Cost Of Shipping A Container To Tonga

Shipping internationally requires a lot of documentation, which can be time-consuming. That’s why Three Movers is here to guide you. Below is a list of documents necessary upon entering Tonga.

● Commercial Invoice

● Battery Statement

● Tax Documents and Shipping Labels

A Bill of Lading is a collection of trade goods’ records accepted on board. It binds a written contract between a client and a transport company.

If you lost the original Bill of Lading, the client wouldn’t get a duplicate unless the original document can be shown. You will be required to submit requirements to obtain another copy, such as a court order, letter from the shipper, bank guarantee, a commercial invoice and packing list, and a letter of indemnity.

To avoid problems, extra charges, and penalties, you should stay away from shipping to Tonga the following commodities:

● Perishable food products

● Live animals, plants, and seeds

● Any medicines and drugs

● Dangerous and Hazardous Goods are restricted and subject to approval and special procedures

● Aerosols

● Liquids

● Cash, Money orders, credit and debit cards

● Passports and other confidential documents

● Valuable jewelry, art, and antique

● To simplify, avoid sending to Tonga items considered dangerous or prohibited with regular parcel service at your local USPS office.

● If you pack in used boxes, erase all former shipping labels and marks, especially related to dangerous goods or hazardous materials.

● If you are not positive that some of your goods are legal for freight shipping to Tonga, do not put your entire shipment at risk. Leave it.

The liability for customs and excise duty arises:

● in respect of imported goods – when they are imported;

● in respect of exported goods – when they are accepted at the place of export for loading onto an aircraft or ship for export from the Kingdom of Tonga

● in care of goods made in Tonga – when the production, distillation, or manufacturing process is complete

● An excise declaration on a Customs form C must be lodged with the proper officer for authorization before any excisable goods being delivered into home consumption within Tonga.

For more information regarding the taxes, fees, and duties upon shipping a container to Tonga, please read here.

Before shipping a container to Tonga, you must first study the difference between taxes, tariffs, and duties.

● Customs duties are dependent on product information, while tariffs are fees incurred to products from countries for specific times. Lastly, tax rates are calculated on the absolute value of the goods imported into the country.

● Tariffs are fees imposed by a government for categories of products at specific times.

● In terms of implementation, VAT and GST are indistinguishable, but each is applied to various products based on the country importing into.

Before delivering a container to Tonga, you must consider a few factors. You have to know in advance some vital information about the following:

● Delivery fees

● Permitting requirements

● Ground conditions

● Clearance space

20-ft containers require a straight clearance of 75 feet, while 40-ft containers need a hundred. For its respective width, you will need a minimum of 12 feet of width clearance and 20 feet of overhead clearance.

It depends on how many shipments have arrived around that time frame, where your container is seated (the closer to the exit door, the better), and whether you hold a foreign or Tongan passport. Whenever I go to Tonga, barely anyone stands in the unfamiliar lane. If you do land and find it’s very crowded, go up to any of the workers and tell them you have a connecting flight to get to.

In some cases, containers either get lost, destroyed, or even stolen. To make the company pay for such commotion, purchase insurance beforehand. To avoid paying for miscellaneous expenses, ensure that you always have your Bill of Lading with you to save the container against inevitable losses.

A cargo insurance policy enforces the cargo interest. Most air cargo shipping policies are created on an “all-risk basis.” This means that the insured is covered for risk of loss or damage except for those risks that are expressly excluded in the policy, such as loss or damage due to willful destruction of the goods by the insured or the inherent vice of the goods.