Finally,  The Customs Declaration Form: The information on this document is normally presented by your customs agent and it basically takes into account all the information of the invoice, packing list, bill of lading and form A. 

This document is generated automatically by customs and in many countries it is an automated process thru the computer.  

This document will calculate the value of the goods in your currency, the total duties you need to pay, and the total tax you have to pay to the government. 

A Pearl of Advice for you : Inform  your customs / forwarding agent of the goods that are on the way. Different descriptions normally pay different duties. Eg declaring child scooters as a toy may pay a 4% duty, but declaring it as a vehicle can pay 12%. This is a legal way of turning the system in your favour and your customs agent will know what to put. 

Of course, it may happen that the customs decide to open the container and check the goods.  

As long as you are not bringing in anything illegal, you can always defend your case that you believe it is a toy ( following the above example). In most cases you will end up paying a minor fine in order to clear the goods and close the chapter since obviously you don’t want the goods to be held up. 

By the way before I forget, 2 more things you should know: 

a)Since the customs cannot physically check 100% of all documents      ( you would be a gradfather by the time they would release your container to you), normally once documents are presented, the customs computer ( depending on the country) randomly decides which container is passed Green, Orange or Red colour. 

-green means that the container can be released without even presenting the actual physical documents to customs ( it is electronically presented by your customs or forwarding agent ).

-orange means that the container can be released but once they check the actual physical documents.

-red means that the container will be placed in a separate place and the it will be opened and the goods will be revised. This by the way means an average of 3-5 days delay , plus port charges in positioning the container in a special place and inspection charges. 

Forget complaining. You cant do anything about it. 

b)If it is the first time you are importing, I suggest you don’t do any “hanky-panky” since there is a 100% chance that your goods will come up Red and will be checked as you are new in the system. 

To make my point clearer, I don’t suggest or advice to doing any hanky panky ever. 

Another Pearl of Advice: Normally the customs computer ( depending on which country we are talking about ) calculates the exchange rate based on last months average. Hence you can delay / advance the presentation of the documents depending on whether it is in your favour or not. ( of course you got to balance against the port charges incurred in delaying taking your container from the port “parking space”, etc ). 

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