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Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong
- chitw00d 2y ago[dead]
- antigeox 2y agoFully support this move. America needs to build.
- Havoc 2y ago> America needs to build. Without the needed parts apparently
- sareada52 2y ago[dead]
- The_suffocated 2y agoThe linked page is about a different notice. The correct webpage (that the linked page has linked to) is https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/suspension-of-inbound-parcels-from-china-and-hong-kong.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international... By the way, can anybody explain what's the significance about this submission?
- Hatrix 2y agoWatch things in the US grind to a halt when you can't maintain them with cheap parts from China.
- reaperman 2y agoYep. We ship in little bits and bobs from China constantly to keep our enormous manufacturing center running here in the USA. This is going to be horrible for us.
- Kye 2y agoThere are a few channels on YouTube where someone's tasked with fixing a laptop or some small electronic thing. They pull it open, find some tiny little circuit that won't go, dissolve the solder, and put a new tiny little circuit in to save a perfectly good device from the landfill. I hope they can still afford their tiny little circuits and tiny little solder dissolving things with more expensive shipping.
- dang 2y ago(This was originally posted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942236, which has a different top level URL, but we merged that thread hither)
- gigel82 2y agoThere goes AliExpress...
- abrookewood 2y agoAny idea why?? Presumably the tariff/trade debate?
- csours 2y agoand drugs --- edit: there's why and there's why. Drugs is the answer you sell
- ajross 2y agoSurely the tariff/trade debate. The question is which side pulled this particular trigger? Yes, it could be Trump. But it could also be Xi, seeing that Trump just got cold feet vs. Mexico and thinking he could get ahead of things and force a concession. Folks, this is why you don't engage in brinksmanship at this scale. It gets out of hand really quickly. I await the coming economic crisis (I mean, the stock market was already primed for a correction) with resigned exasperation.
- reaperman 2y agoIf it was China pulling the trigger, USPS wouldn't say "we are suspending acceptance of inbound parcels". It's pretty clear this is a US action.
- ajross 2y agoOr China pulled the plug and this is just PR? Meh. I don't think anything's going to be "clear" here. Brinksmanship is literally a policy based on uncertainty and fear.
- ethagnawl 2y agoDon't underestimate the pettiness of this administration.
- reaperman 2y agoWhat the fuck does this even mean? Is it agreeing with me, arguing I am wrong, or simply stating something related/orthogonal?
- dahdum 2y agoWouldn’t this be due to the Lunar New Year, a massive holiday that shuts down wide swaths of the country? UPS has a bunch of Asia delays right now too. https://www.ups.com/cn/en/service-alerts.page https://www.ups.com/cn/en/service-alerts.page
- hpone91 2y agoIt says until further notice. So unlikely to be Lunar New Year since it just ended today.
- winrid 2y agoMy Chinese wife says it goes on another week despite what Google calendar says (also it's not called Lunar New Year evidently)
- dahdum 2y agoUPs refers to it as “Lunar New Year holidays” on the website I linked, probably because it’s more than just China. You’re right though, I should have been more clear.
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoCNY goes for two weeks and just started last Tuesday night. The golden week holiday however just ended. Most people take extra time off so things are usually slow until the whole holiday is over.
- Foobar8568 2y agoIn HK it's just a few days...
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoIt is still two weeks, just the official days you get off from work are only a week or a few days. In 2008 when they burned down the CCTV cultural center with fireworks on the last day of CNY, we were already pretty much back to work in Beijing.
- Scoundreller 2y agoHow’s it work in the US these days with AliExpress (and I guess Temu) last-mile delivery? In Toronto, most of those items are coming to me by private courier (and this pre-dates the Canada Post strike).
- karlshea 2y agoThat’s an interesting point, I just got some keycaps on Taobao and they were shipped all the way to Chicago with CAINIAO and then handed off directly to UPS.
- grepfru_it 2y agoOrdered a bunch of server ram and parts. Most are sold by a Chinese company but the point of origin is either Ontario or California
- sidewndr46 2y agoare you sure it isn't Ontario, California?
- tanduv 2y agoTemu has been using Ontrac
- tkems 2y agoI can confirm that Aliexpress doesn't allow me to checkout with a USA address and states that items can't be shipped to my region. -edit: Since this post it seems that I can order items again? Very odd.
- thih9 2y ago> it seems that I can order items again? Very odd. Perhaps it’s now being sent not via USPS?
