6 ms·

Wait why would $0.75 have a $75 charge? Is there a minimum tariff that’s not as widely reported reported on? That would be a 10000% tariff. Or is this just exag

Wait why would $0.75 have a $75 charge? Is there a minimum tariff that’s not as widely reported reported on? That would be a 10000% tariff. Or is this just exaggeration

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
throwaway7394 2y ago
There's a minimum charge, as well a percentage. > Washington will also increase the per postal item fee on goods entering after May 2 and before June 1 to $100 from the planned $75. Parcels entering after June 1 will pay a fee of $200 per item instead of $150 announced previously, according to the Wednesday order. ref. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-10/trump-again-increases-small-parcel-tariff-on-china-shipments https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-10/trump-aga...
- roxolotl 2y ago
  Wow I’m genuinely surprised that’s not getting more press. That’s absolutely going to shock the hell out of some people.
  - nebula8804 2y ago
    Its going to be great. I can't wait to see how MAGA explains this one away. Eventually the pain will be enough that hopefully the bubble breaks with some of them.
    - marticode 2y ago
      They'll blame Biden and Soros, as usual.
    - roshin 2y ago
      If what Trump says is any sign to how MAGA explains it, then the answer is: if you don't want to pay those large fees, buy local. Sure the cost will go up, and significantly so in the "short term" (however long that is ...), but in the long term we will have more local manufacturing. disclaimer: I personally don't agree with that, so no need to argue against me. Just answering OP's question, because I feel that it is important to understand the other side.
      - thelastgallon 2y ago
        And its going to be fine. Amish mostly make everything they need, have no debt, no trade deficits, have lots of kids and are thriving. I'm not saying this to be snarky, all Americans can be as happy as billionaines: https://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-want-to-be-happier-should-you-be-a-billionaire-or-be-amish-2012-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-want-to-be-happier-sh... "Is it possible to step off the hedonic treadmill? The best approach involves silencing our desires, restraining the insatiable appetite of our dopamine neurons. This is what the Amish have done. They have learned to live without modern consumerism. They don't use cars, reject the Internet, avoid the mall, and prefer a quite permanence to heady growth. The end result is a happiness boom. The Amish turn out to be as satisfied with their lives as members of the Forbes 400. Furthermore, their rates of depression are more than ten fold lower than the rest of the American population. The Amish are content because they have learned to ignore their dopaminergic pleas for more." https://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/03/16/happiness-wealth-and-the-amish https://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/03/16/happiness-wealth-...
        mschuster91 2y ago
        > Furthermore, their rates of depression are more than ten fold lower than the rest of the American population. One wonders if this is simply due to under-diagnosis.
        gblargg 2y ago
        My theory is that all our modern junk doesn't necessarily cause depression, but it allows us to take on more chronic depression and other mental problems (distraction, dopamine hits, etc.) Like the way added safety features to cars just caused drivers to drive worse to compensate.
    - nkrisc 2y ago
      No it won’t. It will be either 1) good or 2) somebody else’s fault.
  - gscott 2y ago
    I am going to miss getting free seeds from China.
    - oth001 2y ago
      Free seeds?
      - evan_ 2y ago
        Sites like Amazon and probably aliexpress/temu require a documented shipment before you can write a review. Shippers sometimes send extremely inexpensive stuff like seeds to random US/overseas addresses and launder the shipping receipt into a fake review for something more expensive.
        mvdtnz 2y ago
        This sounds fake. Why send seeds, of all things? Why not some equally cheap item like electrical wire insulation off-cuts, a piece of scrap bubble wrap or just a note (or just nothing)? Seeds are likely to set off alarm bells for biosecurity at many borders for no benefit.
        evan_ 2y ago
        It is real, it's called brushing: https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam They send all sorts of things but there was a big wave of seeds that got a lot of news coverage because of biosecurity fears.
  - forgotoldacc 2y ago
    There's so much chaos being flooded out all at once that things that massively impact normal people don't have time to gain traction in the news. And the moment things do make the news, there's an even larger flood of people everywhere saying, "Fake news. Didn't happen." followed by "So what? How does this affect you personally?" and then ending with "This is actually a great thing and you're suspicious if you're against this."
    - pixl97 2y ago
      "Firehose of falsehood" in action. :/
  - paganel 2y ago
    Truth be told, the status quo, with 5-dollar packages clogging the USPS, was a DoS on-going thing in real life/physical form, there had been many posts in here detailing that. Yes, it will most probably negatively affect a lot of people who were relying on that DoS thing to carry on, and, yes, most probably the proposed charges are too high, but it was obvious that something needed to change.
    - jay_kyburz 2y ago
      I don't agree with Tariffs, but the discounts some countries get on postage is BS. It should not be cheaper to have a parcel delivered from overseas than interstate in your own country. https://www.ft.com/content/876bc3ec-aadb-11e8-8253-48106866cd8a https://www.ft.com/content/876bc3ec-aadb-11e8-8253-48106866c...
  - threeseed 2y ago
    I've seen countless interviews of Trump supporters who believe that China is the one paying for it. Which I can completely understand because if it is a cost on them it would be typically be called a tax. That said the overwhelmingly majority are shocked but believe it's all just a negotiating tactic: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-tariffs-13-04-2025/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-tariffs-13-04-2025/
    - imposterr 2y ago
      Some Chinese exporters are definitely splitting the cost of these tariffs with their American importer counterparts. While this isn't as significant as "China pays all the tariffs", it's also not "Americans pay all the tariffs". Though, I haven't seen any analysis on how common this is, so the effect might be negligible in terms of how much "the Chinese" are paying for these tariffs.
