US Customs headache

I ordered some buffalo horn scales from AgroTech India a while back and had quite a time clearing the "red tape" that occurred once the order got to America.

When I went to pick up the order from the air freight company that had last handled the package & spent the better part of an hour waiting for them to find the bill on it, the agent (with no success) finally called next door to the bonded warehouse where they told him, "Yeah, we've had it since Tuesday."

I then proceeded to the bonded warehouse where I spent another 30 minutes waiting only to find out that it hadn't cleared customs yet.

After calling the customs agent, I was told, "It's too late in the day for them to look at it now and that they would do it Monday morning (it being Friday afternoon)."

Monday morning I returned to the warehouse to find that it still hadn't cleared customs so I called them again to hear, "Your package must have a Fish & Wildlife stamp before I can OK it." So I left after finding that the package must be sent to Chicago for Fish & Wildlife to inspection.

Two days later the bonded warehouse in Chicago called me to say that they had my package and I proceeded to relate to them what customs had told me. They were very pleasant and gave me the phone number of Fish & Wildlife whom I called.

After relating the story one more time to the agent there, I was told that I must have a Import-Export ####### to receive the package and would I please submit the $50 fee involved. I replied that something must be wrong because I was certain that I did not need such a ####### to simply order water buffalo horn scales from abroad. They agent them replied, " Water buffalo? Wait a minute." After looking it up while I waited, finally said, "Why water buffalo is excempt from that. I don't need to even see them." and called the warehouse holding them to explain.

So should anyone order any buffalo scales from overseas, have them mark the invoice water buffalo and not just buffalo so you can avoid this headache.

Gary

My answer to you is: buy your buffalo horn from the knifemaking supply places in the US. Unless you are bringing in mass quantities, it could not be worth the hassle. All the major suppliers always have horn. How much did you buy?

I bought a two year supply and got a substantial savings that way. So at the worst I won't have to deal with "red tape" for the long anyway.


Gary

"Not" just US Customs. I sent a folder with Mastodon scales to France last week. It took five
days for them to release the knife. Whew!!!

A.T.
www.customknives.com

Dealing with customs is difficult if you do not know the language. Labelling a parcel simply "stag horn" is insufficient information to process, the label needs to read "sambar stag horn, cut for use on cutlery, country of origin India".

Avoiding any possible interpretation by customs officials is also an art. Describing a knife as having handles of Mastodon Ivory will make customs suspicious that the ivory is banned elephant ivory so the description should read something like "fossilized Mastodon handle scales" but omitting "Ivory". Describing knives as "cutlery" instead of "knives" does not prompt customs to check to see if the knife inside is legal in the local jurisdiction. The word is an accurate description of the contents but brings to mind a knife and fork on the dinner table.

Country of origin is another sticking point so a trip to the local Office Supply outlet to pick up a preprinted label that reads Made in Canada or whatever country you reside in meets international requirements for labeling product with country of origin.

All of this will not help at all if all mail from your country of origin is being checked as part of a blitz by customs. In Canada packages from some countries are being 100% xrayed and checked with sniffer dogs looking for drugs and weapons, in addition other countries of origin are chosen at random for weekly special blitzes.

Last week I had a knife being returned for sharpening held up until I could provide proof of export documentation, only took a couple of hours but not having proof of shipment would have cost me 8% of declared value in taxes. I would have gotten the money back eventually but it is the principle of the thing.

I suggest that everyone heeds Mr. Tichbourne's post. Having gone through customs in Toronto of all places, every "T" must be crossed and every "i" dotted.

Globalization?!? That's just some company's buzzword. There is no such thing as far as customs is concerned.

NAFTA???? Yeah, right! With Canada being the US's largest trade partner, you would think that there wouldn't be as much red tape but that's not the case.

Now, if Canada could just export Cuban cigars......

C Wilkins

The only thing global about it is that all customs people do it the same way....calculated to cause the most inconvenience to as many people as possible. No wonder they call them Uncivil servants.