Seems they (and UPS) will be winners in this.
The crash in October is going to be devastating.
Christmas is going to suck so badly this year.
https://archive.ph/20170106174148/https://www.washingtonpost...
>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?
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?
> 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!
> 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.
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.
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.
- Lyndon B. Johnson
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.
edit: https://www.faribaultmill.com/pages/faq
>> "Selection: The woolen process begins with the selection of the highest quality imported and domestic fleeces. Each bail is sampled and checked for quality, providing the base of making the finest woolen products."
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.
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.
For me, most items on McMaster-Carr have Chinese equivalents available for 1/10th the price. This goes for many other things which are very "B2B" in the US but commonly sold to the public in other markets (PCBs, solar panels, power supplies, etc.). The quality might not be as good but a lot weekend projects were made viable by cutting out the middle man and/or cheap access to a larger market. (You can find some of this stuff eBay as well, at a moderate premium. Until recently most of it was shipped from China but there are plenty of importers with US warehouses on there as well.)
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.
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.
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.
In a similar no-not-like-that kind of way, of course.
Arbitrary policies can be found to align with arbitrary ones if you inspect on a different metric than is used to create them.
In this case I would assume from what has been released isolation via destabilization is the goal. (Not major destabilization mind you just "ruffling feathers" enough that we naturally pull away)
The fact that destabilization results in reduced consumption is a coincidence.
But yes, the Etsy stuff is often sent piecemeal via Post.
What feels really gross is that they could ship a trinket from China to your door for less money than it would cost me to send it to someone in my own state.
Or some other courier or with a USPS postmark? Because that would indicate it got commercially brokered with all duties assessed and paid by someone.
Most small trinkets use something called ePacket, check its pricing here - https://jingsourcing.com/shipping-from-china-to-us-cost/
It would cost me as an American 4x that amount to send something to even my neighbor via USPS.
I wouldn't say I'm a tariff fan, but US sellers have been getting ripped off for years, and few people even know or care.
Seems unlikely under the current administration
The US doing similar stuff is much harder to ignore.
I vaguely remember paying the duties and customs in cash to the driver, but I don't know for sure. This was likely the first international purchase I ever made that had a separate duties charge, and I remember being surprised by how much it was when it was delivered.
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 :/
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.
It's almost as if this is exactly what the tariffs were designed to accomplish.
(I'm not saying I agree with the situation, but this is the hard reality of it.)
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.
We've put warnings for things on every single page, step of the checkout, and emails, and people still complain that things are a surprise, even after checking a box acknowledging the facts :(
The sad fact you learn after shipping 10k+ orders is that you can't prevent issues by preparing and telling people about them. It really sucks and defies all logic.
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.
I feel sorry for my American friends and family but at the end of the day, actions have consequences. Wishing them all a speedy recovery!
I also sell something that has a max value people would be willing to pay, so if that number is $6, then I'd rather get $6 USD than $6 CAD.
But yeah, I know what you mean.
That's the intention of the tariffs, correct? To create a cost advantage for US businesses against foreign competition.
10-100% tariffs on Chinese-made goods still means those Chinese-made goods are dramatically cheaper than made-in-the-USA versions in most cases.
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.
To maintain the illusion that the sender pays for tariffs?
Keep receipts and customs declarations on everything imported. There's a lawsuit underway and it may well be decided that Trump doesn't have the authority to levy tariffs at all under the Emergency Economic Powers Act. In that case, importers will be due a refund.[1] The Constitution says that Congress sets tariffs and the Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't mention tariffs. As usual, Trump's strategy is to stall, probably until 2026 when this is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Congress could enact Trump's tariff schedule to resolve this, but that would lock it into law.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-happens-next-u...
I think it’s both that and the overwhelming reluctance to tell (and perhaps hire more) people carrying guns in an already safe and secure area to do (paper)work.
Similar issue in Canada where border officers allegedly do enforcement and provide services but want to focus on the “bad guy” enforcement part. Helping people out or sending bills to grandma wasn’t what they were promised when they signed up.
Is it better to hire a diplomat and make them a warrior or hire a warrior and make them a diplomat? When lives are on the line id choose the later tbh.
The warrior cop mentality is the worst combination: it teaches police to be simultaneously afraid of their own shadows and belligerent and trigger-happy. The all-too-predictable result is that they escalate and shoot innocent people in nonthreatening situations, and then fail to lay down fire when it actually is life-or-death.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-warrior-cop-ethos-and-the-s...
There's a compilation here[1] in case anyone wants to see some more. Most of them don't require any language and are decently funny.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-qyjkj7Vj0 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiqFysi883Y
nelblu•5mo ago