      - naijaboiler 2y ago
        Every tax, and tariff a tax, is shared between producer and consumer depending on elasticity of demand for the goods
        stavros 2y ago
        Why is that the case? If an item (from every manufacturer) costs $5, and there's a new tax on it, making it cost $10, why would this be split between buyer and seller? The seller needs to make a certain margin on it, and it's not like the competition can sell any cheaper, or they already would have been.
        immibis 2y ago
        The seller doesn't "need" to make any margin on it. Margins are set by the free market, and they are what they are, no more, no less. Prices go down when demand goes down, right? Why's that, don't sellers need to make a certain margin?
        2y ago
  - idle_zealot 2y ago
    US "liberal" media is being extremely cagey about what and how it reports on this admin. They know they're in its crosshairs and are doing this clumsy balancing act of trying to retain their relatively left-leaning or centrist viewers while trying not to draw any more ire. It won't work, of course, and if we continue on this trajectory you can expect that they'll change over to apologia and ass-kissing or be dismantled.
    - cyanydeez 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - mapt 2y ago
        There's a very large political base, particularly of young people, that is more than ready for leftist politics. It just doesn't get any funding from the millionaires who fund the DNC or the billionaires who fund the GOP. And money is how political organizations run. We have too much wealth inequality to effectively enfranchise most of the population; Capitalism ate democracy, film at 11.
      - idle_zealot 2y ago
        > At this point it's basically capitlism against authoritarianism Ha. You say that as though those things are incompatible. Some capital is putting up token resistance to the rise of authoritarianism, but it can't be a strong counterforce because that would risk retribution. Instead more and more capitalists bend the knee in hopes of favorable treatment. That's why I say the likes of CNN and NBC will switch to bootlicking before long.
        cyanydeez 2y ago
        I mean, they are in the interim. I fully understand capitalists can make money on cruelty. But we're talking about the statement made and transitions.
  - sofixa 2y ago
    > Wow I’m genuinely surprised that’s not getting more press It's hard reporting on the current administration, it's the classic Russian flood style messaging, where you just flood as much (mis)information as you can, and people just can't follow.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Brybry 2y ago
  As far as I know, the way it works is shipping companies can do the % package value (ad valorem duty) or the flat rate per package (specific duty) but have to do the same method for all packages and can only change their method once a month.[1] My speculation is the ad valorem duty requires more manpower to implement and so that's why there's the specific duty option. Especially because they originally temporarily halted the de minimis changes due to USPS not being able to handle it. Executive order 14266 is the most recent rates with 120% ad valorem or $100 / $200 specific (gated by date as noted above). [2] [1] EO 14256: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/further-amendment-to-duties-addressing-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of-china-as-applied-to-low-value-imports/#:~:text=(c)%20%20Duty%20Rates https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/furt... [2] EO 14266: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/#:~:text=Sec.%204.%20De%20Minimis%20Tariff%20Increase https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modi...
  - mapt 2y ago
    Wait, what? So I can buy my carton of 120 iphones if I pay a $100 package fee, instead of $200,000 at the 120% rate? Alternately: My Chinese excavator only costs $100 in tariffs? Can someone give me pseudocode here?
    - detaro 2y ago
      Neither of those are going to be postal service packages with a De Minimis value (<$800).
      - mapt 2y ago
        Could you unpack the idea further? There are plenty of things where Temu charges $2.00 and I would be fine paying a 120% tariff on that to bring it to $4.40, because Amazon is charging $8.99 and retailers are selling a seventy pack for $30. But I would not be fine paying a $100 tariff to bring it to $102.
- userbinator 2y ago
  How long will it take him to change his mind again? He has already exempted a bunch of stuff from tariffs, coincidentally the same stuff that is likely to be imported because the US doesn't make much of its own of.
ferfumarma 2y ago
I think the issue is related to postal charges, and the reduction (or elimination?) of the "de minimis" exemption plus the tarrifs.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jopsen 2y ago
In Denmark imports have to pay vat (25%), regardless of tariffs (goods made in Denmark also charge vat). But the processing fee for customs is usually 20-40 USD. Which can exceed the cost of the package in the first place. So when possible I always shop within the EU, or maybe the US.
- rfmc 2y ago
  That’s all true, but you are leaving out an important piece of information that, at least for AliExpress, the VAT is already included in the price and there’s no additional customs processing fee.
  - Freak_NL 2y ago
    Yeah, you have to try real hard to get a customs processing fee on a package from AliExpress. Customs literally can't keep up with the fire-hose of packages coming in from China, so the current deal is that they, AliExpress, charge and pay VAT and the packages just come through unscathed. Order something from the US into Europe? Expect to pay customs most of the time. From Great Britain post-Brexit? Ditto. China? Rarely.
    - rfmc 2y ago
      It’s all about the VAT collection. I order frequently from Amazon Japan. They add the 25% VAT directly at the moment of purchase and deliver by DHL to Denmark without any extra handling fees. So it’s not about china, but about the company doing the paperwork required for the VAT collection instead of you doing. And by you I mean PostNord in the case of Denmark
    - kalleboo 2y ago
      Any business outside the EU can register for the EU One Stop Shop scheme and charge the VAT directly and avoid fees. Many small time US sellers probably just don’t want to bother, but big platforms like AliExpress centralize it https://skat.dk/en-us/businesses/vat/vat-on-international-trade/vat-on-sales-to-private-individuals/sales-to-private-consumers-in-the-eu/vat-one-stop-shop/special-schemes/about-the-import-scheme https://skat.dk/en-us/businesses/vat/vat-on-international-tr...

