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Customs fees have nothing to do with the shipping charge. If applicable, a customs fee will be charged over the total value of the item (including shipping, BTW). A seller cannot be blamed for the possible addition of a customs fees, unless he's marking up the value of an item, to more than the actual price paid + shipping (and in those cases, you can always dispute the fee if you can prove what you actually paid).
Furthermore, in a lot of countries [i](including the US) it is illegal to mark down the value of an item to avoid customs fees and taxes.

People in the US have few issues when it comes to customs fees and import taxes due to the fact that sale taxes are low and you are allowed to import quite a bit of value. In Europe, our sales taxes are WAY higher (currently 21% in the Netherlands), and we can import goods worth max. $60 without worrying about taxes. Over that amount, we can get charged customs charges + sales tax.