- throwfgtpwd234 2y agoCainiao (AliExpress's shipment arm) and others will probably end up chartering planes to get customs' cleared packages to the US and then cross-ship them from somewhere in the US like Kentucky or Long Beach. Shipping costs will rise but hopefully not by much.
- hnburnsy 2y agoThey can ship via UPS, FedEx, DHL, or shipping container. From the news... >The majority of inbound shipments originating in China come by ocean or air freight, not the mail system.
- throwfgtpwd234 2y agoIt depends on the seller and shipment method. I just made a panic order of some stuff Choice and not-Choice and it went through. Account says: 63 Shipped, 42 To Ship
- dwaite 2y agoDepends quite a bit on the item. Some items are actually shipped domestically, for instance, and can be sold out within the country.
- ppollaki 2y ago[flagged]
- HideousKojima 2y agoThe stated purpose of the tariffs is to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US (which kills over 70k Americans a year). If the economic hurt this causes to China is enough to drastically reduce the flow of fentanyl into the US then I suppose it will have accomplished its mission
- Saris 2y agoThis is a genuine question because I don't know, how do tariffs stop illegal drugs from coming in?
- icegreentea2 2y agoa) You could try to use tariff's to apply pressure to the other country to get them to apply more enforcement. b) For the specific case of removal de minimis exceptions, this could reduce shipping volume (in terms of number of individual shipments), making inspection easier/more tractable.
- sky_rw 2y agoOk I'll bite. The de minimus rule allows any import valued under $800 to enter the USA duty free. Chinese drop shipping companies and others leverage this rule to ship millions of packages direct to consumer. Many Chinese companies split a large freight shipments into dozens of smaller shipments to avoid paying duty fees. My understanding is, trade war stuff aside, the effect this has on customs is to overwhelm their intake facilities with small packages, thus allowing shipments of narcotics and illicit goods to make it through without much chance of getting caught. The idea is that removing this rule will force shippers to bulk ship freight and allow customs to better inspect smaller shipments.
- reaperman 2y ago
- jmclnx 2y agoWell the page is gone
- neuroelectron 2y agoIt's working fine for me : Suspension of Inbound Parcels from China and Hong Kong INTERNATIONAL SERVICE SUSPENSION NOTICE – effective Feb. 4, 2025 Effective Feb. 4, the Postal Service will temporarily suspend only international package acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts until further notice. Note the flow of letters and flats from China and Hong Kong will not be impacted.
- xnx 2y agoBad for consumers, but seems like a very good thing for AMZN? Amazon won't have to compete against the much cheaper Temu, Aliexpress, Shein(?) etc.
- refulgentis 2y agoI got the distinct impression Amazon shifted mix significantly in that direction, via the resellers and the resellers themselves shifting Which reminds me of a rule: price up, demand down
- 999900000999 2y agoCheaper and better. This country is so painfully stupid. Now I have to pay 2x as much for inferior products, if not the same exact stuff imported by an American company. This alone is probably going to cost me about 1000$ to 2000$ per year. We literally don't make much most of this stuff in the US. For example I just ordered a guitar bag, 15$ direct from China. The same exact bag, made in the same exact factory is going to be 40$ on Amazon. That's assuming this resolves before resellers run out of stock. If I had any idea this stupid policy change was happening so soon I probably would of brought more stuff. The next 4 years are going to be very expensive, the price of everything is going to skyrocket.
- liamwire 2y agoAdmittedly I’ve not looked past the linked page, but does this stop direct importing via other means? If not, and it holds, I’d expect to quickly see a bunch of US-based importers pop up very quickly just to resell onto the usual channels.
- xnx 2y agoBezos donations to Trump are taking money right out of our pockets and putting it in his.
- 999900000999 2y agoPeople started realizing Temu/AliExpress/Shen are literally selling the same exact stuff. Now Amazon is going to get their 50% markup. I'm literally going to just stop buying a lot of stuff if this policy isn't reversed. It's not like you can buy an Xbox built in Texas, this has the potential to make almost every product more expensive.
- drivingmenuts 2y agoOh, look! We've cut off shipments from China! Now you'll have to buy American. News flash: we can't afford to buy American. Why do you think we were shopping there. It's too late to fix it now - we no longer have the money or the ability to make the money to buy American and even if you gave more money to Americans, prices would just increase accordingly. Also, some of those products were paid for already. Someone owes the purchasers reimbursement for their loss.