Wait why would $0.75 have a $75 charge? Is there a minimum tariff that’s not as widely reported reported on? That would be a 10000% tariff. Or is this just exaggeration

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

throwaway7394 2y ago

There's a minimum charge, as well a percentage. > Washington will also increase the per postal item fee on goods entering after May 2 and before June 1 to $100 from the planned $75. Parcels entering after June 1 will pay a fee of $200 per item instead of $150 announced previously, according to the Wednesday order. ref. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-10/trump-again-increases-small-parcel-tariff-on-china-shipments https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-10/trump-aga...

roxolotl 2y ago
Wow I’m genuinely surprised that’s not getting more press. That’s absolutely going to shock the hell out of some people.
- nebula8804 2y ago
  Its going to be great. I can't wait to see how MAGA explains this one away. Eventually the pain will be enough that hopefully the bubble breaks with some of them.
  - marticode 2y ago
    They'll blame Biden and Soros, as usual.
  - roshin 2y ago
    If what Trump says is any sign to how MAGA explains it, then the answer is: if you don't want to pay those large fees, buy local. Sure the cost will go up, and significantly so in the "short term" (however long that is ...), but in the long term we will have more local manufacturing. disclaimer: I personally don't agree with that, so no need to argue against me. Just answering OP's question, because I feel that it is important to understand the other side.
    - thelastgallon 2y ago
      And its going to be fine. Amish mostly make everything they need, have no debt, no trade deficits, have lots of kids and are thriving. I'm not saying this to be snarky, all Americans can be as happy as billionaines: https://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-want-to-be-happier-should-you-be-a-billionaire-or-be-amish-2012-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-want-to-be-happier-sh... "Is it possible to step off the hedonic treadmill? The best approach involves silencing our desires, restraining the insatiable appetite of our dopamine neurons. This is what the Amish have done. They have learned to live without modern consumerism. They don't use cars, reject the Internet, avoid the mall, and prefer a quite permanence to heady growth. The end result is a happiness boom. The Amish turn out to be as satisfied with their lives as members of the Forbes 400. Furthermore, their rates of depression are more than ten fold lower than the rest of the American population. The Amish are content because they have learned to ignore their dopaminergic pleas for more." https://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/03/16/happiness-wealth-and-the-amish https://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/03/16/happiness-wealth-...
      - mschuster91 2y ago
        > Furthermore, their rates of depression are more than ten fold lower than the rest of the American population. One wonders if this is simply due to under-diagnosis.
        gblargg 2y ago
        My theory is that all our modern junk doesn't necessarily cause depression, but it allows us to take on more chronic depression and other mental problems (distraction, dopamine hits, etc.) Like the way added safety features to cars just caused drivers to drive worse to compensate.
  - nkrisc 2y ago
    No it won’t. It will be either 1) good or 2) somebody else’s fault.
- gscott 2y ago
  I am going to miss getting free seeds from China.
  - oth001 2y ago
    Free seeds?
    - evan_ 2y ago
      Sites like Amazon and probably aliexpress/temu require a documented shipment before you can write a review. Shippers sometimes send extremely inexpensive stuff like seeds to random US/overseas addresses and launder the shipping receipt into a fake review for something more expensive.
      - mvdtnz 2y ago
        This sounds fake. Why send seeds, of all things? Why not some equally cheap item like electrical wire insulation off-cuts, a piece of scrap bubble wrap or just a note (or just nothing)? Seeds are likely to set off alarm bells for biosecurity at many borders for no benefit.
        evan_ 2y ago
        It is real, it's called brushing: https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/brushing-scam They send all sorts of things but there was a big wave of seeds that got a lot of news coverage because of biosecurity fears.
- forgotoldacc 2y ago
  There's so much chaos being flooded out all at once that things that massively impact normal people don't have time to gain traction in the news. And the moment things do make the news, there's an even larger flood of people everywhere saying, "Fake news. Didn't happen." followed by "So what? How does this affect you personally?" and then ending with "This is actually a great thing and you're suspicious if you're against this."
  - pixl97 2y ago
    "Firehose of falsehood" in action. :/
- paganel 2y ago
  Truth be told, the status quo, with 5-dollar packages clogging the USPS, was a DoS on-going thing in real life/physical form, there had been many posts in here detailing that. Yes, it will most probably negatively affect a lot of people who were relying on that DoS thing to carry on, and, yes, most probably the proposed charges are too high, but it was obvious that something needed to change.
  - jay_kyburz 2y ago
    I don't agree with Tariffs, but the discounts some countries get on postage is BS. It should not be cheaper to have a parcel delivered from overseas than interstate in your own country. https://www.ft.com/content/876bc3ec-aadb-11e8-8253-48106866cd8a https://www.ft.com/content/876bc3ec-aadb-11e8-8253-48106866c...
