Customs Declaration

[Fredrika Gross]

John,

 

I'm sending this to the list, in case any other US readers are interested.

 

I tried shipping spirits to the UK via USPO, UPS, FedEx and DHL.  All
refused the shipment.  It wasn't a case of price, or customs declaration - I
was told that unless I was on a "list of approved shippers" they wouldn't
accept a shipment of spirits.

 

Ridiculous, Byzantine US liquor regulations.  Incidentally, I can ship all
the wine I want to other states, but absolutely NO spirits.

 

Ultimately I had two choices - lie about the package contents or prevail on
friends who were traveling to the UK to hand carry 2 oz of the devil's brew
and post it from the UK!

 

When did you ship via DHL?  Perhaps laws have changed, or perhaps it's the
difference between shipping from California vs. Nevada.

 

Brian

 

 

  _____  

From: MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE [mailto:MALTS-L at RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE] On
Behalf Of BlackKeno at AOL.COM
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2006 9:33 AM
To: MALTS-L at LISTS.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE
Subject: Re: Customs Declaration

 

So far here in Las Vegas, I've never had a problem getting a shipment.  A
couple times I was asked to pay the duty but that I don't mind as long as I
get my malt!  IIRC, once I was asked to pay a very small duty (plus huge
surcharge for a customs broker) and they ended up just sending it to me
without requiring payment.

 

There have been two different problems though.  When I've shipped single
bottles to friends in Europe, it's quite pricey.  My last bottle cost about
$130 to ship using DHL (the only carrier I could find that would ship
spirits).  The more frustrating problem is Retailers in Europe not being
willing to ship to me because of misunderstanding of Nevada's laws.  I went
to far as to email copies of the "Nevada Revised Statutes" that apply to
spirit "imports" to our state, including the website where the statutes are
located and the email address of the supervisor of taxation who said she
would be nice enough to confirm that we can bring in one gallon per month.
The response was "our carriers have determined it's not allowed..."

 

Your friend,

John

 

In a message dated 6/22/2006 2:43:11 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
rattraprat at AOL.COM writes:

This is where it becomes a problem as post vs. private carriers (ups, dhl,
etc) is usually less than half price for airmail.  It can be an absolutely
staggering sum for even a few bottles (maybe 6kg), and you still have a
customs risk to ship to america.

Anecdotally, I have had a few boxes that were coming via US Post from abroad
vanish without a trace this year (beer and whisky), but I have also had 2
bottles of whisky (1 quite rare) arrive opened (the bottle).  These were
from very reputable sellers, and the packaging had obvoiusly been retaped.
Obviously I was fortunate the post didn't just keep them, but still...

Lewis Cook wrote on 6/22/2006, 9:44 AM: 

the us mail on the other hand has an absolute prohibition against mailing
anything containing any form of alcohol so they are generally the ones who
confiscate whisky.  the origin of the package doesn't matter if the us mail
detects it they confiscate it. 

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