Customs brokers: why you need one and what to ask

You cannot walk onto the wharf, hand over a bill of lading and drive away with an imported car. Motor vehicles entering Jamaica must be cleared by a licensed customs broker. The broker is the person who turns a pile of shipping paperwork into an entry that Jamaica Customs will accept, and who tells you what to pay and when. Understanding what the broker does, and what they will need from you, is the difference between a vehicle that clears in the normal course and one that sits on the port while somebody chases a missing certificate.

What the broker actually does

The broker’s central job is to prepare the Special Declaration and submit the entry to Customs. The Special Declaration is the form that describes the vehicle, states its CIF value and identifies the tariff band it falls in. It is prepared by the broker and signed by you. Once it is lodged, Customs assesses the duties, taxes and fees on the entry, and once those are paid and the vehicle is released, you collect it from the wharf or have it trucked to you.

On a special import arranged through a licensed dealer, the dealer’s own broker does all of this. The dealer bills you the assessed duties plus the port charges, together with the dealer’s fee for sourcing the vehicle. You may never speak to the broker directly, but the entry is still cleared by one, and the documents the broker needs are still the ones listed below.

The documents the broker will ask for

Jamaica Customs publishes the list of documents required to import a motor vehicle. Each one comes from a different party, and the broker cannot lodge the entry until all of them are in hand:

• Import licence, issued by the Trade Board Limited before the vehicle ships.
• Title or export certificate, issued to the owner by the government of the country where the vehicle was bought. In Japan this is the export certificate produced when the car is de-registered.
• Bill of lading, from the shipping line or agent once the vehicle is loaded.
• Invoice, the supplier’s invoice showing what you paid.
• Tax Compliance Certificate, from Tax Administration Jamaica.
• Special Declaration, prepared by your licensed customs broker and signed by you.
• Pre-inspection certificate, required for used vehicles and issued by an approved inspection company in the export country before shipping.

Notice the order in which these arrive. The import licence has to exist before the vehicle ships. The pre-inspection certificate is produced in the export country before shipping. The bill of lading only exists once the vehicle is loaded. If you are importing in your own name, the broker will want to know early that the first two are in hand, because a vehicle that ships without a licence is the importer’s problem, not the broker’s.

What a good written quote separates

The single most useful thing you can ask any broker or dealer for is a written quote that keeps the different kinds of money apart. A quote that gives you one total tells you nothing about whether it is reasonable. A quote that itemises tells you exactly where the money goes:

• Customs charges. Import duty, special consumption tax, GCT, the environmental levy and the customs administrative fee. These are set by the rate sheet and the CIF value, and they are the part you can check for yourself.
• Port charges. Wharfage and handling at the port. These are charged by the port, not by Customs, and they vary by port and by the size of the vehicle.
• The broker’s fee. What the broker charges for preparing and lodging the entry. There is no published tariff for this, so it is worth asking two brokers.
• The dealer’s fee. On a special import, what the dealer charges for sourcing the vehicle and managing the process. Ask for it to be shown separately from the customs charges so you can see each part on its own.

If a quote lumps the customs charges and the fees together, ask for them to be split. A dealer or broker who is confident in their pricing will have no difficulty doing that.

Checking the customs line against the calculator

The customs charges are the one part of the bill that follows a published formula, so they are the one part you can verify. Take the CIF value in Jamaican dollars from the assessment, confirm the band the broker has used, and run the same figures through the calculator. The order of assessment matters: import duty is charged on CIF, SCT on CIF plus duty, GCT on all three, then the levy and the flat fee. The guide to how the charges compound walks through that order line by line.

If your number and the broker’s do not match, the usual explanations are innocent. The exchange rate differs, because Customs converts at the Bank of Jamaica rate on the day of clearance rather than the day you paid. The band differs, because the engine size or unladen weight on the export certificate is not what the listing said. Or the broker is assessing on a newer rate sheet than the April 2020 dealer revision this site uses. Ask which it is before assuming an error, and if it is the band, ask to see the figure on the export certificate that put the vehicle there.

Questions worth asking before you commit

A short conversation with the broker before the vehicle ships will save you a longer one after it arrives. Ask:

• Which of the documents above do you need from me, and by when? Which will you obtain yourself?
• Will your quote show customs charges, port charges and your fee as separate lines?
• Which rate sheet will the entry be assessed on, and which band do you expect this vehicle to fall in?
• What happens to the timeline if a document is late, and what does the port charge while the vehicle waits?
• Do you arrange trucking from the wharf, or do I?

On a dealer import, put the same questions to the dealer. The dealer is your point of contact, and a dealer who can answer them without hesitation is one who has cleared a lot of vehicles.

Before the vehicle ships

• The Trade Board import licence has been issued.
• The pre-inspection certificate has been arranged in the export country.
• You have a Tax Compliance Certificate, or know how to get one.
• You have a written, itemised quote from the broker or dealer.
• You know which band the vehicle will be assessed in, and have checked the customs charges yourself.

Run the CIF price and the vehicle’s details through the calculator before the broker does, so you already know what the customs line should say.