- threeseed 2y ago
  I've seen countless interviews of Trump supporters who believe that China is the one paying for it. Which I can completely understand because if it is a cost on them it would be typically be called a tax. That said the overwhelmingly majority are shocked but believe it's all just a negotiating tactic: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-tariffs-13-04-2025/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-tariffs-13-04-2025/
  - imposterr 2y ago
    Some Chinese exporters are definitely splitting the cost of these tariffs with their American importer counterparts. While this isn't as significant as "China pays all the tariffs", it's also not "Americans pay all the tariffs". Though, I haven't seen any analysis on how common this is, so the effect might be negligible in terms of how much "the Chinese" are paying for these tariffs.
    - naijaboiler 2y ago
      Every tax, and tariff a tax, is shared between producer and consumer depending on elasticity of demand for the goods
      - stavros 2y ago
        Why is that the case? If an item (from every manufacturer) costs $5, and there's a new tax on it, making it cost $10, why would this be split between buyer and seller? The seller needs to make a certain margin on it, and it's not like the competition can sell any cheaper, or they already would have been.
        immibis 2y ago
        The seller doesn't "need" to make any margin on it. Margins are set by the free market, and they are what they are, no more, no less. Prices go down when demand goes down, right? Why's that, don't sellers need to make a certain margin?
        2y ago
- idle_zealot 2y ago
  US "liberal" media is being extremely cagey about what and how it reports on this admin. They know they're in its crosshairs and are doing this clumsy balancing act of trying to retain their relatively left-leaning or centrist viewers while trying not to draw any more ire. It won't work, of course, and if we continue on this trajectory you can expect that they'll change over to apologia and ass-kissing or be dismantled.
  - cyanydeez 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - mapt 2y ago
      There's a very large political base, particularly of young people, that is more than ready for leftist politics. It just doesn't get any funding from the millionaires who fund the DNC or the billionaires who fund the GOP. And money is how political organizations run. We have too much wealth inequality to effectively enfranchise most of the population; Capitalism ate democracy, film at 11.
    - idle_zealot 2y ago
      > At this point it's basically capitlism against authoritarianism Ha. You say that as though those things are incompatible. Some capital is putting up token resistance to the rise of authoritarianism, but it can't be a strong counterforce because that would risk retribution. Instead more and more capitalists bend the knee in hopes of favorable treatment. That's why I say the likes of CNN and NBC will switch to bootlicking before long.
      - cyanydeez 2y ago
        I mean, they are in the interim. I fully understand capitalists can make money on cruelty. But we're talking about the statement made and transitions.
- sofixa 2y ago
  > Wow I’m genuinely surprised that’s not getting more press It's hard reporting on the current administration, it's the classic Russian flood style messaging, where you just flood as much (mis)information as you can, and people just can't follow.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Brybry 2y ago
As far as I know, the way it works is shipping companies can do the % package value (ad valorem duty) or the flat rate per package (specific duty) but have to do the same method for all packages and can only change their method once a month.[1] My speculation is the ad valorem duty requires more manpower to implement and so that's why there's the specific duty option. Especially because they originally temporarily halted the de minimis changes due to USPS not being able to handle it. Executive order 14266 is the most recent rates with 120% ad valorem or $100 / $200 specific (gated by date as noted above). [2] [1] EO 14256: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/further-amendment-to-duties-addressing-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of-china-as-applied-to-low-value-imports/#:~:text=(c)%20%20Duty%20Rates https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/furt... [2] EO 14266: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/#:~:text=Sec.%204.%20De%20Minimis%20Tariff%20Increase https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modi...
- mapt 2y ago
  Wait, what? So I can buy my carton of 120 iphones if I pay a $100 package fee, instead of $200,000 at the 120% rate? Alternately: My Chinese excavator only costs $100 in tariffs? Can someone give me pseudocode here?
  - detaro 2y ago
    Neither of those are going to be postal service packages with a De Minimis value (<$800).
    - mapt 2y ago
      Could you unpack the idea further? There are plenty of things where Temu charges $2.00 and I would be fine paying a 120% tariff on that to bring it to $4.40, because Amazon is charging $8.99 and retailers are selling a seventy pack for $30. But I would not be fine paying a $100 tariff to bring it to $102.
userbinator 2y ago
How long will it take him to change his mind again? He has already exempted a bunch of stuff from tariffs, coincidentally the same stuff that is likely to be imported because the US doesn't make much of its own of.

