Update: The USPS has now resumed acceptance of inbound packages from China. According to the updated Service Alert, they are currently working with Customs and Border Protection to “implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs.’
Some troubling news hit overnight as the United States Post Office announced via a terse “Service Alert” that they would suspend acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts, effective immediately.
The Alert calls it a temporary suspension, but gives no timeline on when service will be restored. While details are still coming together, it seems likely that this suspension is part of the Trump administration’s Chinese tariff package, which went into effect at midnight.
Specifically, the administration looks to close the “de minimis” exemption — a loophole which allowed packages valued under $800 USD to pass through customs without having to pay any duties or fees. Those packages will now not only be subject to the overall 10% tax imposed by the new tariff package, but will now have to be formally processed through customs, potentially tacking on even more taxes and fees.
The end result is that not only will your next order of parts from AliExpress be more expensive, but it’s likely to take even longer to arrive at your door. Of course, this should come as no surprise. At the end of the day, this is precisely what the administration aims to accomplish with the new tariffs — if purchasing goods from overseas is suddenly a less attractive option than it was previously, it will be a boon to domestic suppliers. That said, some components will be imported from China regardless of who you order them from, so those prices are still going to increase.
Other carriers such as FedEx and UPS will also have to follow these new rules, but at the time of this writing, neither service had released a statement about how they intend to comply.
Can’t they just pass on the duty payments to the customer like in China – EU trade?
probably, but it’ll still take time to implement something that doesn’t even have any implementation guidelines I guess? It’s not something like IOSS where platforms where able to adapt to something that, well came as a guideline.
It is already being done in other places. Don´t know how the EU one works, but in Brazil the tax is added to the price when checking out the items in AliExpress, for example.
That is the way it works in EU, too.
Confusingly, there are value added taxes and tariffs. Payed are two amounts, 17% to 27 (depending on country, 19-20% in average) VAT and the tariffs (very big muddle depending on the merchandise).
Currently EU talks about removing the 150 € tariff free limit. And adding a shipping costs surcharge.
But as we have seen, tomorrow things might look totally different.
That makes most sense. In Denmark we no longer have de minimis, and since they started charging (and hopefully paying) Danish customs and VAT checkout is much more simplified. Last bill I had for duties and so on was on a parcel from the US
That is happening. This was a less than an hour pause to implement what you just said. It’s a very good move to follow the EU in this.
In short. China will continue to sell and the tax gets payed by the US consumer. It’s another way to put government hands in people’s pockets.
Flashback. I expect this may be next. No more free rides for the “developing nation”, LOL, called China, the same fantasy that gets it a free ride in other areas, too (see graph below):
Update October 2018: The Trump administration has announced plans to pull out of the Universal Postal Union which would effectively end ePacket.
For many years, sellers in China have been able to ship for less from China to America than local American sellers can domestically, thanks to something called ePacket.
In 2010-2011, USPS entered into an agreement with Hong Kong Post and China Post that came into effect in 2011 to offer a shipping option called “ePacket”. What an ePacket basically boils down to is that merchants in Hong Kong and mainland China could now ship packages up to 4.4 lbs, with tracking and 7-10 business day delivery times.
But here’s the kicker – shipping a package from China to the U.S. is about $1 cheaper than from within the United States. That’s not a typo. It’s $1 cheaper to ship from China to the USA than from the USA to the USA.
Fixed the title:
China is building six times more new coal plants than [all other] other countries [combined], report finds – March 2, 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160441919/china-is-building-six-times-more-new-coal-plants-than-other-countries-report-fin
“Everybody else is moving away from coal and China seems to be stepping on the gas,” she says. “We saw that China has six times as much plants starting construction as the rest of the world combined.“
https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/US%20China%20fossil%20fuels.png
It’s strange that this loophole continues to exist in the UK too whilst people are bemoaning the death of the high street and this is primarily why.
China games the system. All and any systems. In all and any industry.
It’s been taking the mick on the postal system to get the inbound country to pay for delivery for far far far too long and it’s time the loophole was closed.
