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How do customs fees work for international shipping?
How do customs fees work for international shipping?

Learn more about customs fees.

Holland Rocha avatar
Written by Holland Rocha
Updated over 5 years ago

Customs agencies use the commodity, quantity, value, country of manufacture, and other factors to determine duties & taxes charges.

Customs fees (duties & taxes) are not included in the shipping rate and will be added on after the package has been sent by the customs agencies of the sending and receiving countries.

There are two options for payment of these fees: DDP & DDU, which stand for Delivery Duties Paid and Delivery Duties Unpaid.

If you, as the merchant, would like to cover all charges for customs fees, then you'll select DDP. If you intend to have your customer pay these fees, select DDU. If no option is selected, our system defaults to DDU.

To select these options:

  • On the customs form during the label-creation process, click the green link that says “Additional options” to reveal extra customs options. From the Incoterm drop down menu, choose DDP or DDU.

  • If you select DDP, the duties & taxes will not be calculated immediately and, instead, you will be charged these fees about 3 weeks later.

Please note that DHL Express charges an additional processing fee when you choose DDP. Additionally, USPS does not enable DDP for their shipments. They will always charge the package's recipient for duties & taxes (DDU).

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