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Hi, my fiancée and I want to import an induction cooktop from Europe into Canada. The only things offered in North America are the Jenn Air residential model (woefully underpowered and otherwise inadequate) or the Cooktek commercial units (inordinately expensive.)
I've gone around to appliance dealers here in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada that claim to import European appliances. They tell me they cannot import an induction cooktop for because, in reality, it turns-out their suppliers are US subsidiaries. It turns-out the 'european' products they import from the US are made in, and for, the North American market. In truth, most of what they sell is totally different from what is sold in Europe (they are similar in name only.) When I ask these local 'european appliance' retailers to get me something from Europe, they will not (or cannot, they are rather ambiguous about the whole thing...) Unfortunately, none of their US supplier subsidiaries makes an induction cooktop, hence our need/desire to import one from overseas. The problem: we've never done such a thing, and wouldn't know where to begin. We have, of course, seen imported appliance resellers from Europe and Asia, but perhaps these are CSA approved for use in Canada. AFAIK, no european induction cooktop is so rated. Anyway, we'll most likely go to a Toronto importer for this item, assuming it's even technically/legally possible.
So, can this be done? Has anyone here done this before? Will an importer somewhere be able to accomodate us? Can we do it ourselves (say, by contacting the manufacturer directly)? What about duties and taxes? What are the legalities? Of course, there are certain risks in terms of repair and operational safety, but depending on the overall cost we'd likely be willing gamble. Any comments/feedback appreciated.
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