I mean, say, you want a really nice camera, or a drone, or maybe a gaming laptop, and since those things are made in China, they are too expensive to buy right now in the US, since tariffs are over 100%. So you just go to Canada, buy the thing, unpack it from the packaging, and pretend like its just personal items. Just like a smartphone.
AFIAK, border agents usually don’t ask if you bought your phone in the US or from outside, they shouldn’t ask about other personal electronics, right?
That is as old as customs and tariffs and is called “smuggling”.
And about equally as long it is frowned upon by those who impose customs and tariffs.
People do this in my country. If they have a friend or somebody they know going to Hong Kong they ask them to buy a laptop and declare it as personal device going back.
In some countries, you need to declare expensive items when you are leaving the country, otherwise you pay the tariff when you return.
Yeah. I know Indonesia is cracking down on phone smuggling now by locking carrier access to registered IMEIs
If you bring one back you get a cheaper import fee if you declare it immediately
Makes me think of an article from years ago, where police in Venezuela arrested a kid for biking across the border for some candy.
They’re working from a playbook that’s been around for a while.
Smuggling is easier than you think, being stupid is a requirement for law enforcement. Especially in the USA
Just observe the system, go through a couple of times, you’ll see the cracks and should be able to figure it out from there, especially if it’s just to circumvent tariffs and not import illegal goods.
Ask yourself, is it worth the legal system to pursue this matter if it’s relatively minor?
Chances are you’ll just get a slap on the wrist, but there is ALWAYS risk when it comes to this stuff, so also ask yourself is it worth doing it in the first place?
Happy smuggling and remember borders are imaginary! :)
The tariffs only apply to the USA, not to the whole of America
Good point
What do you mean
America is a continent with 30 countries on it. Only one out of these 30 has deemed it a good idea to elect an orange felon as their president. It is called the USA.
You are wrong. North America is a continent, and South America is a continent. Of all the countries on these two continents, one is colloquially referred to as “America” by everyone who isn’t an internet weirdo. Absolutely nobody else in the western hemisphere refers to themselves as “America” or “Americans”
I used to work with a guy from Syria who had US/Canadian citizenship. He said every time he crossed the border he budgeted in 3 extra hours while he was detained.
o7 cmdr
“What are you in for?”
“Smuggling dark soy sauce.”
OP discovers smuggling.
Once you’ve unlocked smuggling, you can start researching the next nodes in the tech tree: drug trafficking, human trafficking, international weapons trade etc. I’m pretty sure OP is heading for the Lord of War achievement.
“Pssst pssst, I’ve got Shaoxing wine, Three Crabs brand fish sauce…”
This instantly put the Resident Evil 4 “what are you buyin’” guy’s voice in mind?
I did that once, when the Nexus phones weren’t available in Switzerland but they were in Germany. I ordered it to a location close to the border that specifically offers a postal address as a service and went to pick it up.
The correct thing to do would have been to go to the border agents, get a confirmation that I’m bringing the merchandise out of the country and pay the Swiss VAT. With the confirmation I could theoretically get the VAT back from the seller I paid it to. Except that was Google and they weren’t intending to sell it for export, so I doubt they would have helped with that.
What I did was unpack the phone, throw away the packaging, put my old phone in one jeans pocket and my new one in the other, and drive back over the boarder. Having two phones isn’t that weird, so I thought I could get away with claiming them as personal items if I was asked. But I wasn’t even stopped (they only do sampling at the crossing) so it was easy. But it was technically smuggling. Anything over 300 CHF needs to be declared and VAT paid, the phone was around 400 €.
My mom once went clothes shopping to Austria and didn’t declare them. The border guard asked what she bought. She claimed clothes, but not over the limit. He was like no way, I know that brand, they must be worth more, checked the stuff, and discovered it was worth too much. She had to pay VAT plus a pretty decent fine.
I only crossed the US Canadian border once in each direction, but to me it seemed like they were way more strict and thorough than here in Europe within Schengen. So I’d be scared I think. But overall I still think your plan could work if you’re careful with it. Maybe gaming laptop would be suspicious if you went for a one day trip, would be better if it was longer. But a phone not really.
