YEHAW!!! Car parts... etc. made in the EU, now duty-free in Canada!

Not sure how many people know this but apparently since September 21, Customs Canada no longer charges import duties on merchandise made in the EU because of the CANADA-EU trade agreement (CETA).

I just found out FedEx Canada incorrectly charged me $130 in duties for a Ferrari part I ordered from the UK for £1290. Of course, the really big question is whether CETA affects FNA prices of new Fcars and car parts in Canada as my Ferrari part came via the UK.

BTW, the EU item has to be purchased from the EU, so buying EU parts from the US won't exempt you the duty.

 

Correct the CETA agreement does allow for duty free imports from EU nations to Canada on many but not all products but there are some considerations:

1. The importation MUST come from an EU nation with no intermediary unless held in bonded custody during transport. For this reason your UK import (not a member of the EU) would not qualify for the exemption.

2. Importation documents need to have very specific origin information on the bill or the duty will not be automatically removed. You can chase a refund later but it is a pain. Getting the refund from FedEx is a bigger pain as they do not want to put in the work to chase money they paid out (ask me how I know)

3. In theory prices should decrease on European imports but will likely not. Good luck arguing a decreased import duty at Ferrari of Ontario to get a 6.1% reduction

 

You did not read my message properly. I clearly said...

...please, read carefully and don't jump to conclusions.

Well, you are wrong. I checked on the Canadian Government Global Affairs website and here's the proof... note the last line highlighted in RED in the following screenshot... the last country stated as part of the EU.

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I guess you also assumed the UK is no longer in the EU because of BREXIT.

Well, the UK is still in the EU according to the EU website. The UK hasn't left the EU yet...

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FYI, FedEx has already admitted their mistake to me in an official email from their brokerage department and has themselves placed the VISA charges "in dispute".

Based on this admission, I will ask VISA to cancel the authorization in the morning. FedEx will have to reissue a corrected invoice before they will get paid.

At any rate, I do agree with your gripe about FedEx. The FedEx customs brokering is not a free service. As customs brokers paid by you to perform their job, if they mess up, they should own up to it and clean up their own mess. I have said the same to FedEx.

Again, you are simply restating the doubts I already stated in my original message...

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I am really disappointed and a bit offended by the snarky know-it-all attitude in your message. You actually got your own facts wrong, restated what I already said and tried to paint me as some sort of uninformed fool when it appears that you are the one making the mistakes.

I hope this sort of reception on this forum is not customary whenever someone tries to share potentially useful information with fellow Canadians.

 

Wow you certainly took the time to dissect my post, research the most current information, and argue your corner. I apologize if I misled anyone with regards to my UK import info but it was the information I was given by the Canadian government less than a month ago. My company is constantly importing products from various EU nations and the importations can get pretty tricky sometimes. They have told me that this whole CETA treaty is so new that their materials and website are being constantly updated which has obviously now been done to properly classify the UK. I for one wrongly assumed that one month would make a difference when offering my experience today.

Just to be clear there was never any intention on my part to come off as a snarky know it all. In addition I never wished to paint the OP as some sort of uninformed fool. I for one don’t think for a moment that he is uninformed

 

I know it's awkward to own up to a mistake... one should always check one's assertions before posting, especially when you risk putting down someone who is just trying to do something nice. Fcar owners in Canada loathe the high prices of parts and accessories for our cars and I just wanted to share some good news.

FWIW, I posted the information because I only found out about it today (well Friday) from FedEx when I questioned brokerage charges and noticed the FedEx agent incorrectly assumed the UK is no longer part of the EU. After I corrected her I looked up the Canadian Govt's website to make sure her conclusion on the CETA exemption was corroborated.

 

Thank you for the heads up

Ignore N, everyone else does

 

How wonderful it would be if that were true but the minions just can’t help themselves

 

irrelevant

 

Thank you Sy for your reassurance.

I buy parts for my Cali30 from several sources; and at the moment nearly all of them are upgrade parts. However, my engine mounts wore out prematurely recently and I needed them quickly. I ordered those from Ricambi USA and they arrived in 2 days. Their prices are generally very good compared to Canadian prices even after shipping costs are factored in.

However, for the low-volume upgrade parts, I have found it much better to get them from UK sources as they will happily get them for me from Italy or just have them in stock, something I have been completely unable to find elsewhere and their prices are lower than those in NA.

Unfortunately, it does look like BREXIT will happen at some point. When it does, my UK sources for parts will likely have to hike their prices. I may then have to learn Italian and bear with the inevitable Italian way of doing business, or brush up on German or French and get used to their methods.

 

Name calling!

A ban is in order, sponsor or no sponsor

thank the stars above that nuvolari isn't a MOD

 

Ok, enough of the tit-for-tat BS among you guys.

I got a report to take a peek at this thread, and I'm peeking. So far, I don't see anything worthy of a ban, but I also see conduct unworthy of adults. You're all acting "snarky" to an extent, and you'd think, on a topic as dry as import duties, you could try to keep it professional, or at least adult.

