31 ms·

We regret but have to temporary suspend the shipments to USA

647 points by CTOSian 1y ago

gck1 1y ago
I’m not in the US, but I had to order a bunch of hard drives from a US retailer. My country imports almost all electronics from the US through freight forwarding, and probably more than 90% of my online spending is with US retailers too. The problem now is that nobody - including retailers and shipping companies - really knows how returns will be handled if the drives need servicing under warranty. The transport companies here are saying everything has to be declared down to the molecular level, and no matter what it is - even a return - tariffs and broker fees still have to be paid. So it looks like I’ll have to halt importing from the US anything that comes with a warranty. The funny thing is, with all the crazy taxation the EU already has, US tariffs make importing from the EU actually cheaper once you factor in potential returns. Granted, I live in a tiny country, and for the US economy this is probably just a drop in the bucket. But I can’t help wondering how much unforeseen collateral damage this will cause - it has to add up.
patrickhogan1 1y ago
Why are many shippers still getting everything through? Are they using tech like Flexport to handle the complexity? Is this a situation where if you abide by the letter of the law without tech it doesn’t work, where if you use software and/or route through nations that already have no tariff deals with US you get your items through? I just bought (last week) an EEG kit from Europe to US for personal sleep studies. It has similar metals that you indicate. There was no issue in my shipper getting it through. There was no tariff added. There was no certificate of analysis.
- mschuster91 1y ago
  Look at the rates FedEx etc. will charge you for DDP service, and there's your answer.
- post_break 1y ago
  They have teams that are dedicated to handling tariffs and imports. Smaller companies that used traditional shipping now having to jump through insane loops are just calling it quits.
  - kjs3 1y ago
    Having bumped into this world via family...even small manufacturers that do substantial portion of their business overseas often have dedicated import/export people, or contract to firms that handle it. It's just smart business. I think it's the scale and the level of uncertainty that the current round of economic chicken has the SMBs hedging.
- ranger_danger 1y ago
  > Why are larger shippers still getting everything through? Boats. They're still dealing with tariffs, but it's a lot easier to declare an entire container than individual airmail packets. But having a US presence that can then receive the containers and ship domestically, is kindof reserved for the big boys.
- zaptheimpaler 1y ago
  There's a comment asking about this on the blog that they replied to: > Mouser and Digikey have the same issues, but have professional import customs brokers and do these import procedures and handle all these charges by themselves. The average small US customer have no clue how to do import, they wait someone to deliver their parcel to their door. Which now do not happens, and after several weeks of this parcel hanging at US customs they ask the seller “where is my parcel? I ordered this way many times and every time the parcel arrived to my door” meantime they have to pay import taxes, storage fees etc etc and they simple refuse the parcel and return it back. This is why DHL and UPS refuse to take parcels to USA now until they figure out how to calculate these import tariffs correctly so they can be pre-paid in advance i.e. the US customer knows what he have to pay $$$ tariffs in advance and all these returns stop.
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    Digikey is nuts anyway. I ordered less than 100 euros worth of stuff (but still free shipping?!) for a ham radio DATV receiver kit from them and the package showed up like 30 hours later. From the US to Germany. And given just how freaking many components it was, handling of all these single-piece mini packages is insane. I seriously wonder if Digikey lost money on that order, shipping alone must have cost 20-30€, and on top come all the antistatic bags, handling costs, payment costs.
    - blackguardx 1y ago
      The Digi-key situation is funny. Going forward, ordering from Digi-key will be cheaper for europeans than for folks in the US. Digi-key operates a bonded warehouse where they don't pay tariffs until it gets shipped to a customer. ICs that are sent from China to Digi-key and then to europeans will pay no US tariffs and often with free shipping deals as you mentioned. Digi-key never offerred free shipping for US customers and now we will have to pay these high tariffs too.
    - kjs3 1y ago
      the package showed up like 30 hours later Or...they have a warehouse in Germany? all these single-piece mini packages Automated pick-and-package.
ranger_danger 1y ago
> For example, importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate. I think if the shipper can't determine the amount of copper in their products, then neither can customs.
- School-Cotton 1y ago
  From the article: > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product
- bee_rider 1y ago
  Maybe they are hoping that we’ll chicken out if they try to follow the rules correctly, at our inconvenience?
- mapontosevenths 1y ago
  Nobody being able to figure it out is the entire point. From TFA: "U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. " They WANT you to pay the full 100% in taxes.
  - phendrenad2 1y ago
    Nah, this is how government bureaucracy works (especially Trumpian bureaucracy). They rush to implement some policy, and don't think of all the various edge cases and loopholes. That's how we got Section 174 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180533). And look at how long it took for that to be repealed.
vorgol 1y ago
All scandinavic countries have stopped shipment to USA due to this (except gifts valued < $100)
craftkiller 1y ago
Well shit. I pre-ordered a risc-v motherboard from DeepComputing (Hong Kong) for my framework laptop that is supposed to ship next month. They'll likely run into these exact same issues.
- kjs3 1y ago
  I had my finger over the 'buy' button for an Omlex board when I saw this, thinking "If I want it I better order before things get weird". I was too slow avoiding the weird......
  - craftkiller 1y ago
    I knew shenanigans was going to go down so I conveyed to DeepComputing that I wanted to wait until the product was available to place my order. 1 month after that I got an email from them stating "Our product, [...] has been available for some time now" so I believed them. Turns out they meant the pre-orders were open. So even though I knew this was coming, I still managed to fall into an international pre-order situation. (FWIW I assume this was a language barrier issue leading to a misunderstanding, perhaps with a customer service rep that didn't review my past messages. I don't think DeepComputing intended to trick me.)
zaptheimpaler 1y ago
> importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate. Wow this administration is f**ing batshit insane. I thought the tariffs would be on raw metals, not anything at all that happens to contain them.
- WorkerBee28474 1y ago
  The amount of copper on a PCB is only impossible to estimate if you don't try. Otherwise, you take the PCB copper thickness that you paid for, multiply it by the surface area, and multiply it by a guess of how much remains after etching.
  - os2warpman 1y ago
    Why do you assume the person selling the PCB is the one who designed and ordered its manufacture? Olimex sells kits, kits made by others. They don't know how much copper is in the MPS430F5438 because Texas Instruments made the MPS430F5438.
  - xerp2914 1y ago
    It's not that easy according to the post: > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. This is a prime example of unnecessary complexity in international trade. Also why would they go through all that trouble? Easier to not sell there anymore.
