I was reading the Canadian regulations for allowable goods ‘imported’ into Canada and came across a paragraph regarding In-transit Travel Through Canada. The essence was that Americans can declare merchandise, have it in a container that can be ‘sealed’ by Canadian Customs and then transport that container through Canada.
You have to have a ‘declaration form’ available in duplicate – one for the customs person and one for yourself. I made up a form in WORD – article says it will be OK.
Routinely we have a box of wine and several bottles of alcoholic beverages in our TT that will be consumed over many months. The total exceeds allowable amounts for import. Apparently this merchandise can be transported through Canada on the way to Alaska without any issue by declaration and having the container sealed.
Have any of the readers of this forum used this method or have an opinion/experience to share?
Do not know the specifics but there is a steady stream of transport trucks including US Mail traveling from the Detroit or Sarnia border crossing from the US and re-enter the US at Buffalo as a 'cut through' to New York State and adjoing states using a sealed container. Maybe call a transportation company or broker and they may have some information.
I was faced with a similar situation last summer. We wanted to travel from Ontario through the US and back to Canada in Alberta. I enquired at Fort Erie/Buffalo crossing about transporting wine - similar to what you want to do. The Canadian inspector told me to have it sealed at our border crossing which would be Sarnia/Port Huron. Not trusting one opinion, I called the 800 number for Border Inspection Services and was told the same thing - get it sealed.
We bought 2 x 16 litre casks from the winery for our trip and proceeded to Sarnia. We went into the customs office and asked to have each cask sealed. The inspector looked at us like we were stupid and said you can't do that. I argued that this is what we were told to do - he got his superior and he also said "no way can you do this". We argued and would not back down - by now it was lunch time, and to get rid of us we were give two little blue seals about the size of 2 match sticks. They told us to report it to US customs.
We left and ventured across the border. At the inspection station they did not ask about liquor etc. so we kept quiet. Our worry then was crossing back into Canada but we figured we would show them the seals
on the wine and say this is what they did at Sarnia. Since this episode last June, I have read others have had no problems. Wine is certainly cheaper at the winery where we buy it from - no way we wanted to pay Alberta prices or since we were going to the North West Territories, there would not be bargains there. All worked out for us and we did enjoy our wine but it would be nice to do it legally.
2007 Holiday Rambler Admiral 30 SFS with lots of good stuff!
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