1. Removal of de minimis / low-value duty free exemption. Plenty of countries have very low thresholds to start collecting sales tax on imports. A moot point as a lot of platforms (Etsy/Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/Temu) charge the destination's US/EU/Aus sales taxes already. Usually a higher threshold to start collecting duty. Duty is much more cognitively difficult to assess. Historically, sales taxes were more than duty for most items anyway. US is now another exception here.
2. US not accepting "duty-unpaid" postal shipments. This is VERY unusual.
As of today, I can walk into the post office and send a parcel to any country in the world. The destination customs will figure out if/what duty/taxes are owed and collect it from the recipient. I don't need to know, nor care, what the rates are in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Colombia or San Marino. The buyer should know and can complain to their gov if it's unreasonable/incorrect.
Next month, USA will be the sole exception to that. Air freight to USA is going to get a lot cheaper if anyone is looking.
jleyank · 3h ago
For at least the near term, parcels won't be shipped into the US. Once things stabilize, they'll figure out who'll pay the tariffs stemming from suspending de minimus. But it's going to affect small companies outside the US and the cost of goods entering from outside.
That's the intent, but it's going to result in some lean months or years until the payola is delivered or the factories are (re)built. And it's not going to be a fun time for Walmart.
Guvante · 1h ago
The US imported $3.3 Trillion in 2024 and had goods value add of $4.9 Trillion of which $2.1 Trillion were exports.
Given generally speaking imports and exports tend to be distinct products we would need to add 118% goods production to not need to import.
The US isn't capable of doing that in even a decade.
And it is going to impact everything because unlike most tariffs which exclude manufacturing goods this set hits everything so you cannot competitively produce things unless the entire production chain from raw materials is in the US.
throwawaymaths · 7m ago
big bulk importers (e.g. walmart sources) already have infrastructure to deal with import duties so its not like trade is going to come to a halt. IIUC realistically its small shippers that are going to get whacked like aliexpress or temu, shein.
riehwvfbk · 1h ago
Walmart? You mean Temu and Etsy. Walmart doesn't ship their inventory piecemeal through the post.
jleyank · 31m ago
Walmart has pretty much all of its product line outside the us. And the thing is trying to be Amazon with the option to shop all sorts if things to their store for purchase.
Scoundreller · 57m ago
Does Temu? In Canada, I haven't received a thing from them through the post. It's all from small-time gig couriers. If they're not bringing it through the post, then it's getting brokered and applicable duties already paid by Temu.
But yes, the Etsy stuff is often sent piecemeal via Post.
Larrikin · 2h ago
>> it's going to result in some lean months or years
There's a lot of government officials in their 80s, I'm betting a lot of them will die and these tariffs get thrown out with them.
It's an instant win for any politician to lower taxes on consumers.
jleyank · 32m ago
There’s only one relevant old fart politician for this tariff bs.
I sell a niche, handmade product for a living from Canada and 90% of my sales are to the US and this bullshit really fucking sucks. Even our shipping partners don't know what is going on and usually can only fill us in on or after a due date goes past because nobody on either side of the border has any idea what to do or what is actually supposed to happen.
Here's the stupidity: USPS doesn't know who is supposed to collect the tariffs...hmm it's the person in the US who bought the product, and you collect money from them, like UPS and FedEx do all the time. It's going to your own government, how do they not understand? I know it's unrealistic for mail carriers to be able to do that en-masse now, but I'm not sure why they think Canada Post should be collecting tariffs, they don't have employees that deliver mail...IN THE US! So we can't ship with Canada Post to the US now as they'll just send it back. Canada Post can also strike again at any moment, but that's another story.
So the current advice is for us to now ship our products as Delivery Duty Paid or DDP, which means I'm supposed to pay the tariff that the buyer should be paying all because USPS doesn't know how to collect the money to give to their government. I'm getting double boned.
Oh yeah, I also have to pay an extra $2 per shipment to a broker now in addition to the tariffs, which nobody really has any clarity what they will be yet and there doesn't seem to be a good source saying if the items I sell are CUSMA or not.