    - kube-system 1y ago
      The two statements in the OP seem opposed to each other. Why would one need to estimate if an estimate isn't sufficient?
InitialLastName 1y ago
This whole tariff circus boils down to regulatory capture by manufacturers at the 10+-figure market cap scale. Olimex (and other small and medium businesses) can't reasonably be expected to calculate the exact material composition of their products (much less their suppliers' products); the only people who can are on the scale of Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Google whose volumes can amortize the cost of doing so on a per-product basis (and who have probably already done that analysis as part of their process control).
- softwaredoug 1y ago
  We’re living through a political revolution centralizing state and economic power. It’s almost like the pendulum swung away from the Soviet system and now we’re swinging back.
  - shafoshaf 1y ago
    This is a great podcast on philosophy in general, but this episode on Technofeudalism https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SjdkYzdSp6tHTdD2o1OAe?si=815899471d5c434d https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SjdkYzdSp6tHTdD2o1OAe?si=8... talks directly about the state of Big Tech taking over the capitalist free market. The same as is happening with large scale industries like you mention.
    - mckirk 1y ago
      I knew without clicking this would be Philosophize This. I friggin love that podcast, and keep recommending it to friends. The only problem I have with it is that I like to listen to it while driving, but I can't stop to take notes every five minutes.
      - StefanBatory 1y ago
        It makes me so happy that he's still going. I remember listening to him when I was like 15, and now I'm way older...
      - 1y ago
frereubu 1y ago
All part of this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/postal-services-suspend-us-usa-deliveries-how-will-it-affect-you https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/postal-servi... "Suspensions including from Australia and Europe come after Donald Trump removed a rule exempting parcels worth less than US$800 from his tariffs." (For some reason this isn't showing the full article to me in Firefox with uBlock Origin. There's more info here that works with that setup - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/postal-services-in-europe-suspend-parcel-shipments-to-us-amid-uncertainty-over-tariffs https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/postal-serv...).
- shafoshaf 1y ago
  To be fair, China has been widely abusing the <$800 rule for a number of years. And it really wasn't not helping either economy. Temu routinely employs forced labor and worse to give those super low prices that US companies can't compete with. https://youtu.be/quGoGgbP-aE?si=FL8pgTssEwn5qEvS&t=387 https://youtu.be/quGoGgbP-aE?si=FL8pgTssEwn5qEvS&t=387
  - sschueller 1y ago
    Yes, but it's the receiver that is supposed to handle the tariff not the sender.
  - coliveira 1y ago
    Since when forced labor was a problem for Americans? We know for decades that Diamonds are extracted with forced labor, many imported agricultural products like coffee, clothing, etc. use forced labor/minors/slave-like conditions. The US never stoped buying these products because of such issues.
    - UncleSlacky 1y ago
      Not to mention the domestic prison-industrial complex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_comp...
salted-fry 1y ago
See also: https://blog.ploopy.co/tariffs-and-us-shipping-suspension-329 https://blog.ploopy.co/tariffs-and-us-shipping-suspension-32... I got bit by this one - ordered a few days ago, thinking there might not be much time left - guess I was more right than I realized. (they're offering refunds but I'll probably let them keep the money - not like it's their fault)
litoE 1y ago
I buy a veterinary grade vaccine for my dog from Great Britain. I'm sure it contains a few micrograms of aluminum salts (those RFK Jr. doesn't like) as a stabilizer. And now I need to pay a 100% tariff on the aluminum?
- drjasonharrison 1y ago
  Probably has an aluminum ring to cap it (with a rubber-like seal that can be punctured with a needle. What about the aluminized foil-sealed bottles for pills, powders, etc.?
- badc0ffee 1y ago
  For national security.
- werdnapk 1y ago
  100% tariff on a few micrograms of aluminum shouldn't break the bank ;)
  - darth_avocado 1y ago
    > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. It’s on the whole product not just micrograms of aluminum, which could break the bank based on how much you order.
  - dummydummy1234 1y ago
    The paperwork will though.
- elbasti 1y ago
  The steel/al content is taxed only for some products. Veterinary vaccines have tariff code `3002.42.00` which is not subject to these Section 232 tariffs :)
- ink_13 1y ago
ChrisArchitect 1y ago
Related: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States (Japan Post) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517
- JdeBP 1y ago
  We're going to get loads of these on Hacker News if we're going to get it twice per country's postal system and also individually for each supplier affected in specific ways. (-: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45020661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45020661 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 There's an announcement today on the PiHut WWW site, for example. * https://thepihut.com/pages/delivery https://thepihut.com/pages/delivery Just a random Bing search turns up loads of these from the past week. * https://crooked-dice.co.uk/blogs/news/temporary-suspension-of-us-shipping https://crooked-dice.co.uk/blogs/news/temporary-suspension-o... * https://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk/pages/temp-suspension-usa-shipments https://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk/pages/temp-suspension-us... * https://coscraft.co.uk/blogs/three-nerds-in-a-shed/tariffs-on-orders-going-to-the-usa-de-minimis-removal https://coscraft.co.uk/blogs/three-nerds-in-a-shed/tariffs-o... and so on. I suspect that dang and tomhow might have to apply the "It's in the mainstream news and we have umpteen dupes." rule soon. (-:
  - ChrisArchitect 1y ago
    the point was more that there's a giant discussion about this similar topic over there already. These other country/carrier stories are all the same discussion.. tariffs, de minimis, etc.
gpm 1y ago
> otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. Do I understand this correctly that if I have a 1kg product that costs $1000... the US is trying to charge me a $1000 tariff on at most $10 [1] worth of metal? [1] Copper is the most expensive of those metals at roughly $10/kg
- chrisco255 1y ago
  If you don't go through the work of detailing your materials, then yes, they have to assume worse case as they are not going to go through each package individually and compute an accurate number for you.
  - silverliver 1y ago
    I wonder who will flinch first. I highly doubt domestic manufacturing can scale up fast enough to meet demand but It'd be fun to be proven wrong.
    - gpm 1y ago
      You're assuming domestic manufacturing will scale up... tariffing the raw inputs to manufacturing seems unlikely to do this.
      - procaryote 1y ago
        also, the tariffs have changed very rapidly for a bit now, so you can't really make multi year investments based on them
    - runako 1y ago
      I have yet to see any compelling argument for the expected source of labor for the scale-up in manufacturing. We're going the other way and reducing our labor force. In a country where people were ready to riot when service was slow at Chili's in the summer of '20, policy aimed at reducing restaurant employment seems risky.
xn 1y ago
My mother-in-law shipped us homemade jam from Slovakia. It's been stuck in customs for 3 weeks. The agents must be working diligently to assay the canning jar lids.