- mcphage 2y ago> News flash: we can't afford to buy American. Oh come on now, how much more does an iPhone made in the US cost? Oh. Hmm.
- fineman1618 2y agoProbably 3x - 10x cost If You have the infrastructure to manufacture it. And they years it take to build infrastructure in china its months, in us? Years. Just look into how long it takes to put a bus station or a factory
- mcphage 2y agoAnd we’ve got none of that. Right now, a US made iPhone doesn’t exist, and is years away from existing. It can’t be bought with any amount of dollars.
- charlieyu1 2y agoBut many iPhones are made in India and Vietnam.
- aqueueaqueue 2y agoRight now. $10bn?
- Sperfunctor 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- 0xbadcafebee 2y agoIt's like the right is doing everything they can to make the country be pissed off at them. Do they understand we still have the power to vote?
- lazyasciiart 2y agoThey’re hoping to fix that before it comes up again.
- catlikesshrimp 2y agoIn four years. People have short memory. Feasible.
- 0xbadcafebee 2y agoI hope you're voting more frequently than every four years bro
- fragmede 2y agoDetails matter. Vote in two years to choose your representatives in Congress.
- plorkyeran 2y agoThe usual pattern is they blame the democrats for all the things they did which were unpopular.
- anigbrowl 2y agoDo you?
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- bb88 2y agoSo if you're worried about packages coming from AliExpress, you probably shouldn't be. The last several packages I ordered were shipped USPS with an origin of the US. Los Angeles was the origin of the last one I received with AliExpress Choice(tm). It may affect ebay purchases of electronic parts from Shenzhen though. Particulary if the vendors use the Chinese post office. I also ordered a Keychron keyboard last weekend and it's being shipped from Shenzhen via DHL.
- reaperman 2y agoI'm worried more about the prototypes my R&D department is designing in partnership with Chinese contractors and fabrication facilities. We manufacture the final products here in the USA, but a LOT of components we air-mail from China. A huge percentage of the nation's R&D efforts (for DOMESTIC MANUFACTURING) is going to be completely and utterly fucked if they can't rush-deliver niche items from China. This is a disaster. And it's not just R&D! If you have a big factory here in the USA but you need a rare part/tool/electrical component to fix the factory - often the OEM you buy it from will ship it from their China warehouse and it'll arrive in 1-4 days. As a person who works in domestic manufacturing, this seems really, really bad for domestic manufacturing.
- bb88 2y agoI would say so, but there are options right? FedEx? DHL?
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoI doubt you were using USPS before for those, so your company shouldn’t be affected unless this affects private shipping companies as well.
- soganess 2y agoHonest question, why? USPS is cheap. Is there something special about a stack of blank PCBs (or ICs, or caps, or whatever) that precludes USPS from shipping them? I know they are weird about batteries, but everything else, right?
- persedes 2y agoI'm unclear on this, but to my understanding if I order of Temu, Aliexpress etc I forfeit any consumer rights that I might have in the country I reside in? E.g. if the cheap stuff burns down my house / takes out my eye [1], there's no one to blame about gross defects / QC oversight? [1] https://www.geekwire.com/2019/lawsuit-ruling-dog-leash-purchased-amazon-greatly-impact-third-party-seller-business/ https://www.geekwire.com/2019/lawsuit-ruling-dog-leash-purch...
- Aurornis 2y agoYou’re not forfeiting any rights by buying something on Aliexpress. US law doesn’t apply in China. Nobody is going to take your case because some Aliexpress seller has no reason to even respond to your threats to take them to court.
- swores 2y agoYou're not legally forfeiting rights as in the laws saying "you lose these rights", but in common parlance of course you are as you explain in your second paragraph. If the default situation is that when you buy faulty goods you have legal recourse against the seller, but when you buy direct from a foreign country you do so knowing that should there be a problem you won't have that option, you are de facto forgoing, or forfeiting, those rights by choosing to make that purchase. It's nothing specifically to do with China, but it's how things work (except/until between countries who agree to mutual protection of consumers rights, which I think is the case between EU member states but I'm not sure about any other examples).
- freeone3000 2y agoYou’re getting items more or less as described for a few dollars at the most. Heck, when I got my ebike motor they even asked what power wattage sticker they should put on it. More reliable than Amazon, that’s for sure.
