Why is shipping to brazil so difficult?

Everything needs three copies, signed in blue ink only or customs seizes the product. Anything shipped by courier is seized. The brazilian government makes it EXTREMELY difficult to export ANYTHING there.

What is going on? I understand customs in south america needs to be strict, but blue in1k only? Isnt that a little ridiculous? AND the taxes are upwards of 50% to import goods on USD value

International shipping is a hardship for a lot of people and businesses. There are a lot of rules, paperwork, and compliance issues. You have to remember, the job of customs is to regulate import and export and also monitor how it affects the country of origin and the destination country.

For instance, if you tried to send a wool sweater to Brazil but wool sweaters were Brazil’s main export, and every local salesperson sold wool sweaters, the package would probably be denied because it would threaten the economy of the destination country.

Also, unless you declare an extremely accurate weight, value, etc. on your goods, it will be up to the customs agents to research and decide the value, weight, etc. This is a process that is done by workers both in the US and Brazil, so it is basically up to human discretion and subject to human error. That is why you could send the same thing on two different occasions and get charged differently.

In the future you may want to "turn to the professionals," as they say and use a parcel forwarder company that will be well-versed in every aspect of international shipping and forwarding.

There are many to choose from, here are some companies to look into if you want:

http://www.bongous.com
http://usa2me.com
http://myus.com
http://usglobalmail2me.com

Good luck!