- phendrenad2 1y ago
  Dang, there goes my plan to smuggle RTX 3090s into the country in jelly jars! (For government agents: The above is a "joke", you surely have been introduced to this concept before they gave you the government brain chip, if not, here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke)
  - sitkack 1y ago
    Jokes are only for L80 and above citizens.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
fckfckfck 1y ago
This is insane, wtf have you Trump voters done.
- colinbartlett 1y ago
  Sorry, but this does not place enough blame on those that didn't vote (about 90 million people). I will hold responsible anyone with a heartbeat who did not vote at all in 2024.
  - jordanpg 1y ago
    But Kamala Harris was not perfect in every respect. In fact, she had several policy preferences that don't align perfectly with my own. In a lot of ways, she was just like Trump. Also, she was not a very good public speaker. /s
    - max51 1y ago
      When she tried to run in the primary in 2020, she was last place and considered a joke candidate. If even the Democrats don't like her, do you expect republicans to be charmed by her and switch sides?
      - kagakuninja 1y ago
        We hoped that the party of law and order, of Christian morality would not re-elect a convicted rapist, convicted financial fraudster, serial adulterer, pathelogical liar and instigator of America's first coup attempt. Even Liz Cheney was supporting Harris. This wasn't about "charm", it was about saving democracy. And now we are fucked...
      - 8note 1y ago
        she did get a whole ton of votes from people that didnt want trump in again.
        phendrenad2 1y ago
dyauspitr 1y ago
Disgusting, these morons have already destroyed the job market and made groceries near unaffordable. They’re on track to crash the stock market and now will destroy our global trade.
- sockp0pp3t 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - standardUser 1y ago
    No, that's not what they meant. They presumably meant what they said (see above).
  - unethical_ban 1y ago
    Completely irrelevant regardless of accuracy.
  - cosmicgadget 1y ago
    > The bureaucracy I seem to recall Trump doing the press conferences about covid response. Is he the deep state now?
  - justin66 1y ago
    > fake pandemic Well over a million people died from a communicable disease. Whatever issues you have with policy surrounding the pandemic, the nomenclature isn't controversial.
  - procone 1y ago
    I'm sorry, but 7MM reported deaths worldwide is hardly a "fake pandemic". The actual number of deaths is estimated to be 2-5x the reported amount. What are you talking about?
TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
No matter what the pretext, it should be completely clear that the only real goal of this is to damage the US economy. Just as the real effect of a vaccine ban will be to damage US health, and the real effect of dismantling government funded R&D will be to damage US education and competitiveness. I have no doubt some people believe patriotism is involved, and some large companies will get exemptions. But I also have no doubt these decisions aren't being made for the long-term benefit of the US as a whole. Or even most of it. Or even those parts of it which are currently exempt. This is Brexit++, sponsored by the same people, with similar - but much worse - lasting effects.
- StefanBatory 1y ago
  Damaging economy - and slowly, but surely, closing America from the external world. It does feel very much this way. :| American own Cultural Revolution.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- jordanpg 1y ago
  > But I also have no doubt these decisions aren't being made for the long-term benefit of the US as a whole Then why are they being made? That is the real question that in my opinion is not being discussed enough. A lot of reacting to what's happening in the US, but not enough pondering about what the real goals are here. I have my own views about this, which I used to think were somewhat conspiratorial and hyperbolic, but no more.
  - coldpie 1y ago
    The goal of Republican policy is to make the wealthy & powerful, more wealthy & powerful. As we see here, small companies can't deal with the tariff complexity, and so they turn away American customers. Large companies can handle the complexity, both by having compliance employees and lawyers who can cover over mistakes. So, Americans must do their business with the only remaining suppliers, which are the large companies who can now charge higher prices due to less competition. The mega-wealthy individuals will not suffer from any economic downturn, so it doesn't matter if their policies harm the economy.
sschueller 1y ago
The Swiss Post has also stopped shipments to the US. [1] Your only option now is to use FedEx or UPS which cost a significant amount more. [1] https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us-customs-regulations-hamper-the-shipping-of-goods-to-the-usa https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us...
- sphericalkat 1y ago
  Japan Post has stopped shipments as well https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_en.html https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_e...
- mamonster 1y ago
  Serious question: Do you ever actually ship things to the US using La Poste? I've NEVER shipped things to the US using La Poste, although the fact that I work in finance might have something to do with it.
  - sschueller 1y ago
    I have many times.
  - uncircle 1y ago
    > although the fact that I work in finance might have something to do with it What do you use to ship money overseas then?
  - AlecSchueler 1y ago
    You think they just offered the service to look good?
- tyfon 1y ago
  The Norwegian postal service as well [1]. [1] https://www.nrk.no/urix/posten-stopper-sendinger-til-usa-1.17534328 https://www.nrk.no/urix/posten-stopper-sendinger-til-usa-1.1...
amarcheschi 1y ago
FYI, poste italiane - Italian mail service - stopped shipping to USA too today or yesterday, if I had to guess other eu mail services have already followed or will follow soon
derelicta 1y ago
This is the price of freedom /s
standardUser 1y ago
We're gradually becoming a pariah state. Foreigners are afraid to visit, citizens are afraid to move freely, and more and more companies are going to stop doing business with us because of these erratic, incompetently implemented tariffs. Not to mention the daily threats of martial law. Being a US citizen used to be a perk, not a liability.
- roshin 1y ago
  US citizenship is a big liability for citizens living abroad. Our banks have to report how much money we have to an American criminal monitor. The fines of doing it improperly are so draconian that some financial institutions have refused to work with Americans for many years already. We have to file and sometimes even pay taxes on money earned abroad. We are practically forbidden from investing in many products that someone living abroad would typically do.
tritipsocial 1y ago
Let's do the math for a raspberry pi sized board: Dimensions: 85 mm x 56 mm Area: 4760 mm^2 or 7.38 in^2 Copper: 4 x 1oz layers Copper Weight: 0.205 oz = 0.013lb Copper price: 0.013 * $4.50/lb = $0.0585 And that doesn't include the copper removed by etching. So if they paid a 6c tariff on each raspberry pi board, they'd be overpaying. Can they generate a certificate claiming each board contains no more than this amount of copper, overpay the tariff by a few pennies, and carry on?
- TZubiri 1y ago
  It was easiest to do some napkin math than throwing their hands in the air and writing a blog post. I suspect this is more about politics than it is about international trade. If you've ever done imports you know that there's a substantial amount of paperwork and compliance, demanding that products state their composition doesn't seem extraordinary at all. Maybe OP should try consulting what regulations food exporters must follow.
