Exporting to the United States – A Team Canada Inc Publication

6.4 Travelling with samples and business gifts

If you need to transport samples and business gifts across the border, you have several ways of doing so:

Payment of duty

You pay regular duty and/or taxes on the goods when you enter the United States. This releases the goods to the authorized importer. If you take the imported goods back into Canada, and they're in the same condition as they were when exported, you can file for a drawback that will reimburse you for the taxes and duties you paid.

Temporary Importation Under Bond (TIB)

If you use your samples solely to take orders, you may be able to transport them into the U.S., without paying duty, under a TIB.

To take advantage of a TIB, you must post a bond for twice the amount of duty, taxes and so on that would otherwise be owed on the importation. If you're importing the samples as accompanying baggage, you'll have to go to the port's entry branch and complete the Form CF 7501 Entry Summary. Then you'll have to post the bond itself, which generally entails going to a surety's office. Because of these complications, you might prefer to make advance arrangements with a customs broker to handle the transaction.

You can't sell the samples and you have to move them back into Canada within one year of entry, although the TIB can be extended up to three years. Failure to comply with these conditions means that you forfeit the bond.

ATA Carnet

The "Admission Temporaire – Temporary Admission," or the ATA Carnet, is an international customs document you can use to temporarily import goods, duty-free, into the U.S. This substitutes for the usual customs documents needed for entry and guarantees the payment of duties if the merchandise is not re-exported. It's valid for one year and you can use it for as many trips as you wish during that period.

More information on these arrangements is available on the United States Council for International Business Web site.