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Playa Frambes Mulege Import Page

December 1, 2003:

We finally imported our 3 rail plastic ranch fence to Mexico and had it transported to Santa Rosalia by a private trucking company. Our builder, Efern, will pick it up in Santa Rosalia and install it in Mulege.

Below is a report of what we did to accomplish this task.

This was our first experience in importing goods to Mexico.

Rafael, our builders son, assisted us with this project. His knowlege has given us the basic skills to accomplish this task on our own next time.

This added service is an excellent reason to use Baja Construction for your building project in the Mulege area. Their service and knowlege is outstanding.

Here is the link to their website.

Baja Construction

Customs:

We met Rafael at the border in San Diego at noon. He was right on time AGAIN!!!

We crossed at the Otay border crossing just south of San Diego.

The customs area is easy to get to by staying in the far right lane. The lane is clearly marked. The parking lot is big with plenty of extra long spaces to park a truck and trailer.

The customs office is located in the front just to the left as you enter the parking lot.

Here you fill out a work-form listing the description and quanity of what you want to import.

Next you take this work-form outside and have a lot inspector look at the goods. If the lot inspector can estimate the value they inital off on the worksheet and you return to the customs office. If not they direct you to an import broker on the other side of the parking lot.

The customs office now completes the importation forms, you pay at the office inside, and you are directed to the customs exit gate kiosk. The tax is about 17% of the value of the goods imported.

At the customs exit gate kiosk you give your paper work to the customs officals. They review the paperwork and either give you a green light or the red light. If you get the red light you drive to a loading dock just ahead and another customs inspector takes a closer look at the load you are importing.

Now you are finished.

Import Broker:

Our load of plastic three-rail fence could not be estimated by the customs lot inspector. It was a lot of fencing and a unique import for this area. Our truck and trailer were full.

Not too many people use this plastic ranch fence in Mexico...yet. We think they will...the stuff is just too nice.

We were sent to a customs broker.

The customs brokers office is located on the right side of the parking lot. This broker took our invoice and made an estimate of the value of the fence and collected the tax.

We did have to pay a little more in taxes. The tax percentage was about 23% instead of 17%.

A couple of small things had to be identified. The fence parts were not marked "Made in the USA" anywhere. The import broker was concerned that it may have been manufactured in another country like China. If it had, the tax rate would have increased to about 25% of the apprised value.

The box of post caps did say they were made in California. This let us pass...this time. The officals at the import broker did tell us to fill out a "Certificate of Orgin" next time to avoid problems.

We also had to get the Federal Identification Number (FIN) from VinynFence.com. The import brokers use this to see if the seller has imported anything recently to Mexico that they could base their estimate on.

Rafael let us use his phone to call New York. The owner at VinylFence.com gave us the number without a problem. We are glad Rafael had a phone I could use, otherwise I would have had to look for a pay phone somewhere or leave.

Here is a copy of the Certificate of Origin.

The second thing we had to do was put ALL the fence in one vehicle. If part of the fence was in the truck and part in the trailer we would need 2 import papers. The trailer was really loaded down. As soon as we cleared the customs kiosk we loaded the truck back up.

Here is a copy of the tax documents we recieved.

After we imported the fence and cleared customs, Rafael took us to a trucking company in the middle of Tijuana he had called eariler.

The trucking company employees unloaded our truck and trailer and loaded the fence in a truck that was scheduled to leave that night (Monday). The fence was scheduled to arrive in Santa Rosalia Wednesday, two days. Sometimes it takes longer than that to get a letter delivered in the United States. For this service we were charged about $320.00.

Here is a photo copy of the transportation bill with the trucking companys name and address.

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