- thisisit 1y ago
  Repeating my comment. That is not how this works. Governments ask for something like a metal spectrometer analysis of components. They might even say each batch needs to be analyzed and we trust analysis from spectrometers manufactured and/or operated in US. Each condition raising the price for certificate/analysis even more. Or directly from the post > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product.
  - runako 1y ago
    Do they have to do this each time they change the composition of the board? What about if they just move/change the layout of the copper traces?
  - tritipsocial 1y ago
    I don't believe your claim that governments ask for something like a metal spectrometer analysis, especially since Digikey hasn't reported the same disruptions. There's no way Digikey did this for all 16.5 million parts. In later comments on their blog they admitted they didn't even file the paperwork and left it up to the customer, who obviously wouldn't know how, causing the part to get stuck in customs. It's a frustrating situation for them but there's no way CBP is making people break out lab equipment to import a PCB.
mvieira38 1y ago
Love this for the US. I hope many more companies follow the example
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  They probably will, temporarily, before they lock down a method of passing on the cost to the importer, and continuing business as usual. If companies didn't leave the userbase of the EU over their (arguably) restrictive fines and regulations, no way they'll let some tarriffs interrupt their business opportunities.
czhu12 1y ago
how do situations like this typically progress in high tariff countries? I know for instance Brazil has a high tariff rate on certain imports. Does a black market typically spring up to fill the gap? It's hard to imagine that can happen here, no matter how bad the tariffs got.
- adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
  poorly
- carlosjobim 1y ago
  The European Union has been a high tariff zone for a long time, so you can study their situation.
  - jddj 1y ago
    Are you referring to VAT?
    - carlosjobim 1y ago
      Steel. The EU started out as a steel customs union, and has always had high import duties on steel, which is the subject matter of the article. Just a few months ago, the European Commission put on new, massive tariffs on Asian steel manufacturers. So I guess I invite all hackers here to freak out, scream about "Bat shit insane fascist!", tear their own hair, etc. Especially since an eight of the EU budget comes from tariffs. Or quietly ignore the facts and wait to jump onto the next outrage bandwagon.
dsign 1y ago
Economy is the realm of unseen connections and unexpected consequences. If USA's tariffs look obviously troublesome, I'm probably just seeing the tip of the shark fin of this black swan as it swims under the water. I have this feeling in my bones that this is gonna bring the mother of all recessions, and not only to USA.
- CheeseFromLidl 1y ago
  Adam Curtis recently released his series “Shifty” (it’s on YT). It portrays what happened when Tatcher stuck a crowbar in the economic machinery. The series shows the aftermath.
MandieD 1y ago
Deutsche Post/DHL Standard shipping to the US from Germany is off for all commercial goods as well as gifts worth more than $100 (85 EUR); DHL Express is still accepting shipments, but is far more expensive - going from 27 EUR for a 2kg parcel to 82 EUR.
- namibj 1y ago
  Worse: the 16€ option only curtailed in tracking& insurance, along with a secret height limit (35x25x3 cm limit), is now unavailable for shipping say a singular music CD, or an issue of a magazine. Sure, paying on the order of the goods value in shipping isn't cheap, but that's niche imports for you. Now, paying 5x? That's no longer reasonably.
varelse 1y ago
[dead]
sitkack 1y ago
Congress should be setting tariff rules. Regardless of your political philosophy, these tariffs will crash the economy and move innovation out of the US.
- wrs 1y ago
  Congress does set tariff rules. Tell Congress to start enforcing its authority and end the fake “emergency” that supposedly justifies this executive override, otherwise it doesn’t really matter who’s nominally in charge.
- techpineapple 1y ago
  I mean, someone will get rich off that, which may be all that person cares about.
the_mitsuhiko 1y ago
It has been pretty challenging to ship to the US already for a few weeks. Unless it’s a gift with a value under 100 USD most EU postal services will no longer let you mail to the US due to the customs chaos. It’s really frustrating if you need to ship stuff around as an individual.
bethekidyouwant 1y ago
“otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. This is a prime example of unnecessary complexity in international trade.” Pay me 20$ i will tell you the upper limit and then bobs your uncle, you can change your customers the added cost.
pradn 1y ago
How can anyone actually defend these silly, self-defeating tariff maneuvers?
thedogeye 1y ago
Flexport’s tariff simulator accounts for the 232 requirements: Tariffs.flexport.com It’s free even for non Flexport customers.
rand17 1y ago
Good. I have removed the USA from my mental map, with its petty little money hungry king. In the meantime China delivers on promises, in time, high quality gadgets, toys and metalworks, with excellent customer service and care.
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  Thanks for sharing.
danny_codes 1y ago
“What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.” protectionists tariffs are an interesting gun with which to shoot one’s own foot off. Good for China though. They get to take over as the central trading entity, and they didn’t have to do anything! We shot our own foot off. Both stable and genius
- fuzzfactor 1y ago
  Well you can sanction an adversary or a nemesis or you can sanction yourself. Sometimes it doesn't make any difference because it's the same action. How can you get more stable than that?
dang 1y ago
Recent and related. Others? Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 - Aug 2025 (351 comments) Australia Post halts transit shipping to US as 'chaotic' tariff deadline looms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 - Aug 2025 (173 comments)
lvl155 1y ago
Didn’t you guys on Silicon Valley vote for this? If I remember correctly, this whole thing was managed by the libertarians of the tech industry. Own it.
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  Why would these supoosed libertarians vote to restrict free trade?
- EasyMark 1y ago
  This policy has nothing to do to libertarianism, it actually the opposite of what a libertarian president and government would do.
  - lvl155 1y ago
    Yeah that’s my point.
rkagerer 1y ago
...importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials I ordered a lock and some keys valued at about $400, and paid an extra $400 in duties because of this. It's insane.
- kacesensitive 1y ago
  Wait consumers are paying the tariffs??
  - baggachipz 1y ago
    That's what has been said since the beginning of this madness. People don't understand how this works, and took the word of a corrupt madman.
  - jrochkind1 1y ago
    Whoever imports pays the tarriff. If you order something over the internet from someone not in the US, that's the consumer. There is a lot more direct consumer ordering from international vendors now than there was 20 years ago of course, for obvious reasons. Note Aug 29th is also the end of the "de minimus" rules for import duties, where a shipment worth less than $800 was exempt from import taxes and duties. Some tariffs and other import taxes have always existed, but that's why you rarely saw them when ordering consumer goods internationally to the USA, if it was worth less than $800 they were skipped. That's going away, you'll be paying import taxes on every international shipment you order directly as a consumer, even if it's a $25 t-shirt -- exactly how you pay these, at what point they are calculated by who (even how to calculate them?), and who invoices you how and when as a consumer -- well that's what nobody including international shippers have figured out yet, which is what the OP is saying means they can't really ship internationally to consumers in the USA for the time being. it's gonna be a clusterfuck. Turns out maybe there's a reason there aren't usually major changes to whole structure of import taxes made with only months notice, and tweaks and changes to them still being made only weeks/days before implementation, with no real implementation guidance provided?
