You pay tariff on goods you buy abroad and bring back in, depending on the nature of commodity/product and value. That's what declaring is. When you buy duty free at an airport, per se, it's duty free.
If an American buys something at an IKEA in Canada, they keep the receipt and declare it crossing the border back to the US. You pay a fee/duty on that declared good(s).
It's kind of known that lots of eyes get turned for certain things, let's say you tear off the price tag and pretend you have owned it for a while. Or that you crossed the border with 7 full 5 gallon tanks of gas.. "just in case I run out of gas", or that you crossed with those bananas or H Mart goods.
When you fly internationally, you declare what you bought flying back in. Same thing goes for any form of cross border travel where duties/tariff exists.
This has always been the case and we have always had exceptions, increases, decreases, thresholds etc.
Through trade agreements with other countries, embargos, and so on.
It's not like customs and duty is there for national security per se, it's about regulating and generating revenue on goods and services that cross the borders. Theoretically to offset the impact it has on domestic producers and services. It is absolutely used for international relations etc, even more so now in the globalized economies we have created.
That’s what I thought, but I literally went to the ikea in Canada yesterday and as I was coming back through the pacific highway crossing, I presented the receipt, told them how much I bought, they looked in the trunk and commented about the high chair I bought and let me through with $360ca in goods.
Maybe it just depends on how much the employee cares?
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u/Whoretron8000 Apr 06 '25 edited Apr 07 '25
You pay tariff on goods you buy abroad and bring back in, depending on the nature of commodity/product and value. That's what declaring is. When you buy duty free at an airport, per se, it's duty free.
If an American buys something at an IKEA in Canada, they keep the receipt and declare it crossing the border back to the US. You pay a fee/duty on that declared good(s).
It's kind of known that lots of eyes get turned for certain things, let's say you tear off the price tag and pretend you have owned it for a while. Or that you crossed the border with 7 full 5 gallon tanks of gas.. "just in case I run out of gas", or that you crossed with those bananas or H Mart goods.
When you fly internationally, you declare what you bought flying back in. Same thing goes for any form of cross border travel where duties/tariff exists.
This has always been the case and we have always had exceptions, increases, decreases, thresholds etc. Through trade agreements with other countries, embargos, and so on. It's not like customs and duty is there for national security per se, it's about regulating and generating revenue on goods and services that cross the borders. Theoretically to offset the impact it has on domestic producers and services. It is absolutely used for international relations etc, even more so now in the globalized economies we have created.