About Parcel Forwarding Services and Tobacco

[abdulaziz]

Hi everyone.

So as the title suggests, I tried to use one of those services, myus.com, to ship tobacco to my country, Yemen, and when they received my packages they put them "in review." I contacted them and they said that tobacco products are prohibited to be exported to Yemen. I actually looked into their prohibited items list and their couriers prohibited items list before placing any orders and there is no mention of tobacco being prohibited. They explained that tobacco is prohibited to be exported to my country by the US government. I have shipped tobacco before with the USPS to my country and there was no problem, but now our official postal service provider is not operating anymore so I cannot ship with the USPS and I have to use these services.
My two questions are:
Does the US government prohibit exporting tobaccos to certain countries? And where can I find such a list?
And is anyone here familiar with parcel forwarding services or can recommend a reliable one?

Thank you for your help.

 

[mikethompson]

Interesting question as it pertains to Yemen. I've never heard about tobacco not being allowed to be exported, but by countries not allowing it in.

 

[abdulaziz]

Interesting question as it pertains to Yemen. I've never heard about tobacco not being allowed to be exported, but by countries not allowing it in.

Tobacco is allowed to be shipped into Yemen, but this parcel forwarding service is saying it is not allowed to be exported out of the US to Yemen. The DHL, which is the courier I am choosing and the only available one here, has a list of prohibited items which they would not ship to Yemen and tobacco is not on that list and it is not even on this parcel forwarding service's prohibited items list.

 

[JPremo]

I've never picked out and used a specific service for shipping goods like that, but one of my bosses in the vape industry used to mark packages and shipping orders with "sample product not for sale/resale" which did make it's way through most customs issues with shipping to countries outside the US when vaping started getting banned everywhere.

 

[cshubhra]

I don’t know anything about this ... but since pipe smokers love to speculate...

Export prohibition is done in only two condition in my opinion

a. Something which gives exporting country an edge - Example US had prohibited export of data encryption Software
b. A scarce resource which would deprive a country’s citizen’s of a basic need. Can’t think of an example.

Tobacco is neither... So I doubt any country would prohibit its export. Import is another matter

 

[Ahi Ka]

I had a horrible experience with myus a few months back along similar lines. My only advice is remain patient and continue to ask them (as nicely as possible lol) to provide evidence of this export ban etc.

from memory dhl and Ups (not to be confused with USPS) still carried tobacco products whereas fedex overnight changed their position on it.

have you tried to see if you could send direct from retailer using the UPS worldwide saver which is actually a freight not postal option? It’s more expensive, but It saves you drama of dealing with myus etc and you can rely on retailer to declare your product correctly

 

[mortonbriar]

I used MYUS once, and only once. They managed to label a 'tobacco pipe' as 'pipe tobacco'. A casual mistake on their end which gave me a whole lot of back and forwards drama with customs on my end.

 

[abdulaziz]

I had a horrible experience with myus a few months back along similar lines. My only advice is remain patient and continue to ask them (as nicely as possible lol) to provide evidence of this export ban etc.

from memory dhl and Ups (not to be confused with USPS) still carried tobacco products whereas fedex overnight changed their position on it.

have you tried to see if you could send direct from retailer using the UPS worldwide saver which is actually a freight not postal option? It’s more expensive, but It saves you drama of dealing with myus etc and you can rely on retailer to declare your product correctly

I contacted them and provide them with links from their website and from the DHL website and tobacco is not on either prohibited list. I am still waiting for answer now and I hope they do not make me wait for any long.
Unfortunately, UPS does not ship to Yemen anymore, and no website would accept to ship directly with the DHL.

 

[abdulaziz]

I used MYUS once, and only once. They managed to label a 'tobacco pipe' as 'pipe tobacco'. A casual mistake on their end which gave me a whole lot of back and forwards drama with customs on my end.

I took the risk since they are the cheapest option out there, shipping 3 pounds, according to their calculator, would cost me around 50 dollars, other websites would cost me more than the double of that and they use dimensional weight.

 

[Ahi Ka]

It should work out. It used to take about a week or so to get a response from emails, and then another week for the team to change the ‘in review’ status.

do you pay import duty in Yemen?

 

[abdulaziz]

It should work out. It used to take about a week or so to get a response from emails, and then another week for the team to change the ‘in review’ status.

do you pay import duty in Yemen?

No, I have never paid import duties either on pipe tobacco or the occasional cigars.

 

[mortonbriar]

I took the risk since they are the cheapest option out there, shipping 3 pounds, according to their calculator, would cost me around 50 dollars, other websites would cost me more than the double of that and they use dimensional weight.

To be fair, my one trial with them was during the height of the logistical nightmare of covid, so they were on the back foot like the entire industry.