    - 1y ago
jrochkind1 1y ago
Even aside from the advisability of the tariffs -- it turns out there might be a reason that tarrifs haven't usually been imposed with like weeks notice, after months of back and forth, with no real advance implementation planning on the government's part and not enough time or reliable info for anyone else to do so either? It is very strange to me that the government seems to be going for maximum shock and uncertainty on the US economy. Again, apart from the advisability of the actual tarrifs, they could have been implemented in the usual way to allow people to plan for them (and possibly give feedback on them), but they were not.
- ModernMech 1y ago
  > It is very strange to me that the government seems to be going for maximum shock and uncertainty on the US economy. Again, apart from the advisability of the actual tarrifs, they could have been implemented in the usual way to allow people to plan for them (and possibly give feedback on them), but they were not. It's only strange to you because you don't understand the purpose of government anymore. It's changed -- before, the government was supposed to protect and provide for the citizenry. Provide military defense, manage the economy for everyone's economic benefit, and part of that work was maintaining global order and stability. That's not its purpose anymore. Now, the purpose of the government is to provide for Trump's security, to provide for Trump's stability, and to maintain a global order where his will rises above all others. To that end, economic instability is a feature, not a bug. Trump loves it when the world is off kilter, because they perceive that in order to achieve stability, they must assuage him personally with gifts, bribes, and praise. Witness the Qatari jet bribe, Tim Cook's oval office visit where he gave a bribe, and the cabinet meeting yesterday which was 4 hours of everyone praising Trump rather than talking about the business of the country. America is now a dictatorship, Trump is the dictator, and the country/economy will only be as stable as his ego allows. Which, after watching the guy for 10 years, means nothing will be stable again until he's gone for good.
- sumeno 1y ago
  If your goal was to see the US recede as the global economic leader you couldn't create a better playbook than the one being done by this administration.
tlogan 1y ago
I just want to explain how I understand this, and please correct me if I am wrong. In theory, importers have been required to provide a Certificate of Analysis (COA) since around 2003. This comes from federal TSCA regulations as well as California’s RoHS requirements (bill SB 20). But in practice, nobody really followed those rules because they could claim the “de minimis” import exemption. The problem now is that Trump issued Executive Order 14324, “Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries.” This means that shipments valued at $800 or less from any country are no longer eligible for de minimis treatment. So in order to properly calculate taxes you need CoA.
- jeremyjh 1y ago
  And no one is going to update their systems because TACO.
lgleason 1y ago
The goal is to encourage people to make things in the US and they are plugging the large hole first. It will be interesting to see if they also apply more customs scrutiny to checked luggage for air travel when returning to the United States. Right now they are not. But, if you go to places like Costa Rica, which has had high tariffs on many imports for years, they make you scan all of your luggage when you enter the country and will stop and scrutinize what you are bringing in. CR will also periodically have raids on retailers who obtained goods that circumvented customers via things like clandestine border crossings. There will be some secondary challenges with enforcement of this as some decide to roll the dice, import illegally and hope to not get caught. If there is enough of a price difference between buying something with a high tariff in the US vs locally I can also see some people travelling to Mexico or Canada to buy some higher dollar smaller items if the cost savings offsets the trip.
- overfeed 1y ago
  Organized crime also thrives arbitraging the tariffs by smuggling imports. The Sinaloa cartel may discover there's more money to be made smuggling copper compared to Colombia's finest.
  - rchaud 1y ago
    that's one way of bringing Mexican jobs to America.
- rchaud 1y ago
  and as the experience of every democratic developing country has shown, all this will do is create a new layer of corruption where smuggled goods will be let in for a bribe, while the infant industry strategy largely falls flat due to the above black market workarounds and lax enforcement standards.
Scoundreller 1y ago
Many Canadians (90% of us live within 100km of US border) have the concept of an “Amerifriend”. A US relative/friend they utilize to get cheaper US goods shipped to and pick up on visits. Most border towns have shops that will receive and hold orders for pickup for a small fee. I wonder if this will reverse where Americans send to their Canadian friend to pickup. Canadian retail has been pretty dumb/expensive. Much Cheaper to buy from US for auto parts than buy local, even though virtually none is made in USA. I wonder if tariffs will eliminate that price advantage.
nostromo 1y ago
I'm sure this will be painful for a lot of people and that sucks. But drop-shipping into the U.S. has been absurdly one-sided for years. Americans have been subsidizing it through taxes and mailing rates our own government negotiated, and that basically fucked over American small businesses for decades. It’s been dramatically cheaper to ship items from Shenzhen to Anytown, USA than to mail something across town. That killed domestic mail-order growth and flooded us with mountains of plastic Temu junk instead. It's obvious that it should be more expensive to ship from China to the US than from the US to the US. It no longer makes sense to subsidize these rates and the entire system needs to be rethought.
- redox99 1y ago
  DHL and UPS are generally not subsidized. Usually it's when USPS is involved.
- Yeul 1y ago
  The American economy is not collapsing because of cheap TEMU crap from China. So what we are left with is pure ideological pseudo fascist BS that boils down to "real men work in factories"
charcircuit 1y ago
>U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product) https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/entry-summary/232-tariffs-aluminum-and-steel-faqs https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/entry-summ... >At this time, CBP does not require an aluminum certificate of analysis to be filed at the time of entry. This does not read as a demand.
mrjay42 1y ago
I know this is besides the point but this is probably one of the ugliest website I've seen in a long while. Why would someone choose a dirty-yellow background :sob:
anon6362 1y ago
Don't worry, the Oval Office regime will find new ways to turn America into a pariah state that only trades with Russia.
EasyMark 1y ago
I've got a lot of neat stuff from them over the years. It's a sad day as the the US looks inward, isolates trade and betrays allies and goes down a path of totalitarianism and extremism to please the ego of a mad Orange and his followers.

