anyone know anything about import/export?

[grasswire]

A friend of mine travels regularly to primitive villages in Transylvania to do humanitarian work. Always the trader, I have queried her about anything there that might sell here. The people there are desperately poor, and anything we might buy from them would help them a great deal.

There are two possibilities. Twig brooms made by gypsies -- apparently very desirable for utilitarian purposes there, and decorative enough to attract interest here. And old small things. Hand tools, wooden shelves, dough troughs, and so on.

I know nothing about regulations that would govern this kind of trade. One problem in managing the goods would be that there is a lot of theft from mail there. You can't just ship boxes of stuff; it disappears. But the stuff could be transported to Hungary and shipped from there.

Anyone here know ANYTHING about licenses, customs, whatever?

[Vinca]

1. I haven't a clue, but it sounds like a good idea.

Maybe the Customs site would have something. I don't see why it would be any different from mailing an ebay purchase from Europe to the U.S.

[brer cat]

2. You might start here.

This site is specifically for the occasional international buyer.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/infrequent_importer_info/internet_purchases.xml