I'm looking to buy a dress from eBay in the US. The dress has been made in the US and costs around $125CAD plus shipping. I assumed that under NAFTA I wouldn't need to pay any import duties however the seller is asking around $30 in import duties Are they trying to pull a fast one?!?

Are they asking for import duties or import fees?

For import, there are handling fees, security fees, brokerage and sales tax. Some items that don't fall under NAFTA also have duty.

The term used is 'import charges', and they seem quite high - one option was over $40 on something with a list price around $140 and $20 shipping.

I'd say so. Dresses at that price (or clothes in general) aren't made in the US any more.

Ebaying in Canada is a nightmare. I used to use it a lot in the UK, but a combination of import charges, postal charges and a week canadian dollar make it almost pointless to use ebay here.

If the dress is made in the USA there will be no duties but its still subject to GST and PST/HST where applicable. Depending on how it is shipped there may also be brokerage fees UPS Fedex or a handling fee Canada Post.

I find that anything from the US gets taxed

Anything from China always only costs 10-15 bucks, even tho I paid more, and don't get taxed

For the record I buy tonnes of sh*t off a Ebay

I bought a used VCR from ebay recently for $250, and they charged about $15 in import fees (I guess that's GST + a couple of bucks for the customs agent?). So $40 for a $125 dress seems excessive.

Depends entirely on who the carrier is. Often the handling fee is around $10, plus security fees and sometimes brokerage. Fedex charge less than most. Sales tax is dependent on the supplier and the destination province. Some items get GST only, some HST, some GST & PST. If the country of manufacture is not the US, but the seller is in the US, there could be duty added. The paperwork has to be correct to come in under NAFTA.

Goods coming in from the US have federal tax and provincial added, often those coming from overseas have GST only.

We import plastic from Australia, the right commodity code is no duty, a similar code one broker tried to use has a 20% duty, plus tax and brokerage.

That was through ebay's special service where they collect import duties up front, so you know how much it will cost and don't get a staggeringly huge bill when it arrives. I presumed this case was the same, as I can't see any other reason for them to be collecting import duties.

you only seem to get charged duty when the sender uses a courier company. When ever ive selected normal post option ive not been done for duty. Have bought items in the UK and from the US, and not been charged.

That's been my experience, nothing I ever order that comes via Canada Post has ever been charged anything, delivered like anything else would be.

UPS and the like have always had fees, so now won't order anything if the shipper wont use the postal service.

I have more or less stopped ordering things online in general, not worth ordering off US sites with the lower dollar and higher shipping, and well the Canadian based places just suck.

I have only used ebay once in the last 10 years....but the order was not a high value, shipping of 4 dollars was more then the actual products value...lol

Choose a seller who uses USPS (for items from the USA), Royal Mail (for items from the UK) or the equivalent national postal services from other countries, who link with CanadaPost and I would suggest that you are very unlikely to pay any duties or handling charges, unless your parcel comes from 'a country that is connected with drugs trafficking' etc...

I have yet to have any CanadaPost parcels intercepted and have duties or fees charged. That's over 30 parcels in 15 months. I guess it depends on which incoming Mail Centre your parcels come through, but it certainly seems to be the case for Vancouver. It wasn't just small things either - one parcel was a car part sent from the USA that was 4 feet long in a large box with a customs form and commercial invoice attached for over $300...the box clearly said 'Made in Korea' (well it was for a Hyundai!) so wasn't USA-made etc.

I just got dinged for $42 handling fees by FedEx for two parcels from the UK, because the retailer decided to send them by FedEx to save THEM some money, rather than the Royal Mail Airmail Small Packets service that they advertised and that I had selected and paid for.

That was resolved by a couple of firm emails and they (the retailer) have now refunded the $42 that I was charged, costing them more than the amount they saved by changing the delivery carrier.

UPS, FedEx and others use handling fees as a profit stream.

Kinhell what are CBSA doing at the Vancouver Mail Centre
Bonus for you and a loss for the Federal Govt who might need that few dollars to give to your province in transfer payment monies or to fund federal services that you may require later on in life

Looking for Anomalies (they must be popular for import - they are always looking for them ), steroids, drugs and false passports hidden in carved out things, judging by what they show on Border Security!!