Tariff/Duties on Circuit Boards & Components Shipped to Mexico?

My partner and I are taking an extended holiday in Mexico, chiefly to avoid the gray Seattle winter and for ample outdoor eating opportunities since Covid-19 is raging out of control in the US.

Does anyone here have any experience shipping circuit boards and components from Chinese suppliers to Mexico? What kind of duties and customs fees are imposed on small shipments, say around US$20?

As you can see from this picture of dinner tonight, we are really roughing it here!

Salud!
Last I knew, Chinese made components do have a small tariff applied.
As long as they are small amounts, you don’t need a broker.

Disclaimer: last time was 5 years ago

Visitor said:

My partner and I are taking an extended holiday in Mexico, chiefly to avoid the gray Seattle winter and for ample outdoor eating opportunities since Covid-19 is raging out of control in the US.

Does anyone here have any experience shipping circuit boards and components from Chinese suppliers to Mexico? What kind of duties and customs fees are imposed on small shipments, say around US$20?

As you can see from this picture of dinner tonight, we are really roughing it here!

View attachment 128013

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just hire a mule to carry them across the boarder for you. It seems to work pretty well for certain items crossing in the other direction.

LOL. Too far from the border for that to work. I'm in Merida, Yucatan Peninsula.

What a beautiful place! Haven't explored too much yet, but everywhere we've eaten has been fantastic.

For those keeping score, the ice cream machine at McDonald's was broken when we went looking for some dessert. The guy at the Burgerking next door didn't understand why we broke out laughing when he said the same thing.

Well, I got a rather shocking answer to this question today.

When the DHL driver arrived today with my boards from JLC, ~US$33 was demanded. For a product value of US$60, and a total value of $84 including shipping. Ouch!

I've messaged DHL asking for an explanation of charges.

Visitor said:

Well, I got a rather shocking answer to this question today.

When the DHL driver arrived today with my boards from JLC, ~US$33 was demanded. For a product value of US$60, and a total value of $84 including shipping. Ouch!

I've messaged DHL asking for an explanation of charges.

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Didn't Trump stick loads of tariffs on Chinese imports?.

In the UK, and assuming it was £84 (instead of dollars) it would have VAT applied at 20% - so £16.80, plus a fee for collecting the money - about £10 or so. So about £26.80 to pay - not a long way off yours.

I'm in Mexico for a while. I've received shipments of this value in the US without any duties.

Visitor said:

Well, I got a rather shocking answer to this question today.

When the DHL driver arrived today with my boards from JLC, ~US$33 was demanded. For a product value of US$60, and a total value of $84 including shipping. Ouch!

I've messaged DHL asking for an explanation of charges.

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Were they 6-layer (or more) or rigid-flex boards? Were they populated? Or were they simple 2-layer or 4-layer bare boards?

See rule changes on tariffs.

2 layer populated boards plus three boards that are just mechanical.

The 3 colorful boards are to hold a 1/4-20 nut captive in the enclosure for a camera clamp.

These boards are from JLC (China), delivered to Mexico, where I am staying for an extended period of time.

So the duty was charged by Mexico? Or you're still waiting for answers from DHL?

Still waiting to hear from DHL. It may be duty plus a brokerage fee.

I opted to email, as calling DHL is never a pleasant experience.

I finally located a duty-calculator web page. According to that page, the duty on printed circuit boards imported from China to Mexico should be zero, but VAT will be added. Instead of 668 Pesos, I should have only had to pay the VAT of 6%, 109 Pesos. The exchange rate is around 20 Pesos to the USD.

The problem may be the harmonizing code (HS Code) shown on the invoice. HS Code 85-34-00-90-00, according to China is "PCB, 4 layer or less". Mexico does not seem to recognize that code, but HS Code 85-37-10-99-0 is "printed circuit board" in Mexico, which I used in the calculator.

It may be too late to do anything about it this time, or not worth the effort, but duties and taxes of over 50% of the value of the goods would sure put a damper on doing other projects while I'm here!

One interesting point I found. Mouser has operations in Mexico, and stuff ordered from the Mexican site shows the prices including duty...which are the same as the US prices for enclosures and a few other things I've looked at.

From the duty calculator page:

CUSTOMS DUTY CALCULATOR
CUSTOMSDUTYFREE.COM
One stop shop for customs duty for 100+ countries
The Customs duty calculation for printed circuit boards is as follows:
Country Details :

• From Country : China
• To Country : Mexico

Product details :

• Product description : printed circuit boards
• Hs code : 85-37-10-99-0

Extra taxes details :

• DTA IS : 134.4
• Excise duty is applicable on alcohol and tobacco

Calculation details :

• Item cost : 1200
• Shipment cost : 480
• Insurance cost : 0
• CIF value (item cost + shipment cost + insurance cost) : 1680
• Customs duty rate : 0%
• CUSTOMS DUTY (customs duty rate * (CIF)) : 0
• Vat rate : 6%
• VAT (vat rate * (Customs duty+CIF+other taxes if applicable)) : 108.864
• Total amount to be paid : 1923.264(excluding extra taxes if applicable)

The above duty has been calculated from 'https://customsdutyfree.com' on 2020-12-19.
Note: All the rates and values are shown in respective country currency.

The shipping companies typically charge what they call a brokerage fee. For small valued shipments, the brokerage fee will be a lot more than duties and taxes.

DHL claims that none of the charge was brokerage fee.

Visitor said:

DHL claims that none of the charge was brokerage fee.

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So what do they claim it was? - you've already ascertained that the only government charge is 6% VAT.

Certainly in my experience ALL carriers charge a fee for collecting the owed duty, usually under £10 in the UK.

Oh, sorry, I missed a step. Two actually.

I talked to DHL in the US, since I don't speak Spanish. They couldn't see a complete breakdown of the charges, but they could see they were for duties and taxes, without any brokerage fee. There are DHL offices here in Merida, where I may go to find out more information.

The second thing I discovered is that the threshold for duty depends on how the goods are delivered. If delivered by courier, the threshold is about US$50 – US$60 (can't remember exactly), which my package was just over. If delivered by postal service, the collection threshold jumps up to about US$300.

So, I belief the charges were made in error, because Mexico didn't recognize the HS Code on the invoice. When I used the HS Code Mexico uses for "printed circuit boards", the calculated duty is zero, with the only fee being a 6% VAT.