So a simple admonition, and an advisory to clean it up and be adults, or thread bans may be in order. (A cool new option where you can see the thread, but can't post in it.)

Thanks fellas,

D

 

Sorry, I'm baffled. Your message referred to "you're all"... so are you including me in your "admonition"?

 

Yes I'd appreciate it if you'd just chill.

Oh, an I'd really prefer not to have an extended conversation about it, I thought I was pretty clear that I needed all of y'all to dial it back a bit.

Somewhere in the back of my brain a little voice is reminding me that you can be, um, argumentative, and I don't need that right now.

D

 

There's no need for a conversation. I understand what you mean.

 

Your baffled, what about me! I was called a "name" from a guy typing in his mom's basement

I still don't know what happened.

Let's hope our North American free trade deal remains as it is.

 

NAFTA has been good for consumers in Canada and the US. It would be very unfortunate to lose it - so much trade goes between the US and Canada. Our nations are both each other's biggest and best trade partners. Our mutual transportation costs (mainly trucking) are so much lower than with other countries, redirecting the import of goods to sources further away will dramatically increase shipping costs, in addition to the obvious reinstatement of tariffs.

I think it's really the wholesale surrendering of manufacturing jobs to Mexico that's problematic and I personally don't see why periodic renegotiations should be a deal-breaker but the US insistence of removing 3rd party arbitration is really a non-starter for Canada. The CETA deal went through very quickly, partly because it helps Canada's position in NAFTA renegotiations.

As for our being baffled, "stuff happens" on FChat. I always try to stay on topic and focus my remarks on just ideas, the content of messages and sometimes also on the manner in which the messages were written, but not on the people writing them. That's normally how adult discussions should be conducted.

Anyway, gotta run... shopping for a birthday card to my nephew.

 

I had to look up the tariff table today to make sure some items I have coming from Germany would be covered by CETA so I downloaded the latest Customs Canada tariff table (T2017-5) from the CBSA website.

The CETA references under the "Applicable Preferential Tariffs" column of the tables are not actually labeled as CETA but as CEUT; which gave me a surprise when nothing turned up as I searched the PDF document for CETA.

Page 21 of the document shows the various levels of trade treatments applicable for a given country. I see a free trade treaty with Ukraine (UAT) is one of the more recent entries. Reading the document gives you a good idea which countries of origin, duty free items come from.

 

Isnt that actually an old feature? Locking a thread?

 

Actually no.

What it does is limit a user's access, not ALL users. Just the one the moderators think need a moment to reflect before posting again. You can see the thread, but if you're thread banned, you can't post in the thread.

D

 

Gotcha.

 

The trade deal was supposed to be if Britain fully joined the EU. After Brexit, the EU decided to keep the deal going. Belgium was the hold out vote. Its great for me cause most of the cars I want are European made.

 

Thanks for this info! I just looked and if I read it correctly Cars from Italy one brand in particular comes to mind... will now enter into Canada duty free.

If this is in fact the case then a 360 that is 15 years or older will make for an attractive proposition when shopping cars since its only the dollar exchange and shipping costs that you need to be concerned about.

The Canadian Ferrari car market will need to update their pricing if they want to keep people shopping within Canada, at least that is if I read the CBSA tariff table correctly.

 

Cavlino, BE VERY CAREFUL, you need to heed the last sentence I wrote in my original posting... "...the EU item has to be purchased from the EU..."... NOT from the US.

To qualify for the CETA duty-free status, the EU-made item (Italian car) must be bought from a EU supplier.

The problem with Ferrari (Canada) is that we get our parts and cars from FNA (Ferrari North America which is a US company) and FNA, the US, are not in the EU. So even though the Ferrari part or car is/was made in the EU, Canadian (and US) duty still applies if you buy them from the US (FNA), or Asia, the ME, or Africa...etc.

You need to buy the EU-made part or car directly from a supplier in the EU... it could be a seller in Germany, Italy, France, the UK (until BREXIT) or even ...Greece.

IN SHORT, DO NOT BUY FERRARI PARTS OR CARS FROM THE US... IF YOU WANT IT DUTY-FREE, IT'S NOT. I bought my parts from UK suppliers because they speak English, so much easier to deal with for me and the UK is still part of the EU. After 2018, the UK is scheduled to leave the EU and I will likely have to brush up on my French and German... or learn Spanish or Italian.

 

^^^Thank you 4th_gear for the reminder that duty is only exempt if the purchase is sourced from the EU participating countries.

 

You're welcome. Nuvolari also pointed out this "gotcha". Customs treaties are complicated, and can't be fully explained in a couple of paragraphs. Even customs agents often grapple with them so it pays to be very careful when planning to import something.

Before you part with your money, it's best to actually do a "dry run" by formulating a hypothetical import from a likely supplier that you know of and then ask a knowledgeable CBSA official specific questions like, "...what are the documents which must I present to have my XXXX import qualify for duty-free status?". Once you read the customs documents and forms, they will quickly tell you what to watch for. If something doesn't jive with what the customs official said, you should ask questions until you fully understand the issues. Don't proceed on a hunch... or even on the basis of "common sense".