If you buy the phone to use it ourself, doesn’t that mean that it is a personal item?
Ah, yes it’s for personal use, true. But the meaning of personal item as it relates to customs means an item that you take with you on the travels for your own use, so the assumption is that it leaves and re-enters your country with you. So that there is no net export or import involved. Here’s the definition my government provides (helpfully even available in English).
My claim, if asked, would have been, that I always use two phones and I just took both with me when I went to Germany and then obviously took both back to Switzerland.
I have technically smuggled cheese and champagne into Canada with the help of a border guard.
I studied there for a few years and usually came back to France for Christmas or summer and always brought some cheese and wine with me when going back to Canada. I declared them the first time, but after waiting 2 hours just to have a guy take a bewildered look at my 1kg piece of brie, 1kg of comté and 2 bottles of wine and ask “how much is that worth?” (To which the answer was like 150€ at most) I stopped declaring them.
Once I was waiting for a friend at the airport and there was some border guard dude patrolling with a dog and I guess I stared at them too long wondering if the dog was trained to sniff non pasteurized french cheese, so the guy started questioning me. I didn’t lie and he was understanding because I was obviously not going to prop up some cheese smuggling crime syndicate with these quantities, so he just let me go and told me I should have declared the items.
It’s been years since I’ve crossed the Canada/USA border, so things may be different today. But when I went, the Canada side was more concerned about smuggled weapons, while the USA side was more concerned about smuggled drugs. Still, it doesn’t take much to trigger a border patrol search.
Apparently if you go from New Brunswick in the morning, spend the day driving through Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont, and cross into Quebec the next day, that’s suspicious enough to get detained for several hours and to have your entire car searched at the border. To me it just made sense to do a straight line drive through those states, since staying inside Canada between those two points would have been a much longer, more convoluted route. Silly me, being logical about my route without considering how others break international law.
People in border towns are always on alert for people walking remote roads, hitchhikers, etc. The border strip itself is cleared and monitored with remote cameras, drones, patrols on horseback and ATVs, etc.
My wife and I were bored and it was raining in northern NH so we decided to explore the far north end of NH. Then we decided “Since we are this close to the border lets go to Canada.” We told the border officer that we were going for the day for lunch and he paused for a sec then waved us through. lol We ended up eating in a Greek restaurant and found out they still smoked in restaurants in Quebec.
Unless you can fly the Kessel run in twelve parsecs, you should probably leave the smuggling to career criminals.
Come visit the EU. People drive to other countries to get cheap gas and cigarettes all the time. Hell, when I lived near the border, 95% of my groceries were German.
Yea, I read about Schengen and I love the concept.
Unfortunately the rest of the world has not been enlightened and still have border control.
I hope one day, there will be a world-wide Schengen area.
I live near ze French border in BW and half the customers in the supermarket are French or Swiss.
No because once outside of the US people realise the country is shit and they don’t want to come back anymore, so this will not work sadly enough.
Well you see, the problem is, you can just say “I want to leave” and go wherever you want. You need visas.
A work visa is only temporary and you get kicked out as soon as you get fired.
So only immigration visas are viable for long term emmigration. Those are very hard to get.
If you go without permission, you will get deported back to the US.
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Believe it or not, straight to jail.
Only for a few weeks before a judge tells them to release you. And so they send you to a black site in another country with no trial.
They will definitely ask if you purchased anything. You can lie but if you get caught expect little to no leniency.
Can you get away with it? Probably, for some stuff. Is it worth it? You’re rolling some dice, you decide.
Borders are patrolled by CBP (customs and border protection). Part of CBPs job is to charge you tarrifs on the stuff you’re bringing into the country.
Sometimes I’ve had to pay import tarrifs many times when crossing back and forth (for the same thing over-and-over). Its best not to cross the border with expensive stuff.
Sometimes I’ve had to pay import tarrifs many times when crossing back and forth (for the same thing over-and-over). Its best not to cross the border with expensive stuff.
Bruh, that’s is so scummy.
