A local Classic Mini owner ordered a disc brake kit and some other bits from Mini Spares in England (where I get most of my parts too), total came to $2200 plus shipping. DHL just informed him that he owes $525 customs duty on his shipment! I don't know yet if they sent paper work on what all it was for or if he hit a $$ threshold or if something went into effect June 1st or what, but I have never been charged any thing like that for customs duty, and I've had plenty of shipments that were that much or more in $$$ value. I just ordered about $800 from Spares, it will be delivered today and I wasn't hit with any duty. In the past the most it's been was I think about 2%..... His parts are scheduled to be delivered next Wed so when he gets them I'll see if they sent any paperwork on that $525, cause that's crazy! Weird times we're living in right now.....
It's all confusing right now. There is an exemption for parts below some value that is still in place. A parts supplier for F cars posted that. I thought that was for everywhere, don't know. Two weeks ago I got $300 worth of parts from Italy, no customs charge. Have your friend call DHL. There is a scam where they send what looks like emails from DHL and the US post office saying you have to pay duties. I have gotten them both. The bad part was I got a scam email that I owed duties when I was waiting on my parts. Be careful out there. OK I had to come edit this. I am building a subscription model. It's 1/8 seal, Yes it's big. It will be 21in when finished. I just finished Senna's Lotus F1 car. It's big and detailed. Anyway the company sent out an email saying they will be charging a $3 surcharge till the china tariffs are resolved.
It was tariffs after all. 25% on all parts from England - at least this week! He called DHL and spent an hour on the phone arguing with them but in the end if he wants his parts he had to pay. I have an order coming DHL today (it was supposed to hit yesterday) and no tariffs. My order was only about $750 so I don't know if that fell under a minimum or if my order was placed and paid for before June 1st. and escaped that way. Dunno. But I'm glad I didn't have to cough up an extra $200 to get them.
This is a post from Ferrari chat. “My company sends hundreds of packages to the US every week and we now have several weeks of data to reference. I has been my experience that De Minimis is still in effect and that car parts of $800 or less enter the US Duty free. Duties seem to only be charged when the package contains items that are made in China as declared in their HS Customs declaration. Where it gets sloppy is that if only one item out of a whole list of them is made in China then the whole shipment gets charged duties regardless of the origin of the other items. This happened to me last week when I sent a package to the US where all the goods were made in Canada with the exception of a freebie flashlight I added in the package as a nicety to the customer. The flashlight had a declared commercial value of $5 and appeared in the customs paperwork as made in China. The entire package got charged duties on the $600 of other items in the box. Technically this is incorrect but fighting it after the fact was not worth it so we learned our lesson and are ensuring our paperwork does not do this again. This whole tariff thing has been a huge mess and it is a daily learning cycle for us.”