“China games the system.”
And Trump during his first term said he doesn’t blame them for that because the loopholes were there for them to game. That’s just smart business. However, he was totally obstructed from doing what he wanted during his first term which is why he’s moving so fast now to “flood the zone” and give his opposition too much to specifically target and deal with.
Unfortunately, thanks to corporate owned governments that ALLOWED it, mainly since the 90s, China has proved the great truth of this old communist adage: “A capitalist will sell you the rope you hang him with.” So, I think Trump’s actions may be too little, too late. The entire world is already far too dependent on the output of a police state on capitalist steroids unlike the Soviet Union which was inevitably doomed by its economic system.
I don’t know how they do it in the UK, but it’s a little unfair to say it’s just China. US businesses absolutely do everything they can to skirt around laws/regulation, hide money, get the best deal possible, etc. I think that’s the part of ‘free market economy’ or capitalism that doesn’t get regulated by itself b/c it’s a concept, not a human with (hopefully) a conscience.
Not sure what China’s coal use has to do with the article but so what? They are also the ones ramping up their green energy projects the most.
I may not like their form of government but I will have to give them this credit, what they are doing does not look like a nation that is attempting to be the biggest polluter it can. It appears to be the largest nation in the world by population, third largest by land ramping up it’s industry trying to catch up in every way that it can, both green and dirty.
I point this out because usually people pointing fingers at them for their coal use are trying to make an excuse to not “green up” their own countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China
China is building coal plants AND nuclear plants as well, sometimes even very near each other, the idea is if you look at a satellite photo of China at night half the Country is black, China is trying to bring it’s own people into the 21st Century by running roads and electricity to EVERYONE. The coal plants can be brought online very quickly while the nuke plants take longer, so as the nuke plants come online the coal plants will be shut down.
you think this wasnt already happening? who do you think pays the cost of shipping on packages from china that cost a buck to ship. the buck goes to china post and the cost of shipping inside the us is passed on the the post office and ultimately paid through hikes in postage or by the taxpayer. were used to having a (mostly) free lunch, but that’s not sustainable.
It’s completely sustainable. I’m totally fine with rich taxpayers funding the shipping costs for my cheap Chinese tools. Works for me.
It’s long past time tariffs were introduced on goods made by near-as-damn-it slave labour in state-funded manufacturing facilities. Some of the stuff I’ve seen on AliEx costs less to make and ship across the world than the raw materials cost in this country. Supporting that helps nobody.
Yes and epacket shipping granted by the US makes it cheaper to ship from China to the US than WITHIN the US.
Buying exactly the same stuff from a domestic vendor (because a lot of stuff is exclusively made in china, unless you pay 20-50x as much) who charges 5-10 times as much, isn’t really helpful either. Might as well buy it straight from china, if the alternative is ‘We put in a middle man with additional profit margins for the hell of it’.
True. See my comment below. Too little, too late.
thing is when good are made in china for a domestic company, there is at least some accountability in terms of quality standards, product safety, user support, warranties, etc. when you buy directly from china, a sketchy no-name corner cut product where once you pay they are done with you. sometimes the 20x markup is worth it, sure beats products that work for weeks before catching on fire.
Honestly I’ve had better luck with no-name imports than made-in-USA stuff.
With all the hate Trump gets, I can totally understand that you want to put taxes/tariffs on stuff coming directly from china. The EU collects VAT for stuff privately imported from China (~20% depending on country). Aliexpress directly forwards that money to the country. IMO thats a good thing.
Of course the EU told everyone in advance this would happen so everyone could prepare. Instead of causing chaos by being a lunatic.
Shame ebay doesn’t. They charge the end user and then pocket it.
Many/most China based sellers are also registering for VAT fictitiously.
Do you realize that in China following the rules or laws of other countries is in business considered optional, unless you’re going to suffer from not doing so?
Isn’t that how it goes with any rules, anywhere? The suffering is what makes a law a law.
Trump is doing what is called in US football “flooding the zone” or what I call “giving the clowns too many balls to juggle.” He learned well from his CONSTANT and highly successful obstruction during his first term.
