On May 10, 2001 04:29 pm, you wrote:

Damn,

what happened to NAFTA? I thought the Canada was the US' prison bitch =)

I thought NAFTA would make trade between the US and Canada more favorable than Canada and Europe.

Despite I just sent a midsize package(8 lbs) from the USA to Australia with tech stuff in it like Kingston RAM and big harddrives. I insured it(700.00 $) so it was widely visible on the package what was in it. No charge at all on the Australian side. 49 dollars shipping incl. insurance.(7 day air travel)

Are you telling me the Canadian officers are so bored they touch and tax every package which crosses their borders???

From: Chris Herrnberger

...

Thanks for the reference, they do have good prices but here is the problem we are faced with in Canada.

SuSE Linux Server = 28.50 US (discounted price) 39.99 regular Canadian dollare = 1.45 US So = 41.35 CDN Shipping 10US = 14.50 CDN (approx) Import duty 30% = 12.40 CDN (approx and varies on the day..:)) ____________________________ = 68.24 CDN

There has never to my knowledge been any duty on books or software coming into Canada from the US. You'll get hit by 15% in taxes depending on the province. The courier will hit you with a customs handling fee. Even when they do nothing at all. The post office does this also now. I had a $10 package get hit with a $5 fee last year. There might be a duty on the media but the value of a blank CD is pretty low. Now this doesn't mean you won't get hit by duty. UPS has the nasty habit of finding the wrong section to declare an item under. Of course they never pick one with a lower duty. Also the company shipping the product to you might screw up and make an incorrect declaration. IMHO you're choices are stick to companies that routinely ship into Canada [while avoiding UPS like the plague] or take the time to call Customs Canada and finding out the right section to declare under. They used to have experts you could talk to. Even they have trouble with figuring out the proper section some times. Nick

It's worse than that. I'm in the UK and I wanted to send some source code I'd written to a collegue in Canada. I burned it onto a CD and gave it to a friend from New York who was in England and about to go back there. She sent it on from NYC to my collegue in Toronto. The CD was refused entry by Canadian customs on the grounds that it have security implications (it was source code for a multiplayer role playing game server). Eventually I just attached it to to an e-mail and put up with the slow modem link :) alan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Purple Shirt" To: Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 8:29 PM Subject: Re: [SLE] SuSE Books | Damn, | | what happened to NAFTA? I thought the Canada was the US' prison bitch =) | | I thought NAFTA would make trade between the US and Canada more favorable | than Canada and Europe. | | Despite I just sent a midsize package(8 lbs) from the USA to Australia with | tech stuff in it like Kingston RAM and big harddrives. I insured it(700.00 | $) so it was widely visible on the package what was in it. No charge at all | on the Australian side. 49 dollars shipping incl. insurance.(7 day air | travel) | | Are you telling me the Canadian officers are so bored they touch and tax | every package which crosses their borders??? | | mk | | >From: Chris Herrnberger | >To: "Geordon VanTassle" , "Geordon VanTassle" | > | >CC: | >Subject: Re: [SLE] SuSE Books | >Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 15:52:47 -0400 | > | >On Thu, 10 May 2001, Geordon VanTassle wrote: | > > I don;t know if they ship to other countries, or what the shipping time | >is | > > (nor relative cost) but http://www.bookpool.com has excellent prices on | > > technical books. | > | >Thanks for the reference, they do have good prices but here is the problem | >we | >are faced with in Canada. | > | >SuSE Linux Server = 28.50 US (discounted price) 39.99 regular | >Canadian dollare = 1.45 US | >So = 41.35 CDN | >Shipping 10US = 14.50 CDN (approx) | >Import duty 30% = 12.40 CDN (approx and varies on the day..:)) | >____________________________ | > = 68.24 CDN | > | >My cost was (without exagerating) 74.90 so for a ten dollar savings I will | >need | >to waite approx 2-3 weeks for land shipment, If you go air well there are | >no | >savings. | > | >So much for free trade in the America's. Whats interesting is that if these | >books were imported into Canada directly from Germany we could get them at | >about half the published rate as we have far better trade relations with | >the EU | >then with the US. The tarrifs are far lower. | > | >Dont mean to get into US bashing, its just a reality up here that it ofter | >costs far more to get stuff from the States then from Europe but not is all | >cases. | > | >eg: I made arrangement with SuSE a long time ago to get some software for | >our | >LUG. Despite the fact that the invoice and shipping bills indicated a zero | >commerical value. I had to pay some $300 Duty for 5 versions of SuSE 7.0 | >Proffesional thanks to an overzealouse duty officer. I was in need as a | >presentation was planned so I just paid it. I can of couse get it back and | >I | >will but not this year...:) Possibly in 2002. | > | >Chris | > | >-- | >To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com | >For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com | >Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the | >archives at http://lists.suse.com | > | | _________________________________________________________________ | Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com | | | -- | To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com | For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com | Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the | archives at http://lists.suse.com | |

