[DaveW]

There is so much conflicting information, i didnt pay any duties on my engine, I asked Yusen when i booked them to do the freight and customs broking and they told me then that there would be no duties as car parts were outside of the protected industries agreement of AUSFTA (Australian United States Free Trade Agreement).
I looked up my docs last night, the only fees and charges were $48.50 covering port clearance and customs charges, and GST Payable immediately, not defer-able, I had already paid this to Yusen based on there calculation of the VOTI before the goods arrived (which was incidentally the exact amount declared on the US customs value declaration)

This was all i could find on the Government site

"Under AUSFTA, Australia and the United States have agreed to eliminate customs duties on goods originating from the other country. While many agriculture, non-agriculture and manufacturing tariffs were eliminated from 1 January 2005, the elimination of other tariffs will occur in accordance with each country’s schedules under the Agreement. "

However i did find exactly what Leroy stated on the Auspost site as well, however it was very skewed towards ebay purchases and China.

Maybe there's a difference between Commercial consumption & Private consumption. ?

There must have been other import stories on this forum

Getting back to the original thread, i would probably buy the LS3 from Holmart for the small difference if any, and I'm damn sure they wont be making a loss on these, so as usual goes to show how much your ripped off at the retail counter.