- hedora 2y agoIt’s the same for Amazon, at least in the US. By law, if a retailer sells you a thing, liability first goes to the manufacturer, and, failing that, the retailer. Amazon isn’t a retailer, they’re a “marketplace” or some other BS the courts buy, so they’re not liable if they sell you stuff that’s negligently dangerous. Good luck tracking down SGVEEESQRTS or whoever built the thing.
- Ginger-Pickles 2y agoDupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942236
- dang 2y agoWe've merged that thread hither, since this one has the more specific link.
- reaperman 2y agoThis is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages from China. It's going to halt all our R&D for at least 6 months while we onboard domestic contractor alternatives --- which will also just generally be shit. Not to mention the American contractors WONT BE ABLE TO SHIP IN THE FUCKING ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS FROM CHINA THEY NEED FOR THE PROTOTYPES. Every single R&D department in the USA just got fuuuuuuuuucked by this.
- anigbrowl 2y agoWell if you're not busy you'll have time join in a general strike. Shutting the economy down is rapidly becoming the only nonviolent option.
- pessimizer 2y ago[flagged]
- anigbrowl 2y agoNo, the only nonviolent option for people who want to protest the administration's scattershot behavior, of which this is but one example. I think you understand this just fine, don't you?
- boopdewoop 2y agoill buy em for ya mate, get them posted from Australia, It will just cost you $500 in postage fees.
- dzhiurgis 2y agoLet's do it via New Zealand, it's $600 plus you wait about 6 months.
- nico 2y agoThe speed at which all of this is happening is astounding Is this all improvised or was there a big list of stuff to do ahead of time? If the latter, does anyone have a copy of that list? Alternatively, is anyone keeping track of what's already been done so far?
- SeanAnderson 2y agoBroadly speaking it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025, but it's been tough for me to find bullet point summaries that don't come across as biased.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- anigbrowl 2y agohttps://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FUL... EDIT: you downvoted me for giving the other poster a primary source document from the original publisher, with no commentary? What are you mad about?
- reaperman 2y agoYeah this definitely deserves more upvotes than just mine.
- reaperman 2y agoThis is (probably?) related to the de minimis exemption, so here is the section of Project 2025 which provides bullet points for dealing with that: - Stop Communist China’s abuse of the so-called de minimis exemption, which allows it to evade the tariffs for products valued at less than $800. - Reinvigorate and expand the DHS crackdown on the CCP’s use of e-sellers (including third-party sellers) and the shippers and operators of major warehouses such as Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba to flood U.S. markets with counterfeit and pirated goods. - Strategically expand tariffs to all Chinese products and increase tariff rates to levels that will block out “Made in China” products, and execute this strategy in a manner and at a pace that will not expose the U.S. to lack of access to essential products like key pharmaceuticals. - Systematically reduce and eventually eliminate any U.S. dependence on Communist Chinese supply chains that may be used to threaten national security such as medicines, silicon chips, rare earth minerals, computer motherboards, flatscreen displays, and military components. - Significantly reduce or eliminate the issuance of visas to Chinese students or researchers to prevent espionage and information harvesting. - Prohibit the use of Communist Chinese–made drones in American airspace. - Provide significant financial and tax incentives to American companies that are seeking to onshore production from Communist China to U.S. soil. - Prohibit Communist Chinese state-owned enterprises from bidding on U.S. government procurement contracts (for example, contracts for subway and other transportation systems). - Ban all Chinese social media apps such as TikTok and WeChat, which pose significant national security risks and expose American consumers to data and identity theft. - Prohibit all Communist Chinese investment in high-technology industries. - Prohibit U.S. pension funds from investing in Communist Chinese stocks. - Delist any Communist Chinese stocks that do not meet Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards or, alternatively, close off the Chinese “A shares” stock market to U.S. investment and deregister U.S.-sanctioned Communist Chinese companies. - Prohibit the use of Hong Kong clearinghouses as transit points for American capital investing in the Chinese mainland. - Prohibit the inclusion of Chinese sovereign bonds in U.S. investors’ portfolios. - Sanction any companies, including American companies like Apple, that facilitate Communist China’s use of its Great Firewall surveillance and censorship capabilities. - Order the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice to contract with U.S.-owned and U.S.-operated artificial intelligence companies that are capable of detecting, identifying, and disrupting both the domestic groups’ and CCP influencers’ social media operations and funding streams using public information as a rapidly available offensive measure. - Compel the closure of all Confucius Institutes in the U.S., which serve as propaganda arms of the CCP. - Hold the CCP accountable for the COVID-19 virus, which almost certainly originated as a genetically engineered virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and do so through the establishment of a presidential commission or select congressional committee that would investigate the origins of the virus; its various costs, both economically and in human life; and the possible means of collecting damages from the CCP, which are likely to rise to the trillions of dollars.
