Buying Nikon D300 from Canada

<p>Being in the US is there any customs/ duty fees when buying from Canada. I found a lot of contradictory info on the net. Some say due to NAFTA there is no fees when buying from Canada, some say it depends on the price of the camera. Did anybody buy something or have any experience buying from Canada, did you pay any fees when the item arrived? Please, shed some light, I would greatly appreciate this.<br>

P.S. not sure if the question belongs here, if not, please move to the right spot.</p>

<p>Jerry-I'm in Canada and we have to pay duty on items shipped in from the U.S. so I imagine that the opposite is true as well. I believe that if an item is made in either country, then there is no duty but good luck finding something made in Canada or the U.S. these days! In any event, keep in mind problems with the warranty-it won't be honoured there. cb :-)</p>

<p>nafta only applies to items that are manufactured here and shipped in north America. Will not apply to items of PANASIAN manufacture. If the lens is less than $1600 USD you can ask the shipper to complete a NAFTA preferrential duty form. If less than $200, dont worry.</p>

<p>If you want to find out, in advance, how much duty you would pay on an item purchased in Canada, contact your Federal Customs Agency and ask them. There may even be information on their web site.</p>

<p>Cheers! Jay</p>

<p>Charles, warranty is not an issue ....but thanks for answer<br>

Jay, any idea what their website is...I googled " Federal Customs Agency" is it ICE.gov or something else?</p>

<p>http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/basic_trade/<br>

says if less than $2000 for personal use is duty free, but who knows?</p>

<p>Jerry, I'm in Canada. When I buy pre-owned goods from eBay and the customs form (filled out by the US seller/shipper) is itemized as "Used goods, no commercial value", the item is received duty free regardless of transaction value or item type (that I've bought upto $2,000).</p>

<p>This indicates to me that duty only applies to new goods at a categorized rate, at least when importing from the US to Canada. The US might have similar importing rules.</p>

<p>Sorry Jerry, I haven't contacted US Customs in the past. I'm Canadian and I contacted Canadian Customs to find out about my purchases from the US.</p>

<p>However, I typed "US Customs" into the Firefox address window and came up with this:</p>

<p>http://www.cbp.gov/</p>

<p>Should give you a start.</p>

<p>I will add that I have never paid duty on new Canon camera bodies, lenses or on Fuji Film. I have paid duty a couple of times on accessories (a "Kalt" brand lens hood is the only thing I can remember at the moment - and I think Kalt is from Europe). I always had to pay the Canadian Sales Taxes and some small fees to the shipper.</p>

<p>Of course, this has no bearing on your situation, but, there may be other Canadians monitoring this thread.</p>

<p>Cheers! Jay</p>

<p>I recently bought a refurb camera from a Canadian vendor for $611. The parcel arrived at my door with never a mention of duties. </p>

<p>When my company had to send chemical samples to Canada from the US, if we wanted to use UPS or another private comapny we had reams of paperwork and customs declaration forms with which to deal. Or the samples were merely mailed with nary a thing needed. They were not hazardous nor dangerous in any way, just some of the screwy stuff that has been haphazardly legislated and implemented.</p>

<p>As an aside, if I want to ship a 2 ounce container of acetone (flammable) by UPS, they won't take it. If I want to ship a 50 pound carboy of sulfuric acid, they slap a yellow label on it and off it goes! Good grief! {part of the rationale is UPS flys stuff a lot so there's no guarantee stuff is trucked only, i.e. for small lots, so it makes a little bit of sense}</p>

<p>Jim.</p>

<p>I reside in Canada . I purchase "stuff" from the United States INTO Canada and photographic equipment comes into the country "duty free". You only have to pay FED and PROV taxes (GST + PST). Those of us in Canada know not to use UPS as they tack on Extra charges for brokerage, special handling etc. If shipping into Canada use USPS or some other carrier. Purchasing from Canada INTO the USA I do not know, but a simple call to US customs should find you the answer.</p>