647 points by CTOSian 1y ago

gck1 1y ago

I’m not in the US, but I had to order a bunch of hard drives from a US retailer. My country imports almost all electronics from the US through freight forwarding, and probably more than 90% of my online spending is with US retailers too. The problem now is that nobody - including retailers and shipping companies - really knows how returns will be handled if the drives need servicing under warranty. The transport companies here are saying everything has to be declared down to the molecular level, and no matter what it is - even a return - tariffs and broker fees still have to be paid. So it looks like I’ll have to halt importing from the US anything that comes with a warranty. The funny thing is, with all the crazy taxation the EU already has, US tariffs make importing from the EU actually cheaper once you factor in potential returns. Granted, I live in a tiny country, and for the US economy this is probably just a drop in the bucket. But I can’t help wondering how much unforeseen collateral damage this will cause - it has to add up.

patrickhogan1 1y ago

Why are many shippers still getting everything through? Are they using tech like Flexport to handle the complexity? Is this a situation where if you abide by the letter of the law without tech it doesn’t work, where if you use software and/or route through nations that already have no tariff deals with US you get your items through? I just bought (last week) an EEG kit from Europe to US for personal sleep studies. It has similar metals that you indicate. There was no issue in my shipper getting it through. There was no tariff added. There was no certificate of analysis.

mschuster91 1y ago
Look at the rates FedEx etc. will charge you for DDP service, and there's your answer.
post_break 1y ago
They have teams that are dedicated to handling tariffs and imports. Smaller companies that used traditional shipping now having to jump through insane loops are just calling it quits.
- kjs3 1y ago
  Having bumped into this world via family...even small manufacturers that do substantial portion of their business overseas often have dedicated import/export people, or contract to firms that handle it. It's just smart business. I think it's the scale and the level of uncertainty that the current round of economic chicken has the SMBs hedging.
ranger_danger 1y ago
> Why are larger shippers still getting everything through? Boats. They're still dealing with tariffs, but it's a lot easier to declare an entire container than individual airmail packets. But having a US presence that can then receive the containers and ship domestically, is kindof reserved for the big boys.
zaptheimpaler 1y ago
There's a comment asking about this on the blog that they replied to: > Mouser and Digikey have the same issues, but have professional import customs brokers and do these import procedures and handle all these charges by themselves. The average small US customer have no clue how to do import, they wait someone to deliver their parcel to their door. Which now do not happens, and after several weeks of this parcel hanging at US customs they ask the seller “where is my parcel? I ordered this way many times and every time the parcel arrived to my door” meantime they have to pay import taxes, storage fees etc etc and they simple refuse the parcel and return it back. This is why DHL and UPS refuse to take parcels to USA now until they figure out how to calculate these import tariffs correctly so they can be pre-paid in advance i.e. the US customer knows what he have to pay $$$ tariffs in advance and all these returns stop.
- mschuster91 1y ago
  Digikey is nuts anyway. I ordered less than 100 euros worth of stuff (but still free shipping?!) for a ham radio DATV receiver kit from them and the package showed up like 30 hours later. From the US to Germany. And given just how freaking many components it was, handling of all these single-piece mini packages is insane. I seriously wonder if Digikey lost money on that order, shipping alone must have cost 20-30€, and on top come all the antistatic bags, handling costs, payment costs.
  - blackguardx 1y ago
    The Digi-key situation is funny. Going forward, ordering from Digi-key will be cheaper for europeans than for folks in the US. Digi-key operates a bonded warehouse where they don't pay tariffs until it gets shipped to a customer. ICs that are sent from China to Digi-key and then to europeans will pay no US tariffs and often with free shipping deals as you mentioned. Digi-key never offerred free shipping for US customers and now we will have to pay these high tariffs too.
  - kjs3 1y ago
    the package showed up like 30 hours later Or...they have a warehouse in Germany? all these single-piece mini packages Automated pick-and-package.

ranger_danger 1y ago

> For example, importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate. I think if the shipper can't determine the amount of copper in their products, then neither can customs.