On May 10, 2001 07:03 pm, Chris Herrnberger wrote: Hi,

As far as duty on books, you can call it something else but its all adjusted at the distribution level and when it comed to commercial publication ie: Times Canada, is very strictly controlled as to content

There is nothing stopping Times from bringing in Times US. Plenty of US magazines available. What Times wanted to do was rip out the US ads and stick Canadian ones in. Claiming that the "new" product was Canadian. Basically letting the US buyers pay for the content and skimming off the Canadian revenues. Sort of like Microsoft bundling Explorer.

and distribution price. Its our lame attempt at ensurring Canadian content and support for the arts community. Remember the fiasco with taxes on CD's at 2.50 per disc. Law is in place but never acted on due to public outcry. What was the reason for the Tax., support for the Canadian arts community..:)

I thought the levy was being applied at the distributors level. Not $2.50 but some money. Since it's based on sales most of the money likely goes out of the country to forgein artists.

Well the 5 packages I received showed zero commercial value as is standard with SuSE. Also they were donated for a specific project. The notice I received was from Customs and Revenue, which declared that they had assess the value of the software as x dollars per box canadian and If I wanted to pick them up from the post office I would have to shell out approx $300. An appeal aplication is now in the system and expect that when Canada opens an Harvey's and Tim Horten's in downtown Moscow is when I'll see a response to my appeal.

I'd call customs and try to get an "expert" to talk to. If you can get the right section of the act you've got a much better chance. Never know there already is a Macdonalds (sp??) Canada in Moscow-)

True but does not apply in this case. Also depending on the items I purchased from LL Bean for example, (depending on where the product is manufactured) your duty rates are assess differently. eg: two sweaters of same dollar value. one from Ireland one from Malaysia duty applied at different rates.

That's the way Nafta and the FTA before it is supposed to work. It covers goods produced in Canada ,US and Mexico.

...

IMHO you're choices are stick to companies that routinely ship into Canada > [while avoiding UPS like the plague] or take the time to call Customs Canada > and finding out the right section to declare under. They used to have experts > you could talk to. Even they have trouble with figuring out the proper > section some times.

Well yes Nick this works if you have an option, In some cases you don't as when someone ships stuff in accordance with their preferred cariers.

I'll do what ever it takes to find a different choice. I hate the hassle of getting things fixed afterwards. Have you tried camelot.ca [Montreal I think] thier prices are okay. When you factor in the lower shipping. No duty issues and the fact it will get to you quicker it's often a good choice. They don't seem to get things in first but other then that they seem okay. Last year I wanted to get an upgrade to Paration magic. They only shipped to Canada via some sort of goofy courier that charged an arm and a leg. It cost less to get the full version locally then the upgrade with my "discount"

Where you at in Canada Nic? Im in Ottawa so perhaps thats the reason thay we all keep shovels in the doorway..ah!

Toronto. I thought you've been having summer just like us . Certainly feels like summer. Nick