It's one hell of a mess for sure, and especially damaging when you sell low ticket items on volume. I'm going to have to jack my shipping, which will hurt as our shipping is already more expensive than what someone would normally pay from someone within the US.
Once we can ship Delivery Duty Unpaid or DDU we will expect 4 out 5 customers to send angry emails asking what these "Hidden fees" are as we don't expect anyone to realize they actually need to pay tariffs and then we get stuck on the defensive side educating people what tariffs are and who caused them and who is supposed to pay them, which is not great for business, sanity or time :/
bdcravens · 51m ago
> Once we can ship Delivery Duty Unpaid or DDU we will expect 4 out 5 customers to send angry emails asking what these "Hidden fees" are as we don't expect anyone to realize they actually need to pay tariffs and then we get stuck on the defensive side educating people what tariffs are and who caused them and who is supposed to pay them, which is not great for business, sanity or time :/
Can you get ahead of this by putting a message on your checkout page when the recipient is in the US? Won't stop all of the complaints of course.
Scoundreller · 1h ago
If they're not individualized items, send US$800 worth everyday for the next week to an Amerifriend to warehouse there and re-ship domestic on-demand if you can.
That's basically what US companies were doing with Chinese stuff when those tariffs were announced but not in force yet (and maybe earlier if they got early wind about it).
Dunno what's going on with NAFTA/CUSMA/USMCA. Changes with the wind. Or maybe you'll qualify for duty-free under our supposed trade agreement if you pay some assessor mafia $9999 to confirm that your handmade good is Made in Canada.
fnordpiglet · 45m ago
You’re missing that Trump has declared you pay the tariffs, which while contradictory to reality, must be simultaneously true and not true as he brooks no dissent. Therefore the USPS is frozen and trapped in the conundrum that is US politics.
If it makes you feel any better it’s worse for Americans having to live through this stuff. It’s going to be a long three and a half years.
macintux · 27m ago
It’ll be a lot longer before things recover. If they ever do. The damage is tremendous, and only getting started.
sugarpimpdorsey · 3h ago
The article says I can't read it unless I pay Bloomberg their $1.99 tariff.
presentation · 3h ago
Read the fine text
> You'll pay $1.99/month beginning today for 1 month. Then your subscription will automatically renew at $39.99 every month after the first month, unless you cancel before the 1 month intro period.
lol 20x increase after the first month
andrewinardeer · 2h ago
Load on Firefox, switch to reader mode.
Scoundreller · 1h ago
don't bother with Lynx though: "We've detected unusual activity from your computer network".
No you didn't!
kevin_thibedeau · 3h ago
They still haven't retracted their lies from the Supermicro hit piece so I say good riddance.
No comments yet
roland35 · 3h ago
Not a tariff. Nice try at a joke though!!
platevoltage · 1h ago
oh whoa really?
Tagbert · 2h ago
So now some of those scam texts telling me that I need to pay a fee to get a package (that I didn’t remember ordering) a few will now be legitimate messages? That’s going to be a mess and lots more people getting scammed.
Scoundreller · 1h ago
UPS and Fedex have made the fatal mistake of dropping off their items before even trying to collect their fees. Then they spam my (postal) mailbox with letters about having to pay extortionate brokerage fees. Can't say I've paid them all and can say they give up pretty quick if you circle file them.
avidiax · 3h ago
Is this in-part payola to FedEx?
Seems they (and UPS) will be winners in this.
Scoundreller · 2h ago
Canada Post and others are already building out a system to collect the duties (from senders...). Something operated by a company called "Zonos". Looks like they've locked in the Universal Postal Union & governments will become dependent on a private entity for all of their customs needs. I'm sure they'll keep their prices low. https://www.upu.int/en/news/consultative-committee/activitie...
To be determined what Canada Post's charges will be in addition to the tariffs. If Canadian items inflate in price by 35% from the first $1, that's going to cook a lot of sellers/sales.
(Note: if it's sold on a marketplace like eBay, the US state/local/county/blah sales taxes are already being charged).