- nico 2y ago[flagged]
- suraci 2y agoi'm very focus to observe which certian topics were missing in HN that's one of my habit since I live in a country with highly censorship And base what I observed some topics i cares were not popped up - i.e trump's meeting with Nethanyahu some topics i interested were flagged - i.e 'Trade War Heats Up After Trump Orders Tariffs and ...' i feel it's kind of creepy since i don't think there's a censorship supervisor in HN like where i came from, or is there any?
- Volundr 2y agoUsually it's user flags. There's more than enough Trump supporters that between them and the folks who will flag anything political that it takes a HUGE number of upvotes to overcome that. Technically @dang does have mod control to remove things as well as prevent user flags from suppressing something. As far as I know the second power is used much more commonly, to prevent something controversial but clearly on-topic from being supressed, but clearly I'm not @dang so take that with a grain of salt.
- dang 2y agoHere's a subthread from yesterday where I went into this in depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20turn%20off%20flags&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... If anyone has a question that isn't answered at those links, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
- nico 2y agoThank you @dang for the in-depth and thoughtful information communicated in those links. You put a lot of effort and dedication into taking care of HN. Really appreciate that Given how much has happened and come out in the last 48hrs alone. I would say there is a big unprecedented Major Ongoing Topic (MOT) The MOT is the coup going on. You might call it something else, but you can definitely group a lot of the political news under unprecedented and illegal Also, given the seriousness and impact of what’s happening, and considering how close the tech community is to some of the events and the people involved, HN is not just any bystander, it’s a pretty influential actor Whatever HN does about this MOT, will impact not just the behavior of its users in the short term, but will likely also have repercussions in the future of the United States as a country
- anigbrowl 2y agoGuess my little stash of ESP32 devices just doubled in value.
- Scoundreller 2y agoGood time to list all that Chinese junk I never use on ebay
- caspper69 2y agoThe parade of stupid continues unabated.
- anomie31 2y agoCould an expert mention if this violates the Universal Postal Convention?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- boredatoms 2y agoRegardless of violation, is there an enforcement body?
- frangfarang 2y ago[dead]
- jeroenhd 2y agoIt's a UN body, so there's no strict enforcement. If the USA decides to ignore the UPU's fees and regulations, there's not much reason for other countries to accept American postage stamps and post in general under UPU rules, though. Without the UPU, the USA would need to negotiate rules and fees with every other country on the planet individually, causing an explosion in complexity, administrative overhead, and cost. If the negotiated rates are good enough there can be a net benefit for the American government, but I doubt they'll be able to make it work. I don't think the USA will leave the UPU, though, they're probably working up a small fine to try to force renegotiations. A dangerous game, given how sick the world is getting of America already. During Trump's last presidency, the UPU was already involved during the trade war started against China, and the USA paid off the UPU for 7 million dollars.
- hpone91 2y agoLooks like everything will be hit by the MPF What is a Merchandise Processing Fee? The Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) is a user fee that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) charges. It is charged in addition to US Customs duty as an ad valorem tax at a rate of .03464%. It is calculated as a percentage of the value of the shipments shown on the invoice, also known as the Customs appraisement. This user fee carries a minimum and maximum amount depending on the entered value of the shipment. MPF is required on informal (goods valued $2,500.00 USD or less) and formal (goods valued over $2,500.00 USD) entries into the US. Informal MPF Rates Rate: $2.53 USD Formal MPF Rates Minimum: $32.71 USD Maximum: $634.62 USD (And under Trump's decree, all mail from China must be labeled as formal goods now, so minimum $32.71 fee applies) https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-02293.pdf https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-02293.pdf
- reaperman 2y agoJust to be clear - if I order $5 of LED's from China, I now have to pay at minimum $37.71 instead of $5?
