Re-importation or reimportation is the
importation of
goods
In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants
and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not tran ...
into a country which had previously been exported from that country. A number of legal issues arise with the re-importation of goods, particularly where the goods were not designed for sale in the country from which they were initially exported. Because prices differ from one country to another, a re-importer may purchase goods in another country where they are sold at a low price and re-import them in order to undercut the price at which the goods are being sold in the country to which they are imported. Such re-imported goods may constitute
grey market goods.
Re-importation occurs often when
excise taxes are high on a commodity, such as alcohol. Buyers who desire certain domestic products, but do not wish to pay the high excise tax, can buy it from another country where the excise tax is lower. This occurs, for example, when re-importing
Koskenkorva Viina
Koskenkorva Viina (also known simply as Koskenkorva or ''Kossu'') is a traditional clear spirit drink (38%) in Finland, produced by Anora Group at the Koskenkorva distillery in Ilmajoki and bottled in Rajamäki, Nurmijärvi.
The grain (barle ...
, a Finnish product, from
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
The permissibility of re-importation varies based on the product and the jurisdiction involved. For example,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
prohibits re-importation of books exported from Canada for sale in other countries, while the U.S. prohibits re-importation of products made with packaging or formulations unique to the country to which it has been exported.
[Peter K. Yu, ''Intellectual Property and Information Wealth'' (2007), p. 231.]
References
{{law-stub
Import