Additionally he is doing the “I want to be famous” thing.
Just add so much stuff, have so many plans, create so many ideas that in the end one or two might remain. And brag about everything.
I think (and hope) in the end all his plans will fail. We are in the F*ck around phase. After that we will slowly see the Find out phase. The goose will learn that voting for Christmas might have been an error. Slow process, takes time.
Also known as “throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.”
On a totally unrelated note, there has been a sudden surge in packages arriving from Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc.
Fine. They’re not military adversaries of the US and the West. What our corporate owned governments have allowed proves the old communist adage heard in various forms, being the basic message of a much longer quote by Lenin, “A capitalist will sell you the rope you hang him with” except, in this case, we funded their rope factories, allowed the IP to be stolen without consequences, and then BOUGHT the rope they hang us with.
My comment was in reference to Chinese shippers evading tariffs by routing through neighboring countries…
Sorry, understand and that’s probably what will happen.
Another way to get around this is for the Chinese sellers on Amazon who ship from China via USPS epackets, the ones with the LONG shipping times, to simply bulk ship to Amazon at which point the price will increase slightly because Amazon is then in the profit loop.
Well, creating warehouses and shims in these places brings more money to China than following other coutries´ rules.
IMHO the whole problem boils down how the shipping fees for small goods are fixed by the universal postal union (UPU). AFAIK China is still considered as an “emerging” country. Therefore the fees for shipping something from China is much less than the real costs and the difference has essentially to be paid by the postal service of the receiver’s country. IMHO this does not fit anymore considering China’s economic power. As far as I have understood what was decided in 2019, the fees for China will increase gradually. But countries are also allowed to negotiate bilateral agreements if they are not happy with the current situation.
With a space station.
“an ’emerging’ country”
“With a space station”
And rovers on the moon and Mars albeit neither working at this time.
USA say googby to cheap HW! Long live EU!
Nah, there are numerous ways around this described above.
i stopped ordering from china some time ago, mostly because of counterfeit parts, and because an american seller is more likely to be accountable for flub ups, and retailers who sell asian goods out of us warehouses also greatly reduce shipping times.
frankly idk how the buck i was paying for shipping wasnt completely ripping off the usps, there is no way you can ship domestically for less than a buck. im usually willing to pay more for shipping, if they can get it here in less time than amazon takes to move it to the end of the conveyor belt to actually mail it.
also it appears that the tariffs are more to force a re-negotiation than anything. both mexico and canada have negotiated a temporary halt to the tariffs so that a better arrangement can be made. this will i hope in time also bring china to the table, though trump’s stance on china is significantly more antagonistic. it will make prices go up in the short term.
what it will not do is bring back american manufacturing, there just aren’t enough people to work the factories, especially while cracking down on immigration. a reduction in bullcrap jobs may help, and i suspect the reduction in dei policies will allow companies (and even the government) to stop creating unnecessary positions just to fill quotas. this would free up some of the labor force for manufacturing. but i cant imagine that would create that big of an impact on the job market. except maybe a boon to the legal business.
“american seller is more likely to be accountable for flub ups”
i’m not agreeing there. for example, i used to be loyal to form futura’s easyfil PLA filament. form futura is in europe and i’m in USA. i didn’t want to buy direct from form futura because of the expensive shipping and all of the unknowns involved in that. so i bought from US-based distributors. but despite my best efforts, i never succeeded in buying from a given vendor twice. every time i ordered a spool, it came from a new vendor. and i continued to do that until i got a spool that was humidity-damaged and then it was no longer “trouble free” and my brand loyalty was over.
my experience of amazon (cheap goods fraudulently mislabeled) versus temu (cheap goods as such) suggests it’s not an isolated incident. the specific dynamics around reselling imported goods in the US are bad for accountability.
there’s a huge variety of kinds of markets and vendors and everything. but buying from US distributors has put me in contact with a series of fly by night irreputable vendors.
i don’t have any remedy, i’m just pushing back on the generalization.
