Sending a valuable gift to China - customs declaration help

[joshuawbb]

Hello,

I am going to send a valuable gift to my girlfriend in China (a Swarovski neckace worth £60), and I realise that of course, I would have to declare this on the customs form. I'd be really, really grateful for some advice:

Firstly, I really do not want to spoil the gift for her. Though I do trust she wouldn't at the declaration form when it arrives, I really don't want to write something extremely revealing such as "Jewellry - crystal necklace", so would it be sufficient to just write something like "Jewellry", or less on the form?

Secondly, I'm worried it might be opened at customs - as I said, it is worth £60, and for standard mail through the post I would say that's more expensive than any usual package. Should I write this exact worth on the parcel? Even though I've been sending international parcels for years now, I'm not sure whether a high value will make it more likely they will open it. It is giftwrapped immaculately and personalised, and if they opened it it would just ruin it completely. I know a person at customs is highly unlikely to take all the effort I did to wrap it.

I know; it's probably risky to send it through standard post and I would really like to send it through courier, but as the package also contains two jam jars, couriers refuse to send it (they don't like food, apparently).

This item is very valuable (not just in monetary terms; it is meaningful to me) and I am worried about something happening to it, despite knowing the postal services both here and in China tend to be reliable. I'd be very grateful for anyone's advice, thank you very much

Lastly I'm sorry for just jumping in here to post a topic. I know I haven't been here in a while; it is mostly due to my complete lack of free time.

[davidj]

First a caution, when I looked into this some time ago, there were annual limits on the value of gifts that could be sent to people in China.

As to what you declare it as, there are large tables of commodity codes for customs declaration purposes. A commercial exporter would use the description and codes from those tables. If you really want to provide the minimum of information, you should try to find a list of those codes; it is possible the person who supplied the jewellery knows them.

As to opening, it is a normal requirement for postal imports into any country that the receiving customs have the right to open and inspect. A description that is consistent with appearence, weight, shipping method, etc,, would, presumably, make this less likely.

As to declaring the value, this is important as well, as, for example, if you were to send jewellery of this value from China to the UK, import duty and VAT would be payable on it, as it exceeds the current exemption limit of GBP 36 for gifts. (This limit is due to increase considerably sometime in December; currently the limit for commercial supply is GBP 18, including shipping costs - personal gifts are allowed twice this and one can ignore shipping costs). PRC limits could well be lower. It is possible that the annual limit that I recall replaces the per transaction (you are not allowed to split a single purchase into multiple shipments to evade duty) limit applied by the UK.

For shipment into the UK, some suppliers have an arrangement to pay duty up front. This won't help if you have already bought the jewellery and may not be an option for China, in any case.

[liuzhou]

If it's so valuable, send it separately from the jars of jam.

Edited October 11, 2008 at 03:18 PM by liuzhou

[Lu]

I agree, sending it by courier is a lot safer. I know others have good experiences with Chinese mail, but I and friends of mine have lost all kinds of things in it, and you really don't want to risk that with such a valuable gift. You can send the jam jars separately.

[imron]

despite knowing the postal services both here and in China tend to be reliable.

Where did you here this! International post to and from China is a hit and miss affair. Send the valuable things by courier.

If it's so valuable, send it seperately from the jars of jam.

Or send it as educational jewelry and jam jars

[liuzhou]

International post to and from China is a hit and miss affair.

In the last thirteen years I've only lost one package which was a DVD someone sent me without telling me first. I've found the mail very reliable and fast, though I know others have had different experiences.

...the package also contains two jam jars, couriers refuse to send it (they don't like food, apparently).

It is not because the couriers don't like food. It is because, as in most countries including the UK, it is forbidden to import many food items. (I don't know about jam.) BTW, they have jam here, so unless it's special jam (or special jars), I wouldn't bother.

And yes, mark the jam as educational.

[joshuawbb]

Thank you very much everyone for your replies, I really appreciate them as I was pretty clueless before.

I guess there isn't much of a way around writing the full description of the item, so I'll stick with describing it - If it means the package will be more likely to stay sealed, then I'm prepared to risk her finding out by accident. I trust her very much anyway, and she knows not to look on the form

I was worried about writing the value on the form. I have decided to take everyone's advice and send it separately via courier, as I just don't want to risk the standard post. As a plus, it'll get there much quicker (my first package sent took 2 weeks, and a package sent back to me in the UK took about 15 days).

I'm still not quite sure whether I should write the full value or decrease it, though maybe it's best to write the full value. Do you think I should write a lower value if it'll make complications less likely?

I carefully checked the import restrictions regarding food into China and made sure that the jam would get there okay (I previously sent some jam too). The jam (as it was in a clear jar abiding with the postal regulations) got to China fine and also to my friend without being inspected/stopped. Even though the jam is okay to send, the couriers won't send it anyway - their regulations seem to state that any food is a no-go.

Thank you very much for your help and advice regarding the posting, I still have a while to post it (I'm finishing a letter first) so I should hopefully sort this out well.

[gerri]

Especially sending it with a courier (offering tracking and all that, so it shouldn't get lost, so insurance value is not as important), I'd state a value like $20... if it's a gift, they usually don't mind (as long as you don't ask whether you should give the correct value), but it should mean that the recipient doesn't have to pay customs duties and taxes.

(I have to admit that I'll yet have to see how China handles this, my experience is between US and Europe, where things should be much less problematic - though food is a problematic issue even then.)