Importing Goods From Australia

[jimmiejackson]

Hi all,

I need to import a reasonably high value printer from Australia and it appears it is exempt of import duty under the Thai>Australian free trade agreement.

My questions are:

1) if it is also except from import VAT as well as import duty

2) I think the printer is actually made in the USA although it is sold by the manufacturer in Australia, which the supplier is an authorized distributor for. Would this be any issue?

Would appreciate your input, thanks.

[jamescollister]

Me again.

Think you may be looking at this back to front, why would you want to import the printer, get the company in OZ or the USA to export it to you. As you say they already export to other countries, they will already have agents etc who no the ropes. Contact them and get a price, if dealing with the Chinese they give you a price to the door step. Jim

[stiggy]

To be exempt from duty under FTA .

Goods generally need to be manufactured or at least put together in the country thats part of that agreement.

Goods exported from Australia should be exempt from Australian GST

You need to have an existing company set up thats importing named goods, and applied to the Customs department proving it qualifies for FTA import.

You don't mention the value of your printer if its commercial and high value worth doing if not i.e. Personal use good luck.

Best you can do is ensure the value is as low as possible on the airway bill and customs invoice and arm your self with HS codes.

However chances are the bstds will get you with storage or domestic shipping anyhow.

If low value under 2ok bht and under 10 kilos send by Aus post 80% of time gets straight through duty free.

Other than that customs import here is akin to playing the lotto from my experience

[jimmiejackson]

Thanks both for your replies.

The issue is that the exact printer we want it not available anywhere in Asia and is only available in the USA and Australia. We will be importing it using our Thai company and the value is quite high ($30,000+).

Nobody in Australia is willing to "export" it to us as such, we need to buy it in Australia at full price (I therefore assume including GST) and arrange for shipping ourselves. We will see if we can convince them to export it directly but it seems unlikely.

At such a high value it is very important for us to avoid being stung by the Customs "lotto" and to try and get it here under the FTA. Do you know of anyone who could legally advise us on what to do? Our "service company" for the company is great but when it comes to complex issues like this we find it hard to get a clear answer.

Thanks!

Edited January 9, 2013 by jimmiejackson

[jamescollister]

Thanks both for your replies.

The issue is that the exact printer we want it not available anywhere in Asia and is only available in the USA and Australia. We will be importing it using our Thai company and the value is quite high ($30,000+).

Nobody in Australia is willing to "export" it to us as such, we need to buy it in Australia at full price (I therefore assume including GST) and arrange for shipping ourselves. We will see if we can convince them to export it directly but it seems unlikely.

At such a high value it is very important for us to avoid being stung by the Customs "lotto" and to try and get it here under the FTA. Do you know of anyone who could legally advise us on what to do? Our "service company" for the company is great but when it comes to complex issues like this we find it hard to get a clear answer.

Thanks!

If the yanks export to OZ they can export to Thailand, contact the manufacturer, they should be able to arrange everything.

The USA has more trade agreements with Thailand than OZ. Jim

[stiggy]

Ok serious money then, sorry wasn't clear for some expensive printer could be a cannon inkjet:)

What type of company set up you having if you qualify as BOI that could help.

Also try Austrade in Bangkok I have used them in the past found them to be quite helpful.

http://www.austrade.gov.au/Austrade-s-offices-in-Thailand/default.aspx

As for the Gst you should be able to avoid that, we never pay GST on goods brought from Aus and shipped here.But we also pay by transfering out of Thailand never in Aus.We lose approx 3% on exchange rates but save on GST.You have to break the payments up to under 20k (us) so you avoid having the runaround with central bank clearance certificate.

We use a company called Damco in Bangkok for specialised equipment we import from eu and oz. Ask for June she's pretty helpful or at least should point you In right direction.

Whatever happens always question and always check twice, customs know once here it's wanted and expensive to send back.

Paying under the table is never a good idea and often a road to more extortion.

[tombkk]

In order to take advantage of the Free Trade Agreement, the goods need to be accompanied by the correct Certificate of Origin. You‘ll need to check with the manufacturer in Australia whether they comply to the Rules of Origin and can get the cert issued.

Sent from my LG-P698f using Thaivisa Connect App

[jimmiejackson]

Thanks all for your feedback, we will contact some of the companies mentioned and see what they have to say.

The company is a standard Thai Ltd company, we were not eligible for BOI status unfortunately.