in-law has made. (See, the Neo914-6 thread) I told her bring back as many as she can, but she's wondering what the customs situation will be like and what she should be expecting to pay.

In looking at the U.S. Custom's web site, they specify that items for personal use are subject to an $800 exemption. Then they give the rates for other items above and beyond that. What they don't make clear though is for non-personal items, things for sale/business, what the rates are for the duty. Does anyone know? Is there a special form she should have with her before arriving?

And the idea of saying they are for personal use isn't going to work... 100 plastic lenses are clearly not for personal use


-Tony

Rates of duty depend on country of origin......

They can also be assessed by the customs officer depending on what they are made from....

http://www.usitc.gov/tata/hts/bychapter/index.htm

Have her get a bill of sale for the lenes.....have it written as replacement auto lenes....perferably on a company letter head...make sure it's dated and has a total price on it. She might have to make a commercial import

Why not have her mail them back rather than carry them??
CCLINFEDEX

if you mail them you still have to make a customs declaration with whatever carrier you use.

However, you could handle the first few shipments as "samples" with very low declared value.

Are Porsche parts identified separately by customs and given a 50% surcharge?

Thanks for the information!!

I've just spent the last hour and a half reading through the harmonized tarriff structure document. I think all she has to do is show a bill of sale with some information on quantity, etc. Because its a car part (section XVIII) it will be subject to a 2.5% duty.

I gave her a list of what needs to be on the bill of sale. The biggest problem might be getting them marked. Apaprently any good imported to the US must have a markign indicating country of origin. I doubt seriously that the die has ARGENTINA stamped in it. So if they can come up with a decent supply of Argentina stickers tomorrow they might be okay. Otherwise a reasonable quantity of these will have to be shipped.

I have no idea what the demand for these will be, so I don't even know how many to have produced.

-Tony

Have them write "Made in Argentina" on the bill of sale....that should satisfy the country of origin requirement. As the are in bulk, have it written on the bag there in also. If they require "made in Argentina" on each, get some address labels and run the stickers off on a printer.

Oh and duty is calculated on the value of the goods converted to US $ on the day they are shipped (hence the reason for the date on the bill of sale).

Argentina peso's converted to USD X the duty. Example is 100 Pesos = $32.48 US X duty.

They might or might not also charge the FET (Federal Excise Tax) on the value also. FET is a hidden tax.