The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm trying to ship a guitar from here in Oklahoma to Canada. ¡Holy crap! ¡What a PITA!

Why do they need to know Carter's Tax ID Number (for the NAFTA form) for me to send a used guitar to a buyer. Do I have to call Carter to get this info?

HS Tariff Classification Number? Huh?

Preference Criterion based on Chapter Four and Annex 401? What?

Producer info?

What's wrong with just sending a guitar to a friend who happens to live in Canada?

Gary,

I sold a guitar to a fellow in Canada earlier this year. It was a pain. I used FED EX. I had to supply a commercial invoice that stated the amount that the person was paying for the guitar. They used this amount to determine how much duty tax the end user would have to pay. BTW the only way Fed Ex would do this was if I set up an account with them. The purpose of setting the account up (I found out later)was so that FED EX could collect from me the duty tax if the recipient decided no to pay. So this is the way it went me. I took the guitar to the nearest fed ex shipping center. They took the guitar and sent it to their nearest distribution center. I then received a notice that the shipment had been held up because of incomplete paper work. So after talking with several people at FED EX I was finally able to talk with a person that was staring at my package and telling me it needed a commercial invoice. So, I faxed the invoice and I'm thinking, OK I'm all finished with this whole shipping thing. I verified that the recipient received the package and I'm thinking again "good" he received the package, the transaction is complete. WRONG! A few weeks later I received in the mail a notice from Fed Ex stating that I owe them 150 bucks and some change. The recipient in Canada had not paid the "duty taxes" and they were coming back to me to collect. Luckily for me, the guy I was dealing with eventually paid and I got Fed Ex off my back. For me, I will not offer anything to sell to outside the U.S. just because of the hassle.

About the NAFTA Certificate of Origin
The NAFTA Certificate of Origin is used by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, including Puerto Rico, to determine if goods imported into their countries receive reduced or eliminated duty as specified by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

For those forms that are completed online, this application is designed for goods whose origin is the U.S. or Puerto Rico only.

The NAFTA Certificate of Origin must be attached to an Invoice if the shipment is valued at greater than:

* $1,000 USD and is being sent to a Mexican destination from Canada or the U.S.
* $1,600 (Canadian dollars) and is being sent to a Canadian destination from Mexico or the U.S.
* $2,500 USD and is being sent to a U.S. destination from Canada or Mexico.



Shipments valued at less than the above amounts do not require a NAFTA Certificate of Origin. Instead, the customer should type the following statement on the shipment´s invoice:

"I hereby certify that the good covered by this shipment qualifies as an originating good for purposes of preferential tariff treatment under the NAFTA."

For purposes of obtaining preferential tariff treatment, this document must be completed legibly and in full by the exporter and be in the possession of the importer at the time the declaration is made. This document may also be completed voluntarily by the producer for use by the exporter. Please print or type.

I've bolded the necessary info so you can stop complaining about things you don't need to do and possibly just get the job done.

You can get a simple commercial invoice here:
http://www.ups-scs.com/tools/forms/comm ... al+invoice

Just print the invoice out and print the necessary verbiage plainly and clearly. It may take you all off 5-10 minutes. Remember this method is only valid for DECLARED values of LESS THAN $2500.

Hint: You decide the declared value.

PS You should probably fax a copy to the person you are sending the guitar to.

...so you can stop complaining about things you don't need to do and possibly just get the job done.

Dang John. You seem nearly as irritated as I am.

Gary, I just sent you an email.

There is nothing hard about shipping to Canada. And in the case of unpaid "duty", that makes no sense because there is no duty on US-made steels. (You must be talking about an Asian 6-string or something.) Also, the steel would not get delivered to the buyer until all taxes and brokerage were paid. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I can't figure out why the Canadian buyer was allowed to have access to the instrument before fees were paid. Sometimes they won't even ship the steel from the Customs centre if there's not a Visa number to guarantee payment of the fees on the other side. They called me once from Montreal to say they needed payment of brokerage and taxes on a steel I bought from Bobbe before it could carry on to Newfoundland.

You should be able to just pack up the steel, check "used musical instrument" in the customs slip, declare its worth, insure it and ship. I've shipped a load of steels internationally and never once did they want a "NAFTA" anything for a used item. That's the first I've heard of many of those terms, actually.

Here is a word of advice: Ship through the post office for single neck steels, or any steels under 60 pounds. Fedex and UPS make things more difficult than necessary. The Post Office will insure up to $1,000. (They give you a little slip that takes about 45 seconds to fill out.) You don't have a prayer collecting any insurance anyway, so just pack it well. I just sent a Pro 1 to NYC through Canada Post, It arrived in about 6 business days.

Threads like these needlessly scare off sellers from selling to us Canadian buyers, and it consequentially deprives us of buying opportunities. Yes, you do have a choice not to ship up here, but don't let your bad experience appear as the norm.

Amen Chris.

I've found Fedex to be about 3 times the cost of UPS when crossing the border, by the way.

Chris,

This is how it went down during my experience. The steel did get delivered and I was going to get stuck with paying the duty taxes. The steel was an American made MSA. I hold nothing against Canadians, I have good friends that live in Vancouver, notice my statement at the end of my original post, I said I would not ship anything outside the US, yes that does include Canada but it also includes everywhere else in the world.

My post office (2 different people from 2 different offices) told me yesterday that the item can only be insured for $670. And while it's unlikely that anything would happen to the guitar, it would be an even bigger pain to handle if something DID happen.

I ship to Canada all the time. I just use BAX Global. Great rates and service. I simply supply them 3 copies of an invoice that gives a description of the goods, total number of packages, size and weight of the package, declared value in US dollars, and state Made in the USA and contact person (you). That takes care of it and BAX handles the rest. If you want the very cheapest rate possible, go terminal to terminal, not door to door. This is only possible if both you and the receiver both live within driving distance of one of their terminals. It is not any big deal to supply the invoices.

I ship small stuff all over the world every week. Canada, Germany, France, Australia, etc. Just everywhere. But these are little items. Guitar parts, banjo parts, mandolin parts.

I've never shipped a $1500 guitar out of the States until now. It's a complete joke.

Anyway, we've figured out a way to get it done by shipping to a U.S. resident that lives near the buyer.