Porhibited And Restricted Items

DHL International (United States)

Prohibited Commodities for the United States

The following commodities are not acceptable for transport by DHL under any circumstances.

This is a result of a policy decision, following the full consideration of Operational, Legal and Risk Management implications.

  • Live animals
  • Hunting (Animal) trophies, animal parts such as ivory and sharks fin, animal remains, or Animal-by-Products and derived products not intended for human consumption, prohibited for movement by the CITES Convention and/or local law.
  • Human remains or ashes
  • Bullion (of any precious metal)
  • Cash (current legal tender)
  • Loose precious and semi-precious stones
  • Complete firearms, ammunition, explosives / explosive devices
  • Illegal goods, such as counterfeit goods and narcotics
Property, the carriage of which is prohibited by any law, regulation or statute of any federal, state or local government of any country to or through which the shipment may be carried.

If you are in any doubt as to the acceptability of your goods, please contact your DHL representative prior to shipping.

Counterfeit Goods are Prohibited

DHL's security policy states that it is not allowed to transport counterfeit goods via the DHL network. DHL does not want to be associated with counterfeit goods and upon suspicion of such goods being imported, Customs will be informed. It is prohibited in many countries to introduce counterfeit goods and where proven the Customs authority will seize the goods and penalize the buyer.
 If you are offered very low prices for branded goods that are sold on shopping websites or via other channels, you can normally assume that the goods are counterfeit. High quality branded goods that are often copied are:
  • Shoes
  • Clothing
  • Bags
  • Expensive Watches
  • CDs and DVDs
  • Perfumes
  • Electronics

Shipping Commodities – What You Need to Know

Certain commodities are considered as “Non-Document” and need to be accompanied by an invoice and, in some cases, additional customs documentation. Other commodities are considered simply as a “Document” and only require a DHL Waybill to be completed. The following list explains what you need to do in order to ship various commodities.

Document Commodities (Require only DHL Waybill)

Airline tickets, issued/validated
Annual reports
Blueprints Booklets, brochures (non-adv.)
Business cards
Cash letters
Catalogues
Charts/graphs
Cheques, cancelled
Cheques, cashier
Computer printouts
Deeds
Diaries
Diskettes
Documents, general business
Drawings, technical/architect/eng.
Invoices, not blank
Manuals, technical
Manuscripts
Microfiche & microfilm
Money orders
Passports
Photographs
Photos as part of business reports
Plans/drawings-arch/indust/eng. pur
Price lists
Ship manifest-computer generated
Shipping schedules
Slides Tapes: computer
Transparencies
Visa applications

Commodities where you should contact your local Customer Service advisor to clarify shipping requirements

Asbestos
Firearms, parts of
Gambling devices
Imitation (replica) firearms, weapons
Ivory
Loose precious stones
Pornography
You will be asked to provide your social security number or tax id number because DHL must submit a completed entry form to Customs that identifies the ultimate recipient or the importer of record by one of these numbers, as well as the name and address at the time of entry.

Goods being imported into the U.S. must go through United States Customs and Border Protection.
Learn about Customs and Support Provided by DHL

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