http://the-wedding-resource.com/12310/how-can-i-determine-import-and-customs-fees-for-my-wedding-dress Resource and News to help you plan the perfect wedding! Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:08:33 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://the-wedding-resource.com/12310/how-can-i-determine-import-and-customs-fees-for-my-wedding-dress/comment-page-1#comment-55190 myshell2 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:37:09 +0000 http://the-wedding-resource.com/12310/how-can-i-determine-import-and-customs-fees-for-my-wedding-dress#comment-55190 You'll have to contact US Customs to find out what the duty might be. Duties are based upon the item imported, the exact materials that are used in it (clothing, especially ornate items like wedding dresses, can be a nightmare) and the country of origin of the materials and the end item. Note that the country of origin may NOT be the same as the country that the item ships from! Duties on clothing can range from nil to several hundred percent. The other "gotcha" with imports is that some materials that might be legal in other countries (or if illegal, the laws are unenforced) are illegal in the US. You can still find genuine whalebone corsetry in some Asian countries. If your dress included that it would be confiscated by US Customs and destroyed if they discovered it. Your only recourse would be through the seller. Good luck recovering from a Shanghai seller! One more "gotcha" to consider is that free shipping from Shanghai is almost certainly via surface shipping. Delivery times for ocean freight can run 6 weeks or more -- sometimes a LOT more. If you need it quickly, pay the extra for air shipment! The final "gotcha" particularly with goods from China is counterfeit trademarked goods. If the dress purports to be from a major name designer and the price is "too good to be true" then it's a virtual certainty that it's counterfeit. Counterfeit goods are also subject to confiscation and destruction by US Customs. You've probably seen the newsreels of Customs authorities flattening truckloads of counterfeit Rolex watches with a road roller. You don't want your wedding dress buried in that pile! You’ll have to contact US Customs to find out what the duty might be. Duties are based upon the item imported, the exact materials that are used in it (clothing, especially ornate items like wedding dresses, can be a nightmare) and the country of origin of the materials and the end item. Note that the country of origin may NOT be the same as the country that the item ships from! Duties on clothing can range from nil to several hundred percent.
The other “gotcha” with imports is that some materials that might be legal in other countries (or if illegal, the laws are unenforced) are illegal in the US. You can still find genuine whalebone corsetry in some Asian countries. If your dress included that it would be confiscated by US Customs and destroyed if they discovered it. Your only recourse would be through the seller. Good luck recovering from a Shanghai seller!
One more “gotcha” to consider is that free shipping from Shanghai is almost certainly via surface shipping. Delivery times for ocean freight can run 6 weeks or more — sometimes a LOT more. If you need it quickly, pay the extra for air shipment!
The final “gotcha” particularly with goods from China is counterfeit trademarked goods. If the dress purports to be from a major name designer and the price is “too good to be true” then it’s a virtual certainty that it’s counterfeit. Counterfeit goods are also subject to confiscation and destruction by US Customs. You’ve probably seen the newsreels of Customs authorities flattening truckloads of counterfeit Rolex watches with a road roller. You don’t want your wedding dress buried in that pile!

]]> http://the-wedding-resource.com/12310/how-can-i-determine-import-and-customs-fees-for-my-wedding-dress/comment-page-1#comment-55191 Bostonian In MO Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:48:19 +0000 http://the-wedding-resource.com/12310/how-can-i-determine-import-and-customs-fees-for-my-wedding-dress#comment-55191 If they ship it by mail, the post office will collect the fee from you directly when you pick up the package.http://www.traveloasis.com/uscustravin.h… The fee calculation is somewhat (unclearly) explained athttp://www.customs.gov/ I would just go ahead and order it, pay at delivery whatever fee the Customs office decides upon. If I thought it was too much I'd then send a letter to the Customs office that issued the mail entry fee, making my case for a lower fee. There is a good chance that they are overloaded and would rather lower the fee than go to court about it. If they ship it by mail, the post office will collect the fee from you directly when you pick up the package.http://www.traveloasis.com/uscustravin.h…
The fee calculation is somewhat (unclearly) explained athttp://www.customs.gov/
I would just go ahead and order it, pay at delivery whatever fee the Customs office decides upon. If I thought it was too much I’d then send a letter to the Customs office that issued the mail entry fee, making my case for a lower fee. There is a good chance that they are overloaded and would rather lower the fee than go to court about it.

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