Shipping bike from USA
 

Hi. I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Sahara. My bike is in USA and I'm wondering what's the best way to get to northern Africa. I have found fairly cheap shipping (by ferry) from the US east coast to Europe from where I can drive down to Morocco, but the shipping company has mentioned that I'll have to pay import tax / VAT on the bike when entering Europe, which doesn't really make sense to me. I don't intend to import the bike to Europe, I'll use it for tourism, then bring it to Africa and sell/trade/give it away. (On the other hand, I realize that the European customs have no way to verify that I'll actually take the bike out of the continent.)

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any recommendations? FYI, the bike is in my name and I am a US resident, Swedish citizen. Thanks!

I think what your shipping agent is trying to tell you is "I've never done this before and I don't really have a clue." Proceed cautiously.

No import, VAT or other stuff necessary. It's easy.

Mark