I plan on jacking up my "shipping" costs to USA to make it revenue neutral. But it's a bit of a pain if you sell items with different countries of origin and tariffs changing by the bathroom trip.
Do the prices of consumer-imported items get captured in inflation numbers?
reactordev · 1h ago
Biggest robbery of the century, privatizing duty tax collection... what a racket to be in.
jondwillis · 3h ago
The relevant quote from the article:
>The company suggested that shippers use carriers with services in place that allow them to pay duties before goods arrive in the US, such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.
Is there anything about those two companies, aside from the fact that they're not foreign or US public institutions having their remaining metaphorical windows smashed, that make you think this is payola?
Spooky23 · 3h ago
There’s no winners here. This nonsense is killing commerce.
The crash in October is going to be devastating.
lazide · 1h ago
Why do you think he’s going after the BLS, the Fed, and replacing all the senior military and FBI types with toadies?
reactordev · 1h ago
To lie about the numbers and pretend everything is fine?
rjbwork · 44m ago
Ding ding ding! From here on out it's all fake. I expect some private firms that are able to collect somewhat accurate economic data to make a killing, given the government is about to go full China and just lie about the numbers.
pdntspa · 2h ago
Damn it, I have an aliexpress order from a few days ago en route :(
Scoundreller · 1h ago
It might only apply for goods that get on the water / in the air after the change, not those already in transit.
Yeul · 3h ago
Even Brexit wasn't this embarrassing.
susiecambria · 3h ago
> Washington’s long-standing de minimis policy had allowed parcels packed with cheap items to flow into the US from around the world with little interruption or oversight, fueled by consumer demand for bargains and immediacy. Trump’s White House claims it’s a loophole used to evade tariffs and funnel illegal drugs.
> Now, postal services, online sellers, consumers and shipping companies are attempting to sort through the costly and complicated process to comply with US rules with little guidance from federal agencies.
I wonder what consideration individuals are giving this. . . The article says very little about consumer behavior save for the above two grafs. I very rarely buy directly from abroad and that is by design, with nothing to do re: de minimis. What bargains are people buying?! Especially in this economy.
zeta0134 · 3h ago
I mostly research and analyze retro hardware as a hobby, most of which was made in Japan. All of my research acquisitions at least doubled in price this month, and quite a few sellers have decided to stop shipping to me entirely until the tarrif situation gets sorted.
These are 40+ year old consoles and accessories that are no longer being produced anywhere, certainly not in the United States. There will not be a factory built for these items, they're not in high demand. They just got way more expensive.
tw04 · 2h ago
You’re confusing why we have tariffs. They aren’t doing this to bring back manufacturing to the US, they are doing this to shift tax burden to the lower classes.
There’s a reason why even folks that were pro tariff for the purposes of bringing back jobs to the US were completely dumbfounded on the sweeping, untargeted tariffs that look like they were drawn up by a drunk monkey with a sharpie and a map of the world.
platevoltage · 1h ago
And a large segment of the lower classes will happily suffer if they're told it's good for America, and bad for whichever marginalized community is being demonized right now.
dboreham · 1h ago
It's nothing like that level of reasoned and logical. It's all out George III-level barking madness.
Fomite · 2h ago
It's niche, but this is devastating the miniature wargaming industry, which is heavily based on small firms in the UK.
roxolotl · 3h ago
I personally buy things from abroad relatively regularly. Few times a year. Just bought a keyboard from Taiwan and stocked up on Japanese tea in preparation for this. Plenty of things come from abroad though even if you’re not searching it out. Of course there’s SHEIN, temu, and Alibaba but even Amazon has a good percentage of things that come from abroad. It’s kinda hidden but it’s seamless so until now it was hard to tell.
