US Based seller shipping to Cadian Buyer. Disputing Import fees

Question

I sold an item to a Canadian buyer. Item and shipping was paid for. A few days later, UPS send me an email regarding Canadian Import fee payment. My experience is buyer pays for import fees, which I've done on several occasions. Anyway, I forward this info to the buyer. He disputes the fees and calls them UPS fees and it is seller responsability to pay the fees. Before this gets ugly, I wanted to see if I'm on solid ground, or way off base.

Thank you

wooden_flower · Answer

@drury9

UPS charges what is called a brokerage fee for bringing the item through customs. So it is not part of the tax, but it is an import-related fee.

I suspect your buyer is familiar with this charge and is just hoping you will cover it.