ferfumarma 2y ago

I think the issue is related to postal charges, and the reduction (or elimination?) of the "de minimis" exemption plus the tarrifs.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jopsen 2y ago

In Denmark imports have to pay vat (25%), regardless of tariffs (goods made in Denmark also charge vat). But the processing fee for customs is usually 20-40 USD. Which can exceed the cost of the package in the first place. So when possible I always shop within the EU, or maybe the US.

rfmc 2y ago
That’s all true, but you are leaving out an important piece of information that, at least for AliExpress, the VAT is already included in the price and there’s no additional customs processing fee.
- Freak_NL 2y ago
  Yeah, you have to try real hard to get a customs processing fee on a package from AliExpress. Customs literally can't keep up with the fire-hose of packages coming in from China, so the current deal is that they, AliExpress, charge and pay VAT and the packages just come through unscathed. Order something from the US into Europe? Expect to pay customs most of the time. From Great Britain post-Brexit? Ditto. China? Rarely.
  - rfmc 2y ago
    It’s all about the VAT collection. I order frequently from Amazon Japan. They add the 25% VAT directly at the moment of purchase and deliver by DHL to Denmark without any extra handling fees. So it’s not about china, but about the company doing the paperwork required for the VAT collection instead of you doing. And by you I mean PostNord in the case of Denmark
  - kalleboo 2y ago
    Any business outside the EU can register for the EU One Stop Shop scheme and charge the VAT directly and avoid fees. Many small time US sellers probably just don’t want to bother, but big platforms like AliExpress centralize it https://skat.dk/en-us/businesses/vat/vat-on-international-trade/vat-on-sales-to-private-individuals/sales-to-private-consumers-in-the-eu/vat-one-stop-shop/special-schemes/about-the-import-scheme https://skat.dk/en-us/businesses/vat/vat-on-international-tr...