No comments yet
Scoundreller · 51m ago
> I very rarely buy directly from abroad and that is by design
A lot of bigger Canadian sellers identify with a US location as they use a shipping service that trucks things over the border it's "received" by USPS in 1-2 business days. So they get away with it as long as they don't over-promise handling/delivery times.
gbear605 · 2h ago
For a book series that I’m a fan of, the biggest merch seller (eg. embroidered hoodies, shirts) is based in Canada and ships directly. With these changes, she’s just having to shut the store down entirely because she’d have to have prices triple or quadruple.
redserk · 3h ago
You can save a lot of money on random stuff from Temu/Aliexpress compared to Amazon. In my experience, often times going to be the same exact item.
Bags, odds and ends around the house, component assortments, screw assortments, and some tools (with careful judgement).
Sometimes the difference is only 1/3rd the cost, but I’ve had some items be 1/20th the cost by removing Amazon and whichever third party seller.
slipperydippery · 3h ago
I buy wool sweaters from Europe. I don’t know of US equivalents to what I buy, and I doubt they’d be as cheap if I did find them, even with (expensive) shipping from Britain and Nordic countries.
I bought a linen sheet from Lithuania this year. I couldn’t find any in the US that weren’t just similar probably-imported-from-Lithuania-or-Italy foreign ones marked way up, or that didn’t set off my “this is low-quality bullshit sold at a premium” alarms.
I don’t know of a US equivalents to Dent’s Gloves. Not at the same price/quality combo, in those styles.
Raber Garbage Mitts from Canada. Dunno of US equivalents.
Last time I ordered Meermin shoes they shipped from Spain. They have or had some presence in NY too, but Spain’s where they shipped from.
If you want equestrian leather shoes, I dunno of anywhere but places that ship from Spain and Portugal that won’t empty your bank account for them.
Western riding shoes (“cowboy boots”), best bang for your buck by a long shot will probably come straight from Mexico. Or maybe Argentina.
Best bargains in decent hats I know come straight from Canada, the EU/Britain, Mexico, or Australia.
[edit] OK, so then what do I buy that’s made in America? Red Wing boots, Darn Tough socks, Rancourt and Company for loafers and mocs and such, Pendleton wool blankets and shirts (the cloth’s made in the US, anyway, though the sewing’s usually elsewhere) and a bunch of other MIUSA (and some Canadian and Italian) clothes but I only buy them used because I don’t make FAANG or finance tier wages (stuff like Sid Mashburn, made in NYC) so I’m not actually giving those companies money.
dboreham · 1h ago
US wool is crap.
slipperydippery · 32m ago
IDK I have one large Pendleton blanket, a robe, and about ten of their shirts, plus an old ex-army blanket that I suspect they made, and they’re pretty great. All but one of those items (one shirt) is long-fiber wool, so it’s the itchy kind, but 1) it gets a ton less-itchy with time & use (and I don’t mind anymore, regardless), and 2) I wear them as outdoor and work shirts so if they were fine wool or short fiber merino stuff, that’d be no good.
Yeah it’s not Italian super 150 or whatever, but I’m not wearing it in fine clothes, I hike and chop wood and shit wearing this stuff.
jleyank · 3h ago
err, things like Etsy and other crafter-sized companies, including antiques and other things. Don't know whether used books will be affected as I've not bought any recently. E-stores like Amazon or LL Bean or others at scale might/will have difficulty servicing customers. And all the gifts coming from non-US residents at this point will be emails.
Waterluvian · 2h ago
Not American nor stuck in America, but I recently bought a simple kit for building your own clock from a ton of basic chips and resistors (that crappy one Big Clive showed off), for about a dollar.
The thing that surprised me most was how on point the shipping emails have been. The kit itself is worth about a dollar and was great for my 8 year old to practice soldering. Though if I skim the Temu site, it’s like 98% absolute trash.
bsimpson · 1h ago
Damn. I thought I had another week to order stuff before this nonsense started.
gosub100 · 3h ago
Oh no, my credit card and debt consolidation offers are going to take a few more days.
mikestew · 3h ago
I suspect your reading of TFA might have lacked comprehension.
voxadam · 3h ago
Do you receive a lot of credit card offers from overseas?
Scoundreller · 1h ago
off-topic: As a Canadian, I set up an XM Radio, so I now hear a lot more US ads than I usually do (their music stations are ad-free, but the news channel feeds sub the commercials).