School-Cotton 1y ago
From the article: > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product
bee_rider 1y ago
Maybe they are hoping that we’ll chicken out if they try to follow the rules correctly, at our inconvenience?
mapontosevenths 1y ago
Nobody being able to figure it out is the entire point. From TFA: "U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. " They WANT you to pay the full 100% in taxes.
- phendrenad2 1y ago
  Nah, this is how government bureaucracy works (especially Trumpian bureaucracy). They rush to implement some policy, and don't think of all the various edge cases and loopholes. That's how we got Section 174 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44180533). And look at how long it took for that to be repealed.

vorgol 1y ago

All scandinavic countries have stopped shipment to USA due to this (except gifts valued < $100)

craftkiller 1y ago

Well shit. I pre-ordered a risc-v motherboard from DeepComputing (Hong Kong) for my framework laptop that is supposed to ship next month. They'll likely run into these exact same issues.

kjs3 1y ago
I had my finger over the 'buy' button for an Omlex board when I saw this, thinking "If I want it I better order before things get weird". I was too slow avoiding the weird......
- craftkiller 1y ago
  I knew shenanigans was going to go down so I conveyed to DeepComputing that I wanted to wait until the product was available to place my order. 1 month after that I got an email from them stating "Our product, [...] has been available for some time now" so I believed them. Turns out they meant the pre-orders were open. So even though I knew this was coming, I still managed to fall into an international pre-order situation. (FWIW I assume this was a language barrier issue leading to a misunderstanding, perhaps with a customer service rep that didn't review my past messages. I don't think DeepComputing intended to trick me.)

zaptheimpaler 1y ago

> importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate. Wow this administration is f**ing batshit insane. I thought the tariffs would be on raw metals, not anything at all that happens to contain them.

WorkerBee28474 1y ago
The amount of copper on a PCB is only impossible to estimate if you don't try. Otherwise, you take the PCB copper thickness that you paid for, multiply it by the surface area, and multiply it by a guess of how much remains after etching.
- os2warpman 1y ago
  Why do you assume the person selling the PCB is the one who designed and ordered its manufacture? Olimex sells kits, kits made by others. They don't know how much copper is in the MPS430F5438 because Texas Instruments made the MPS430F5438.
- xerp2914 1y ago
  It's not that easy according to the post: > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. This is a prime example of unnecessary complexity in international trade. Also why would they go through all that trouble? Easier to not sell there anymore.
  - kube-system 1y ago
    The two statements in the OP seem opposed to each other. Why would one need to estimate if an estimate isn't sufficient?

InitialLastName 1y ago

This whole tariff circus boils down to regulatory capture by manufacturers at the 10+-figure market cap scale. Olimex (and other small and medium businesses) can't reasonably be expected to calculate the exact material composition of their products (much less their suppliers' products); the only people who can are on the scale of Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Google whose volumes can amortize the cost of doing so on a per-product basis (and who have probably already done that analysis as part of their process control).

softwaredoug 1y ago
We’re living through a political revolution centralizing state and economic power. It’s almost like the pendulum swung away from the Soviet system and now we’re swinging back.
- shafoshaf 1y ago
  This is a great podcast on philosophy in general, but this episode on Technofeudalism https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SjdkYzdSp6tHTdD2o1OAe?si=815899471d5c434d https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SjdkYzdSp6tHTdD2o1OAe?si=8... talks directly about the state of Big Tech taking over the capitalist free market. The same as is happening with large scale industries like you mention.
  - mckirk 1y ago
    I knew without clicking this would be Philosophize This. I friggin love that podcast, and keep recommending it to friends. The only problem I have with it is that I like to listen to it while driving, but I can't stop to take notes every five minutes.
    - StefanBatory 1y ago
      It makes me so happy that he's still going. I remember listening to him when I was like 15, and now I'm way older...
    - 1y ago

frereubu 1y ago

All part of this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/postal-services-suspend-us-usa-deliveries-how-will-it-affect-you https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/postal-servi... "Suspensions including from Australia and Europe come after Donald Trump removed a rule exempting parcels worth less than US$800 from his tariffs." (For some reason this isn't showing the full article to me in Firefox with uBlock Origin. There's more info here that works with that setup - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/postal-services-in-europe-suspend-parcel-shipments-to-us-amid-uncertainty-over-tariffs https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/25/postal-serv...).

shafoshaf 1y ago
To be fair, China has been widely abusing the <$800 rule for a number of years. And it really wasn't not helping either economy. Temu routinely employs forced labor and worse to give those super low prices that US companies can't compete with. https://youtu.be/quGoGgbP-aE?si=FL8pgTssEwn5qEvS&t=387 https://youtu.be/quGoGgbP-aE?si=FL8pgTssEwn5qEvS&t=387
- sschueller 1y ago
  Yes, but it's the receiver that is supposed to handle the tariff not the sender.
- coliveira 1y ago
  Since when forced labor was a problem for Americans? We know for decades that Diamonds are extracted with forced labor, many imported agricultural products like coffee, clothing, etc. use forced labor/minors/slave-like conditions. The US never stoped buying these products because of such issues.
  - UncleSlacky 1y ago
    Not to mention the domestic prison-industrial complex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_comp...

salted-fry 1y ago

See also: https://blog.ploopy.co/tariffs-and-us-shipping-suspension-329 https://blog.ploopy.co/tariffs-and-us-shipping-suspension-32... I got bit by this one - ordered a few days ago, thinking there might not be much time left - guess I was more right than I realized. (they're offering refunds but I'll probably let them keep the money - not like it's their fault)

litoE 1y ago

I buy a veterinary grade vaccine for my dog from Great Britain. I'm sure it contains a few micrograms of aluminum salts (those RFK Jr. doesn't like) as a stabilizer. And now I need to pay a 100% tariff on the aluminum?