- hpone91 2y agoYes
- Symbiote 2y agoOrdering from Denmark, a medium or larger retailer in China would collect the Danish VAT (25%) and send that to the Danish tax authority. They'd mark the package with a transaction id for this, and it would go through EU customs without any further charges. (Presumably they still scan it for guns etc, and make random checks that these packages are labelled correctly.) Goods ordered without using this system would be charged the 25% plus a handling fee, which is about $20 here. However, the EU gave the logistics companies and retailers over a year to get these systems in place. The USA is taking a different approach.
- anigbrowl 2y agoWow, that's fucking bullshit. I buy electronics components every year from Shenzen, talking with my supplier now about shipping from Singapore or Japan.
- ggm 2y agoAnyone got a non-intuited, horses-mouth reason why? I suspect (ie, intuit) that its actually an attack on the USPS, not on China. The party of government doesn't like the post office, and this is to teach us not to like the post office either. I guess if they stopped using electric cars, they might like the post office again.
- seo-speedwagon 2y agoGetting rid of de minimus exemptions made it impossible to assess duty on the volume of packages coming in. So they just won’t accept packages at all.
- ggm 2y agoAnd forgo the revenue? Or, do the other carriers do a better job of meeting the imposts?
- mastodon_acc 2y agoIt’s a govt service, they are not trying to meet wall street quarterly shareholder expectations
- nozzlegear 2y agoIt's worth noting that Congress has been trying to force the USPS to run itself like a self-sustaining business for decades at this point. It started in 1970 with the Postal Reorganization Act, which transformed it from a government department to an independent government entity that was expected to fund its operations entirely through its own revenue. Then in 2006, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the PAEA which required the USPS to pre-fund retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future¹. Congress even restricted the USPS's ability to set its own rates, expand its services or close unprofitable locations without political interference. ¹ The retiree funding requirement was only changed recently when Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 into law.
- NetOpWibby 2y agoThis is a terrible time to be working for a hardware startup JFC
- davesque 2y agoDoes anyone know why this is happening? A result of some initiative by the Trump administration probably?
- gnabgib 2y agoIt's because of an executive order: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42942619
- jschveibinz 2y agoFentanyl is the likely reason behind this order: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO24/20230517/115956/HHRG-118-GO24-20230517-SD004.pdf https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO24/20230517/115956/HHRG... USPS is the preferred carrier for illicit drug distribution.
- mindslight 2y agoReally? I would think these orders are due to some combination of cocaine, Viagra, and Ambien.
- jrflowers 2y agoI don’t think cocaine comes from China
- mindslight 2y agoI assume by this point they're getting it direct from that one factory that supplies Coca-Cola.
- hansvm 2y agoWait, we're opposed to illegal drugs and letting _who_ exactly inject his own code into the treasury?
- almaight 2y agoThis is like when Mexico imports synthetic ammonia from China, but synthesizes TNT in Mexico and smuggles it to the United States, but American politicians say that China exports TNT. The funny thing is that TNT is a seriously illegal product in China.
- dev1ycan 2y agoChinese know very well what they are doing when exporting certain chemicals, and to whom. They just don't care.
- evbogue 2y ago[flagged]
- evbogue 2y agoLanded it didn't I?!
- casenmgreen 2y ago1. Current administration are wholly unfit for purpose; they have no clue about running a Government. 2. A dictator is now in place, with a subverted democratic system underneath (by subverted I mean deceived - enough people have bought into the lies that elections are now democratic in appearance only). 3. The judicial system is now in the way. 4. The judicial system is now going to be attacked.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoGood. I'm glad to see moves that reduce market access for China, given there is little reciprocity. It's also worth hurting the Chinese economy for numerous other geopolitical reasons, including that the American economy can absorb disruptions like this a lot more easily at this time.
- thesaintlives 2y agoMaybe he is going to take a hard look at why this service is subsidised bu the US tax payer...
- Animats 2y agoYou can still ship stuff from China to the US via FedEx, UPS, or DHL. You just have to do all the standard customs clearance data entry and pay.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/china-us-usps-de-minimis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/china-us-usps-de...
- nosianu 2y agoMaybe not any more? The situation still seems to be developing. 5 Feb 2025: https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/226755/DHL-stops-accepting-individual-shipments-to-US https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/22675... > DHL Hong Kong has announced that it will no longer accept individual shipments directed to the United States. ... > As for UPS Hong Kong, FedEx Hong Kong and SF Express, the companies stated that their headquarters have not informed them to stop accepting parcels from Hong Kong for delivery to the United States. > However, FedEx Hong Kong's customer service reminded senders that they might need to pay additional duties for the deliveries while the shipping costs remain unchanged. > UPS mentioned that the company is currently discussing the duties arrangement, but no updates have been announced yet.
