Customs & Duties
Clearance, HS codes, duty math and who pays what — decoded.
Customs is where a shipment either becomes a delivered box or a warehouse bill. It is not complicated — a commercial invoice, a packing list, a transport document, the right HS code and someone who files the entry — but every one of those items has a failure mode that costs money: misclassified goods, undervalued declarations, missing ISF filings, or a "cheap DDP" quote that was cheap because the forwarder planned to smuggle.
This section explains how clearance works on the importing side, what each document does, how duties are actually calculated (including the layers most calculators skip), and the difference between the trade terms — DDP, DAP, FOB, EXW — in who handles customs and who carries the risk. The one rule behind everything: get the declaration done properly and get it in writing.
The questions this section answers
- ?What is customs clearance and how does it work?
- ?How long does customs clearance take in the USA?
- ?Do I need a customs broker to import?
- ?How much does customs clearance cost?
- ?What documents are required to clear customs?
- ?What happens if my shipment is held or stuck in customs?
- ?Who pays import duty — the buyer or the seller?
- ?What is an HS code and how do I find mine?
- ?Does DDP include customs clearance?