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Bad news for prospective electric bike owners

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mickeg:
My Thorn Nomad frame and fork (plus rims, some tires, some other parts in the same order) I expected to pay a 4 percent duty in USA.  I was surprised that it was a bit over 6 percent.  But a complete bike from EU would have been 11 percent.  These numbers are as of 2013 when I bought the frame and fork to build it up.  My Nomad frame has S&S couplers, plus the other stuff in the box might have pushed the value high enough that they bothered with the duty.  I bought my Rohloff hub from Germany and expected to pay 4 percent on that, but that arrived free of duty.  Perhaps the Rohloff was below a value threshold?

I bought my Sherpa frame used from someone in Canada, but he had a job in USA.  He told me that he could ship it from USA to avoid any possible customs duty, which he did.  And he could cash my USA check within USA without any problem.

Andre Jute:

--- Quote from: Bill on July 20, 2018, 04:18:00 pm ---...it looks like we are leaving an era of freeish trade and heading in to an era of protectionism and higher tariffs. Costs of most manufactured items are going to go up, some of them substantially. If you are thinking of getting a new bike, electric or not, do it now.
--- End quote ---

Emphasis added.

Canadians have been and probably will continue to be lucky because they have favored nation status with the EU, which cuts both ways in, for instance, "harmonizing" customs duties, i.e. the Canadian brazier faces the same duties when exporting to the EU as the EU brazier faces in exporting to Canada.

I think it possible that once Britain is out of the EU, Canada as a Commonwealth country may have a more favorable bilateral customs regime, and thus likely to import Thorn bikes without the 30% loading John has calculated. (Of course, Italian road bikes will become much more expensive...) It seems likely that in such a case (hard Brexit) Americans will be in the same boat as Canadians because the current US Administration is explicitly keen to have a beneficial bilateral trade agreement with the UK.

For a giggle, imagine if the US and Canada had different rates of duties on importing Thorn bikes, why, then a smuggling operation of Thorn bikes across the border might ensue. "Liberate the Raven!"

mickeg:

--- Quote from: Andre Jute on July 20, 2018, 11:46:29 pm ---...
For a giggle, imagine if the US and Canada had different rates of duties on importing Thorn bikes, why, then a smuggling operation of Thorn bikes across the border might ensue. "Liberate the Raven!"

--- End quote ---

There are so few Thorns in the USA, a smuggler would likely starve.

Bill:

--- Quote from: mickeg on July 20, 2018, 11:10:46 pm ---
I bought my Sherpa frame used from someone in Canada, but he had a job in USA.  He told me that he could ship it from USA to avoid any possible customs duty, which he did.  And he could cash my USA check within USA without any problem.

--- End quote ---

Its definitely cheaper to ship stuff in the US than Canada, and shipping across the border seems to double or triple the cost even when no duties or taxes are applicable.

We do have banks here, and they even can do foreign exchange. Imagine that!

I've tried to look up the duty rates on chinese e-bikes imported into Canada, but I can't find anything relevant. I suspect that if other jurisdictions are assessing anti-dumping duties on Chinese e-bikes, we will too.

mickeg:

--- Quote from: Bill on July 21, 2018, 06:41:38 pm ---...
We do have banks here, and they even can do foreign exchange. Imagine that!
...

--- End quote ---

I hope your banks are better at currency conversions than some of the banks around here.  I have had banks here tell me that they do not charge any fees for currency conversions, but when you make a conversion you find that they charged you about 10 to 12 percent by giving you a terrible currency conversion rate. 

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