Does everyone in USA need a loan in 24h, has IRS problems and is looking to sell (not buy, but sell) their life insurance policy? It's better than Kars4Kids, but I thought people paying for radio might be in a better financial position?
1. Removal of de minimis / low-value duty free exemption. Plenty of countries have very low thresholds to start collecting sales tax on imports. A moot point as a lot of platforms (Etsy/Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/Temu) charge the destination's US/EU/Aus sales taxes already. Usually a higher threshold to start collecting duty. Duty is much more cognitively difficult to assess. Historically, sales taxes were more than duty for most items anyway. US is now another exception here.
2. US not accepting "duty-unpaid" postal shipments. This is VERY unusual.
As of today, I can walk into the post office and send a parcel to any country in the world. The destination customs will figure out if/what duty/taxes are owed and collect it from the recipient. I don't need to know, nor care, what the rates are in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Colombia or San Marino. The buyer should know and can complain to their gov if it's unreasonable/incorrect.
Next month, USA will be the sole exception to that. Air freight to USA is going to get a lot cheaper if anyone is looking.
That's the intent, but it's going to result in some lean months or years until the payola is delivered or the factories are (re)built. And it's not going to be a fun time for Walmart.
Given generally speaking imports and exports tend to be distinct products we would need to add 118% goods production to not need to import.
The US isn't capable of doing that in even a decade.
And it is going to impact everything because unlike most tariffs which exclude manufacturing goods this set hits everything so you cannot competitively produce things unless the entire production chain from raw materials is in the US.
But yes, the Etsy stuff is often sent piecemeal via Post.
There's a lot of government officials in their 80s, I'm betting a lot of them will die and these tariffs get thrown out with them.
It's an instant win for any politician to lower taxes on consumers.
Here's the stupidity: USPS doesn't know who is supposed to collect the tariffs...hmm it's the person in the US who bought the product, and you collect money from them, like UPS and FedEx do all the time. It's going to your own government, how do they not understand? I know it's unrealistic for mail carriers to be able to do that en-masse now, but I'm not sure why they think Canada Post should be collecting tariffs, they don't have employees that deliver mail...IN THE US! So we can't ship with Canada Post to the US now as they'll just send it back. Canada Post can also strike again at any moment, but that's another story.
So the current advice is for us to now ship our products as Delivery Duty Paid or DDP, which means I'm supposed to pay the tariff that the buyer should be paying all because USPS doesn't know how to collect the money to give to their government. I'm getting double boned.
Oh yeah, I also have to pay an extra $2 per shipment to a broker now in addition to the tariffs, which nobody really has any clarity what they will be yet and there doesn't seem to be a good source saying if the items I sell are CUSMA or not.
It's one hell of a mess for sure, and especially damaging when you sell low ticket items on volume. I'm going to have to jack my shipping, which will hurt as our shipping is already more expensive than what someone would normally pay from someone within the US.
Once we can ship Delivery Duty Unpaid or DDU we will expect 4 out 5 customers to send angry emails asking what these "Hidden fees" are as we don't expect anyone to realize they actually need to pay tariffs and then we get stuck on the defensive side educating people what tariffs are and who caused them and who is supposed to pay them, which is not great for business, sanity or time :/
Can you get ahead of this by putting a message on your checkout page when the recipient is in the US? Won't stop all of the complaints of course.
That's basically what US companies were doing with Chinese stuff when those tariffs were announced but not in force yet (and maybe earlier if they got early wind about it).
Dunno what's going on with NAFTA/CUSMA/USMCA. Changes with the wind. Or maybe you'll qualify for duty-free under our supposed trade agreement if you pay some assessor mafia $9999 to confirm that your handmade good is Made in Canada.
If it makes you feel any better it’s worse for Americans having to live through this stuff. It’s going to be a long three and a half years.
> You'll pay $1.99/month beginning today for 1 month. Then your subscription will automatically renew at $39.99 every month after the first month, unless you cancel before the 1 month intro period.
lol 20x increase after the first month
No you didn't!
