> Are these "customs agents" the brokers of whom you speak?

The broker is the person who prepares and submits the paperwork for customs
clearance. The customs agent is the government employee from the agency that
processes the paperwork and assesses/collects the duty.  In the case of the
U.S. mail deliveries to Canada (or elsewhere),  there is no outside broker
per se, because the government does this as part of the mail delivery
service (hence little or no brokerage cost; usually CDN $5 per package
regardless of package value).  But in the case of private carriers (such as
UPS), it must be done by a private company. This company then either charges
their fee to UPS (in the case of expedited UPS shipments) or the recipient
of the package (in the case of standard UPS shipments). This is over and
above the duty that the customs office assesses.  Since the fee tends to be
based on the time the broker spends filling out the paperwork, submitting
it, etc., it may not be directly related to the value of the item (hence
sometimes a high brokerage fee on a cheap item).  When I import parts from
Europe, for example, I essentially pay my customs broker based on the number
of lines he has to enter on the customs form in each product category. It
doesn't matter to him if a particular entry represents $20 worth of parts or
$20,000 worth; either way it took him the same amount of time to enter it,
so he expects to be paid the same amount for his time.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  (215) 234-VWVW
  www.busdepot.com

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