Dealer imports versus importing in your own name

There are two ways to bring a vehicle into Jamaica. You can hold your own import licence from the Trade Board and clear the vehicle in your own name, or you can have a licensed dealer import it for you, either from the dealer’s own stock or as a special import sourced to your order. The two routes are assessed on different rate sheets, and they come with different limits. This guide explains the difference, how a special import works in practice, and the one thing a dealer is widely believed to be able to do that the policy says they cannot.

Two rate sheets

Jamaica Customs publishes a motor vehicle rate sheet for dealers and ex-warehouse entries, last revised on 1 April 2020, and a separate sheet for individual importers, revised in 2025. Both set out import duty, special consumption tax and GCT by vehicle type, fuel and engine size or weight, and both print an aggregate rate beside each band. They are not identical, and which one applies to your entry depends on who the importer of record is.

Customs’ own tariff classification for dealers, revised in May 2025, is the clearest evidence that the dealer route is treated as its own thing: it carries dealer-specific tariff codes, including codes that split electric vehicles on the three-year rule. An entry cleared by a dealer is classified under those codes and assessed on the dealer sheet.

Why Clearie prices with the dealer sheet

Most vehicles now enter Jamaica through a licensed dealer. Either the vehicle is already on the dealer’s lot, or the dealer sources it from Japan on your behalf as a special import, applies for the licence in the dealer’s name, and clears it. Customs assesses those entries on the dealer sheet, so the dealer sheet is what this site’s calculator and rate table use. If you hold your own Trade Board licence and are importing in your own name, ask your broker which rates apply to your entry before relying on these figures, because the individual sheet is the one your entry will be assessed on.

What an individual licence allows

An individual with a Trade Board licence can import for personal use, and the limit is two vehicles every three years. A certified dealer can import any category, in any quantity, for resale. That is the whole of the difference certification buys: volume. It does not buy a different age limit, and it does not exempt anyone from the schedule. More on that below.

Importing in your own name means you deal with the Trade Board for the licence, the exporter for the vehicle, the shipping line for the bill of lading and a customs broker for the entry. It is more work and more paperwork, and the reward is that you pay no dealer fee. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how comfortable you are managing the process yourself, and on what the individual sheet says about your vehicle. Get that second part from your broker.

How a special import through a dealer works

A special import is the route most people take when they want a specific vehicle rather than whatever is on the lot. The process has three stages:

1. Pick the vehicle. From an exporter listing you found yourself, or from the dealer’s own sources in Japan. The dealer confirms availability and quotes a CIF price.
2. Pay the deposit. Dealers commonly ask for 50% up front. The balance of the vehicle price is usually due before or when the car ships.
3. Settle on arrival. Customs duties, wharfage and the dealer’s own fee are paid when the vehicle lands.

Throughout, you supply your Taxpayer Registration Number, your ID and the money. The dealer holds the licence, and the dealer’s broker prepares and lodges the entry. Ask for a written quote that shows the dealer’s fee separately from the customs charges, so you can check the customs part against the calculator and judge the fee on its own.

What to ask a dealer before paying a deposit

• Is the dealer on the Trade Board’s register of certified motor vehicle dealers, and is the certification current?
• Will the quote show the dealer’s fee, the customs charges and the port charges as separate lines?
• What is the deposit, when is the balance due, and what happens to the deposit if the vehicle fails pre-shipment inspection or the licence is refused?
• Who arranges the pre-shipment inspection in the export country, and who pays for it?
• Which band does the dealer expect the vehicle to be assessed in, and on what basis?

The directory on this site lists dealers who import to order and the terms they have confirmed, along with the full Trade Board register so you can check that any dealer you are speaking to is certified. A dealer who is not on the register cannot hold the licence, and a vehicle that ships without a licence is your loss.

The certified-dealer myth

It is widely believed that a certified dealer can import a vehicle older than the Trade Board’s age limit, and that going through a dealer is therefore a way around the schedule. The Motor Vehicle Import Policy says otherwise, and says it three times. The age schedule applies to importers generally. Dealers are bound to it by name. And using a sub-dealer or a broker, or having a certified dealer bring a vehicle in for you, does not exempt anyone from it.

Where the belief comes from is real enough: dealers do import older vehicles, but they do it by importing categories with longer limits. A panel van or a small truck can be ten years old, a bus up to twenty-five, a truck up to thirty. A dealer sourcing a ten-year-old panel van is working inside the schedule, not around it. A six-year-old car is six years old whoever imports it. The full schedule and the narrow routes to an older vehicle are in the age limits guide, and the Trade Board answers licensing and age-limit questions on 876-967-0507 and 876-967-0674.

Which route is right for you

If you want a specific vehicle and would rather pay a fee than manage the paperwork, a special import through a certified dealer is the route most people take, and it is the one this site prices. If you hold your own licence, are inside your two vehicles in three years, and are comfortable dealing with the Trade Board, the exporter, the shipping line and a broker yourself, importing in your own name saves the dealer fee, and your broker will tell you what the individual sheet charges on your vehicle.

Before you choose

• You know whether the entry will be in a dealer’s name or yours, and therefore which rate sheet applies.
• If a dealer, you have checked the Trade Board register and have an itemised written quote.
• If your own name, you have a licence, are within the two-in-three- years limit, and a broker has confirmed the rates.
• The vehicle is inside the age limit for its category, whoever imports it.

Price the vehicle in the calculator first. The customs charges on a dealer import are the largest number in the decision, and they are the one you can know in advance.