No comments yet
Seems they (and UPS) will be winners in this.
To be determined what Canada Post's charges will be in addition to the tariffs. If Canadian items inflate in price by 35% from the first $1, that's going to cook a lot of sellers/sales.
(Note: if it's sold on a marketplace like eBay, the US state/local/county/blah sales taxes are already being charged).
I plan on jacking up my "shipping" costs to USA to make it revenue neutral. But it's a bit of a pain if you sell items with different countries of origin and tariffs changing by the bathroom trip.
Do the prices of consumer-imported items get captured in inflation numbers?
>The company suggested that shippers use carriers with services in place that allow them to pay duties before goods arrive in the US, such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.
Is there anything about those two companies, aside from the fact that they're not foreign or US public institutions having their remaining metaphorical windows smashed, that make you think this is payola?
The crash in October is going to be devastating.
> Now, postal services, online sellers, consumers and shipping companies are attempting to sort through the costly and complicated process to comply with US rules with little guidance from federal agencies.
I wonder what consideration individuals are giving this. . . The article says very little about consumer behavior save for the above two grafs. I very rarely buy directly from abroad and that is by design, with nothing to do re: de minimis. What bargains are people buying?! Especially in this economy.
These are 40+ year old consoles and accessories that are no longer being produced anywhere, certainly not in the United States. There will not be a factory built for these items, they're not in high demand. They just got way more expensive.
There’s a reason why even folks that were pro tariff for the purposes of bringing back jobs to the US were completely dumbfounded on the sweeping, untargeted tariffs that look like they were drawn up by a drunk monkey with a sharpie and a map of the world.
No comments yet
A lot of bigger Canadian sellers identify with a US location as they use a shipping service that trucks things over the border it's "received" by USPS in 1-2 business days. So they get away with it as long as they don't over-promise handling/delivery times.
Bags, odds and ends around the house, component assortments, screw assortments, and some tools (with careful judgement).
Sometimes the difference is only 1/3rd the cost, but I’ve had some items be 1/20th the cost by removing Amazon and whichever third party seller.
I bought a linen sheet from Lithuania this year. I couldn’t find any in the US that weren’t just similar probably-imported-from-Lithuania-or-Italy foreign ones marked way up, or that didn’t set off my “this is low-quality bullshit sold at a premium” alarms.
I don’t know of a US equivalents to Dent’s Gloves. Not at the same price/quality combo, in those styles.
Raber Garbage Mitts from Canada. Dunno of US equivalents.
Last time I ordered Meermin shoes they shipped from Spain. They have or had some presence in NY too, but Spain’s where they shipped from.
If you want equestrian leather shoes, I dunno of anywhere but places that ship from Spain and Portugal that won’t empty your bank account for them.
Western riding shoes (“cowboy boots”), best bang for your buck by a long shot will probably come straight from Mexico. Or maybe Argentina.
Best bargains in decent hats I know come straight from Canada, the EU/Britain, Mexico, or Australia.
[edit] OK, so then what do I buy that’s made in America? Red Wing boots, Darn Tough socks, Rancourt and Company for loafers and mocs and such, Pendleton wool blankets and shirts (the cloth’s made in the US, anyway, though the sewing’s usually elsewhere) and a bunch of other MIUSA (and some Canadian and Italian) clothes but I only buy them used because I don’t make FAANG or finance tier wages (stuff like Sid Mashburn, made in NYC) so I’m not actually giving those companies money.
Yeah it’s not Italian super 150 or whatever, but I’m not wearing it in fine clothes, I hike and chop wood and shit wearing this stuff.
The thing that surprised me most was how on point the shipping emails have been. The kit itself is worth about a dollar and was great for my 8 year old to practice soldering. Though if I skim the Temu site, it’s like 98% absolute trash.
Does everyone in USA need a loan in 24h, has IRS problems and is looking to sell (not buy, but sell) their life insurance policy? It's better than Kars4Kids, but I thought people paying for radio might be in a better financial position?