What issues should I be aware of around buying an import model camera?

Items intended to be sold in one market or world area that are shipped to a different market or world area are often called 'grey market' items. Regional differences in pricing and constantly fluctuating currency exchange rates can often make it attractive to buy products in one country (other than the country of origin) and ship them to another country to be resold as "new" at lower prices than the same product sold through official channels in the destination country or market.

• The 'gray market' camera may be a genuine Canon product from the same factory as the U.S. product. Or it may be a total counterfeit (such cameras are usually assembled from at least some surplus and/or rejected parts made by Canon suppliers). That's the risk you take any time you buy from a non-authorized dealer. Even if a dealer is an authorized Canon dealer in the U.S., they're not authorized by Canon to sell imported gray market items in the U.S.
• Even if you get a genuine Canon camera body, often the accessories such as batteries and chargers will have been swapped for generic third party versions that are typically inferior. Or you might not get some accessories (camera straps, cables, etc.) at all.
• Some Canon models intended for different world areas have different firmwares that limit, for example, the available language options. Such models are 'locked into' that region's firmware and can only be updated with firmware versions written for the same region. You can't apply a U.S. firmware update to an Asian model - the camera won't allow it to be installed. There's probably a way to hack it, but in a commercial setting that would likely cost more to do than the amount of savings from buying the gray market item.
• Lots of sketchy camera dealers will advertise a product at a price they have absolutely no intention whatsoever of selling to you at the advertised price. They'll go ahead and charge your credit card. They'll tell you the exact model you ordered is 'temporarily out of stock' or 'backordered'. They'll try to get you to "upgrade" to a "better" version (with 'metal' instead of 'plastic' parts for something that Canon doesn't even make in a plastic version). By the time you pay their "upgrades" you'll have spent more than if you'd just bought the camera from a legit authorized dealer. If you hold out for the originally ordered product they'll string you along until your credit card charges are over 30 days old and you can't reverse the charges. After that, you might never receive anything.
• Canon USA's official stance is that they do not honor warranties on 'gray market items' purchased in the United States. They also reserve the right to refuse to service, even for a fee, 'grey market' items. Anecdotal evidence suggests they rarely, if ever, enforce this policy. But there would be nothing to stop them from deciding to begin strictly enforce it the day before you need to have your camera fixed.
• There are third party repair facilities in the U.S. than might work on a 'grey market' item. Some of them are very good and have excellent reputations. But such facilities are limited by the availability of the parts they might need to repair a 'grey market' item. If Canon parts aren't available to them in the U.S. via official Canon USA sources, then your repair house is likely to turn to a parts supplier in the same country (most probably Hong Kong) in which your camera was originally sold to the reseller who sold it to you. These parts, just like the original items, may be genuine or they may be cheap third party versions or even counterfeit. The time spent waiting for such parts to arrive from overseas will likely also extend your camera's down time in the repair shop.