- tempeler 2y agoI know this movie very well from somewhere, but the ending is both unhappy and bad. But you are lucky, it does not last longer than 4 years.
- throwfgtpwd234 2y agoThis is complete crap. There was no warning given. And isn't this illegal?
- b112 2y agoUnless I've missed a thread, no one seems to be saying what counts. Changing duties, taxes, and rules is fine. It's how a society adjusts. Changing them instantly is literally the most anti-consumer, anti-business concept ever. No 30 days? 90 days? Nope, block it all now! That's sheer stupid on a caliber almost unheard of. It sends a signal "Don't do business with the US, the rules change on a whim". Don't do business IN the US, the same! Set up a company anywhere else, any other nation, else you'll wake up tomorrow and your entire business model is invalidated, without even a day to adjust. This is how children behave. How over emotional, non-rational people behave. Unfortunate. I personally support this, but not immediately. Nutty.
- jeroenhd 2y agoFor what it's worth, the Project 2025 documents with all of these measures written down as bullet points has been up for a while. Getting rid of China's de minimis exemption is listed on page 789. Americans, American businesses, and businesses with American clients would be wise to read through the document to see what they can expect the coming year(s). The current executive branch sure won't give you a heads up, but the plans are out in the open.
- chiengineer 2y agoI just use chatgpt to summarize it months ago. It legit said it will cause a recession
- qwertox 2y agoEU should do the same. They're essentially performing a Bureaucratic Denial-of-Service attack on customs and tax authorities.
- sureIy 2y agoHow so? Just hire more people and be better at logistics. Duties will pay for the extra people.
- guerrilla 2y agoWe already have in Sweden, years ago. I thought that was all of the EU. Really fucked up my electronics hobby.
- Symbiote 2y agoIt was indeed the EU, it was the end of the low-value goods exemption if you want to search for it. I avoid shopping from China on principle, but if ordering from Ali Express or similar you shouldn't have any problems. Of course, you pay 25% VAT on your purchases.
- guerrilla 2y agoIt was a big problem for a while before most vendors added VAT because in Sweden they hold the package for ransom against lenalty fees and the VAT, which often means you have to go get the package at a service point instead of having it dropped in your mailbox. Things are better now but that was a disaster for a while.
- jeroenhd 2y agoThe EU has enforced a new system that ensures VAT is being paid over imported goods. For some Chinese stores, that essentially blocked off all of the EU because they don't want to raise prices to pay tax for EU customers. The lack of taxes or import fees together with enough stickers and stamps that say "GIFT" are the whole reason many shops have western customers in the first place. Customs takes forever to clear a Chinese packages now, they're not letting themselves get rushed beyond doing their job. Not every package gets checked, but a lot more do, and drop shippers are not very happy.
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- lyzml_AF 2y ago[dead]
- steveBK123 2y agoI am paying less attention to minor day to day news drama during the orange mans second reign, but even then it feels more chaotic this time.
- markus_zhang 2y agoI sincerely hope US and Canada can regrow some manufacturing capacity. I think the only way to do it is by a one-two punch, and middle class like me are going to seriously get hurt, but I still want it done, for the sake of later generations and for a better, safer, more competitive humanity. Safer because a successful reform removes the need of a world war. The one-two punch is: 1) A massive devaluation of housing, stocks and other similar items. The reason for this is we need to introduce local, more affordable merchandises, which can only be brought by cheaper lands, cheaper labor -- but no one is going to work $6 an hour (about 45 Yuan per hour, more or less on par with the better paid Chinese manufacturers I think) unless, unless housing and renting costs a fraction, like, 20%. That's why I said we are going to get seriously hurt. This is basically a wealth transfer from the richer to the poorer. 2) Educate a whole generation that labor is honorable, so that engineers, scientists, technicians and such get more respect (I mean real respect, not the superficial one nowadays) than lawyers and bankers. It's a social change that takes at least one generation, perhaps two. Maybe I didn't put it right, but by saying getting more respect I'm basically saying getting an equal pay and equal say. But I'm seeing is that US is taking another darker road.
