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Currently I can order cheap products (less than 20€) from China without customs fees or VAT. The shipping cost is around 1€. It means that it is cheaper to buy
by gardaani 8y ago
Currently I can order cheap products (less than 20€) from China without customs fees or VAT. The shipping cost is around 1€. It means that it is cheaper to buy from China than from my local store. Unfortunately, that is about to change soon (customs fees for all products from China).
Having something like that between EU and Japan would definitely boost the trade.
Edit: I just checked and the same no customs fees rule applies already to Japan. I wonder if it is going to change at the same time as Chinese products get the customs fees.
- 21 8y agoThe shipping only costs 1€ because China is abusing the international post system - the shipment cost is subsidized from your own taxes. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2169144/chinas-cheap-shipping-advantage-explained https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2169144/ch...
- FabHK 8y agoYeah. What I found particularly galling is that often it's cheaper to send something from Shenzhen to Europe (from aliexpress, say) than the 50 km over to Hong Kong. Arghh.
- stefanfisk 8y agowhich country do you reside in?
- gardaani 8y agoFinland - here's the calculator for customs duties and VAT: https://tulli.fi/en/customs-duty-calculator https://tulli.fi/en/customs-duty-calculator
- stefanfisk 8y agomy god this annoys me, here in Sweden you pay $10 just for post office mishandling your package, with VAT and duty on top of the fee. and sooo many people pay it all and then never receive their package because the post office send it back the sender for no clear reason whatsoever