When packing your baggage for Chile you will avoid inconveniences if you bear in mind the country's customs regulations.

Chilean law allows you to enter the country with the following items and products without paying VAT (value-added tax):

- Personal items such as clothing articles, ornaments and others, plus electrical toiletry appliances (shavers, hair dryers, etc.). These articles must all be used and appropriate in number to the needs of a traveler.

- Tools and other professional work or craft-related objects, more exactly: those used tools or instruments that are portable, manual and simply made, and which can be used without special fixtures.

- Film and photographic cameras, micro-computers and related devices. Camping, fishing, mountaineering and other sports gear must be registered when it is brought in, and may remain in the country for 90 days - these items are non-transferable and must leave Chile with their owners. If this is not done, they will have to pay the legally stipulated tariffs.

- Tobacco and spirits (only for those over 18 years of age), in quantities not to exceed 400 units of cigarettes (two cartons), 500 grams of pipe tobacco and 50 cigars, plus two and a half liters of alcoholic beverages.

- Any exceptions to the above do not include the following objects: furniture of all kinds (utensils, crockery and cutlery, bedclothes and paintings), musical instruments, electrical or electronic appliances and their spare parts, other apparatus and, in general, all new or saleable merchandise. In these cases, special temporary entry permits may be obtained for the above items, as long as they are not brought into the country for commercial purposes.

Other considerations to be borne in mind are:

- If you have purchased items in countries that belong to groups that have signed economic integration agreements with Chile, such as: ALADI (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia); MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) and Canada, you will have to show the "certificate of origin" issued by the authorities in the country where you bought the items, only thus being able to claim the exemption or reduction of customs tariffs stipulated in the respective agreement.

- Chile has comprehensive sanitary regulations that forbid entry to the country of any kind of animal or vegetable products in tourists' baggage. If you wish to bring live animals or plants into Chile, you must show an animal health or phyto-sanitary (vegetable health) certificate, as the case may be. These certificates may be obtained from a veterinarian or competent local authority. The certificates must be legalized by the Foreign Ministry.

- Customs officers carry out random baggage checks. If during one such check items which are expressly forbidden are found, the offender is placed at the disposal of the Customs Tribunal. This authority can order the confiscation of such items, the levying of fines, or even the placing under custody of the offender.