Job Discussion Forums

bucko2004 · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 31

Hi,

As a side from teaching my friend (who is in Australia) and I are trying to set up a business to export Japanese electronic goods to Australia. Our goal is to send about 10-30 packages a week.

Yesterday I sent our first parcel (a 60x20x30cm box, 3.88kgs) however I'm a bit confused as to the "item type" option they gave. It gives you three options - "gift", "samples of merchandise of no commercial value", and "documents of no commercial value". As it was basically a test run for our process I selected "gift". However, in the future I'm wondering how I'm suppose to go about it, obviously the items that I'll be sending will be of quite significant commerical value.

There is another area on the form regarding insurance. I didn't insure that item, but I wonder if insuring it would make ticking one of those other three boxes unnecessary?

If anyone has any experience here you advice would be much appreciated Smile

Synne · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Posts: 269 Location: Tohoku

This depends entirely on what you are exporting.

bucko2004 · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 31

I went back down to the post office today and had an extremely difficult conversation with them (broken English/Japanese). Aparently you don't have to declare it as "gift", "documents" or "sample" at all. That's just there to make life easier for the other country's customs. All is good.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

canuck · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 1921 Location: Japan

Are you buying retail here in Japan, exporting illegally and trying to sell in OZ? That is a recipe for disaster. Buy retail here and sell at a marked up price there. Good luck.... Rolling Eyes

bucko2004 · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 31

markle, you obviously didn't read my post. I won't be declaring them as gifts, and my business research isn't being done on this web board. All I wanted was help in understanding how to fill out the form, not a lame imports 101 lecture.

canuck, no that's not what I'm doing.

stillnosheep · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe

The three options are to designate your merchandise as non-duty-payable.

Unless you check one of the three options you cannot (legally) send your package by this method but must make arrangements to pay duty.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Well bucko, no I read your post, in fact I just re-read it and I'm even more worried.

See you wanted help filling out the form, but you seem to have a little trouble understanding the purpose of the form. Well it's a CUSTOMS DECLARATION. Where you tell Oz customs what you are attempting to import into the country, see the local Japanese authorities don't really give a flying fook what you are sending out, EXports are GOOD everyone likes EXports. However OZ customs are looking out for IMports, because every five year old knows that IMports are BAD, they take Aussie jobs, they destroy Australia's future, etc. but I digress.

Now lets look at the logistics of this, you plan on sending 10-30 packages a week at @ 3kg per package that's between 30 to 90 kgs a week or 120 - 360kgs a month or 1.44 to 4.32tonne a year. Through the Post Office. Internationally.
Here's a piece of advice, cut the Mickey Mouse sht and give Fed Ex a call, at least they'll give you an idea of what you'll be up against. You are never going to get that amount of product through the PO without raising a few eyebrows.

bucko2004 · Joined: 17 Oct 2004 Posts: 31

markle, *sigh*. The reason I asked in the first place was because when I sent a package the other day the post office "made" me select either "gift", "documents", or "sample product" (and when I say "made me" at the time it seemed so). Obviously, because I want it to be legit through Australian customs, I was concerned as to why I *had* to select one of those options (when the items I'm sending is non of the above). So as it turns out, you don't have to select any of them. So now I can happily export the products to Australia (through our customs broker mind you), without worrying about the whole "gift" thing, and earn a nice profit.

No offence, markle, but you should really read things more carefully before you go off preaching on some tangent or you'll make yourself look foolish again.

stillnosheep, cheers bud. Post office explained this to me and it's all cleared up. So from now I won't select any of those options. All good.