There are millions and millions, they’re just working somewhere else (with better pay and working conditions). Now that their slave labor is getting deported, factories need to step up their game if they want workers. Supply and demand applies to labor, too.
What a shame for everybody that didn’t vote for the village idiot, which is just under half the population.
For the other half: this is what you voted for. It sucks to be dumb I guess.
For most other things that have been dreamt up so far I would totally echo your comment, and trust me, I have no love for the newly elected POTUS, nor for his … associates (to avoid vernacular language).
This time: not really. I’m totally for removing the no longer “emerging” economy of mainland china from that list and make their postal service pay for the transport. If products still are competitively priced so be it. I’m all for global movement of wares, with the addendum of products having to comply with the laws and regulations of the country they are imported into. It also sucks a lot to get stung with a forged IC.
One major point of criticism: the time frame. Announce this with a certain lead time. A month or three would make all the difference for US consumers.
It wasn’t about the cost of postage, it’s about slapping crazy tariffs on trade with enemies and long-term allies. His actions border on extortion, and he is rapidly destroying the US reputation of being a reliable trade partner.
I agree that the postage situation (which is the same in the EU) is crazy, and that should change. Nowadays, packages from AliExpress are often bundled, reducing the handling cost later in the chain. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to order several things at once, and paying for the consolidated package to be delivered to your door.
However, his completely unhinged actions are not the way to accomplish things and still be friends afterwards.
“His actions border on extortion, and he is rapidly destroying the US reputation of being a reliable trade partner.”
No, a reliable trade sucker. Look at the tariffs placed upon it by other countries including China. Fact is, the US is the consumer market that most all other nations depend upon. Look how fast both Mexico and Canada caved on those threatened tariffs which were threatened simply to get them to better secure their borders with the US.
Foreigners only get their superficially impression of what is going on in the US right now from their biased media which is as biased as the mainstream media in the US. If you actually had a DEEP understanding of what is ACTUALLY going on here and why you wouldn’t be criticizing it.
And, NO, I don’t worship any politician let alone Trump.
Well, he’s definitely not from a village. I doubt he’s ever seen one in person either.
It’s already outdated news as the halt is over. It was just for an hour or so. But I’m glad to see that the US is following the lead of the EU.
Seems apropos, though I acknowledge that many will disagree:
“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.”
anyone who has a fruit tree will tell you,
good trees bear good and bad fruit.
Bad trees bear good and bad fruit to, just less abundantly.
Really bad trees bear nothing at all.
You plant more trees than your land can support.
First you cull the trees that grow too slow.
Then you cull the trees that produce the least.
Then you cull the trees that used to produce the most but have faded with age.
Then you plant more trees.
How is this being re-framed as a question of subsidized shipping? This isn’t a shipping rake hike. It’s a stop on the delivery of already agreed and paid for goods under the guise of supporting a totally artificial fee, a tariff which is a tax on the consumer.
If the shipping is losing money, raise the rate. Deliver what is already contractually obligated to be delivered but don’t sell any more shipping at the cheap rate.
If you are going to add tariffs. Don’t. But if you are going to anyway then add them to all the future sales that have not already been finalized.
This whole “I’m stopping things right here, right now” stuff is nothing other than a display of authoritarian power.
They’ve already backtracked.
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/suspension-of-inbound-parcels-from-china-and-hong-kong.htm
But the de minimis exemption is gone, meaning big delays on every package. The estimate is 3.7 million packages per day from China that will need customs duties applied (including ones that already did have that).
This is already a common thing in the UK, where VAT is charged on items imported into the country from china. For a while you’d get a letter from imports asking for the fee to be paid before the item was released. Now it’s all automatic / added on at the sellers end.
One workaround we used to use for a while was to put in the order “Please Mark as Gift” since gift’s were exempt from the VAT, but I’m guessing that probably won’t work in this case.
If it encourages building items in your own country then I’d say its a good thing long term.
But I’m not a US citizen at the same time so I’m not in a position to say what you should or shouldn’t be doing.