- gruez 2y ago>1) A massive devaluation of housing, stocks and other similar items. I get how cheap housing can contribute to domestic manufacturing, but cheaper stocks? How does lower NVDA prices help domestic manufacturing? Is it just there to hose the rich?
- markus_zhang 2y agoI think they just drop at the same time. Maybe I'm wrong.
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- s1artibartfast 2y agoI was expecting a how-to, not preconditions. It is very hard to devalue assets and jobs that are valuable in fact.
- ndom91 2y agoLooks like they've flip flopped already: > Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.
- ranger_danger 2y ago[flagged]
- cguess 2y agooooooh 2004 burn! Relevant!
- alistairSH 2y agoAnd they've already walked that back... https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/suspension-of-inbound-parcels-from-china-and-hong-kong.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international... What a dumpster fire. Hard to believe ~half the electorate thought electing Trump, Musk, and army brocoll-topped tech-bros was a good idea.
- ozmodiar 2y agoIt's so ridiculous. From an outside perspective the US starts cackling wildly and making threats (and they do seem to delight particularly in trying to humiliate their targets), then when people think they won't actually do it they start implementing them to remove any doubt. Then the final step is to say "oops, give us a second, like maybe a month." Like, they've played their hand already, do you think everyone's just going to assume everything is fine? Any competent world leader, include "The West" which the US seems to think it owns completely, should now be scrambling to cut the US out as much as possible and they've got good company to go to with all the other countries being bullied. It's practically a matter of pride at this point to cut the US off as much as possible.
- sidewndr46 2y agoThis appears to be the end of my hobbies as there are just so many small parts I can't possibly get in the US but are available for $6 on AliExpress
- neom 2y agoClimate change is out of control and you're buying $6 plastic from China. Thank god it's the end of your hobbies.
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- dmd 2y agohttps://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/suspension-of-inbound-parcels-from-china-and-hong-kong.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international... Restored already. It's all about chaos.
- therealpygon 2y agoCreate the chaos, then be the solution.
- pentel-0_5 2y agoHow to be the "hero" on the Karman Drama Triangle while actually being the "villain".
- floatrock 2y agoOr it's about not knowing how any of this works and quickly backing down when you're told how much your race-baiting is actually gumming up the wheels of the economy. But yes, it's a "throw a bunch of shit against the wall and see what sticks" chaos strategy.
- Eextra953 2y agoChaos is exhausting. This also shows the risks of moving fast, the USA is so big that any small change is going to have huge unforeseen consequences. We've seen several examples of this in the last few weeks already.
- adultSwim 2y agoSeems like negotiating.
- daveguy 2y agoTrump couldn't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. All a despot has to do is compliment him and he will repeat whatever they want. It's pathetic.
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- gorbachev 2y agoAnd now they reversed it: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/usps-china-de-minimis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/usps-china-de-mi... What a flustercuck.
- dbetteridge 2y ago> Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery. Looks like its changed since posting
- stronglikedan 2y agoIt's good that people are making dumb decisions like this, presumably out of spite. Makes it easy to know who to fire.
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoUpdated Feb 5, 2025: > Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.
- keuoa_ 2y agoI had several small packages in transit from china, now that the CBP considers ALL packages from China "formal" I have to pay $32.71 PER PACKAGE. I'm freaking screwed, I can't really afford to drop several hundred dollars just on bullshit fees
- nkurz 2y agoThe suspension has already been suspended. Packages are again being accepted for delivery: "Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery." https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/suspension-of-inbound-parcels-from-china-and-hong-kong.htm https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international...
- fsagx 2y agoI have a jclpcb job that finished today :o 2025-02-06 01:52:00 Shipment information received,ZHUJIANG DELTA AREA - CHINA, PEOPLES REPUBLIC
- fsagx 2y agoDHL shipments seems to still be moving OK 2025-02-08 23:00:00Processed at FRANKLIN PARK - USA,FRANKLIN PARK - Illinois - USA 2025-02-08 22:51:00Clearance processing complete at FRANKLIN PARK - USA,FRANKLIN PARK - Illinois - USA
- sam345 2y agoThat didn't last long they did say it was temporary. https://www.wsj.com/business/logistics/u-s-postal-service-suspends-shipments-of-china-parcels-bf6239f3?st=ijq89q https://www.wsj.com/business/logistics/u-s-postal-service-su...