Shipping from Dr. Diff in USA?

1MeanA said
its not about free trade. Its about Fedex and UPS making a bunch of money clearing/brokering the goods through customs.

Then on top of that we have the exchange rate, then we have duties and taxes levied.

1MeanA said
UPS ground always seems to come with high brokerage charges.

Agreed

1MeanA said
Often it is still worth it rather than buying from a Canadian dealer (if there is one) who just builds all the charges into the price and then some.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I just look around for a Canadian supplier and compare prices, more often than not, I find the Canadian supplier more cost effective.
Example, when I bought my TTI headers, it actually cost me substantially less to order through my local dealer than direct from TTI.