drjasonharrison 1y ago
Probably has an aluminum ring to cap it (with a rubber-like seal that can be punctured with a needle. What about the aluminized foil-sealed bottles for pills, powders, etc.?
badc0ffee 1y ago
For national security.
werdnapk 1y ago
100% tariff on a few micrograms of aluminum shouldn't break the bank ;)
- darth_avocado 1y ago
  > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. It’s on the whole product not just micrograms of aluminum, which could break the bank based on how much you order.
- dummydummy1234 1y ago
  The paperwork will though.
elbasti 1y ago
The steel/al content is taxed only for some products. Veterinary vaccines have tariff code `3002.42.00` which is not subject to these Section 232 tariffs :)
ink_13 1y ago

ChrisArchitect 1y ago

Related: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States (Japan Post) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517

JdeBP 1y ago
We're going to get loads of these on Hacker News if we're going to get it twice per country's postal system and also individually for each supplier affected in specific ways. (-: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45020661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45020661 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 There's an announcement today on the PiHut WWW site, for example. * https://thepihut.com/pages/delivery https://thepihut.com/pages/delivery Just a random Bing search turns up loads of these from the past week. * https://crooked-dice.co.uk/blogs/news/temporary-suspension-of-us-shipping https://crooked-dice.co.uk/blogs/news/temporary-suspension-o... * https://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk/pages/temp-suspension-usa-shipments https://www.elgrecominiatures.co.uk/pages/temp-suspension-us... * https://coscraft.co.uk/blogs/three-nerds-in-a-shed/tariffs-on-orders-going-to-the-usa-de-minimis-removal https://coscraft.co.uk/blogs/three-nerds-in-a-shed/tariffs-o... and so on. I suspect that dang and tomhow might have to apply the "It's in the mainstream news and we have umpteen dupes." rule soon. (-:
- ChrisArchitect 1y ago
  the point was more that there's a giant discussion about this similar topic over there already. These other country/carrier stories are all the same discussion.. tariffs, de minimis, etc.

gpm 1y ago

> otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. Do I understand this correctly that if I have a 1kg product that costs $1000... the US is trying to charge me a $1000 tariff on at most $10 [1] worth of metal? [1] Copper is the most expensive of those metals at roughly $10/kg

chrisco255 1y ago
If you don't go through the work of detailing your materials, then yes, they have to assume worse case as they are not going to go through each package individually and compute an accurate number for you.
- silverliver 1y ago
  I wonder who will flinch first. I highly doubt domestic manufacturing can scale up fast enough to meet demand but It'd be fun to be proven wrong.
  - gpm 1y ago
    You're assuming domestic manufacturing will scale up... tariffing the raw inputs to manufacturing seems unlikely to do this.
    - procaryote 1y ago
      also, the tariffs have changed very rapidly for a bit now, so you can't really make multi year investments based on them
  - runako 1y ago
    I have yet to see any compelling argument for the expected source of labor for the scale-up in manufacturing. We're going the other way and reducing our labor force. In a country where people were ready to riot when service was slow at Chili's in the summer of '20, policy aimed at reducing restaurant employment seems risky.

xn 1y ago

My mother-in-law shipped us homemade jam from Slovakia. It's been stuck in customs for 3 weeks. The agents must be working diligently to assay the canning jar lids.

phendrenad2 1y ago
Dang, there goes my plan to smuggle RTX 3090s into the country in jelly jars! (For government agents: The above is a "joke", you surely have been introduced to this concept before they gave you the government brain chip, if not, here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke)
- sitkack 1y ago
  Jokes are only for L80 and above citizens.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

fckfckfck 1y ago

This is insane, wtf have you Trump voters done.

colinbartlett 1y ago
Sorry, but this does not place enough blame on those that didn't vote (about 90 million people). I will hold responsible anyone with a heartbeat who did not vote at all in 2024.
- jordanpg 1y ago
  But Kamala Harris was not perfect in every respect. In fact, she had several policy preferences that don't align perfectly with my own. In a lot of ways, she was just like Trump. Also, she was not a very good public speaker. /s
  - max51 1y ago
    When she tried to run in the primary in 2020, she was last place and considered a joke candidate. If even the Democrats don't like her, do you expect republicans to be charmed by her and switch sides?
    - kagakuninja 1y ago
      We hoped that the party of law and order, of Christian morality would not re-elect a convicted rapist, convicted financial fraudster, serial adulterer, pathelogical liar and instigator of America's first coup attempt. Even Liz Cheney was supporting Harris. This wasn't about "charm", it was about saving democracy. And now we are fucked...
    - 8note 1y ago
      she did get a whole ton of votes from people that didnt want trump in again.
      - phendrenad2 1y ago

dyauspitr 1y ago

Disgusting, these morons have already destroyed the job market and made groceries near unaffordable. They’re on track to crash the stock market and now will destroy our global trade.

sockp0pp3t 1y ago
[flagged]
- standardUser 1y ago
  No, that's not what they meant. They presumably meant what they said (see above).
- unethical_ban 1y ago
  Completely irrelevant regardless of accuracy.
- cosmicgadget 1y ago
  > The bureaucracy I seem to recall Trump doing the press conferences about covid response. Is he the deep state now?
- justin66 1y ago
  > fake pandemic Well over a million people died from a communicable disease. Whatever issues you have with policy surrounding the pandemic, the nomenclature isn't controversial.
- procone 1y ago
  I'm sorry, but 7MM reported deaths worldwide is hardly a "fake pandemic". The actual number of deaths is estimated to be 2-5x the reported amount. What are you talking about?

TheOtherHobbes 1y ago

No matter what the pretext, it should be completely clear that the only real goal of this is to damage the US economy. Just as the real effect of a vaccine ban will be to damage US health, and the real effect of dismantling government funded R&D will be to damage US education and competitiveness. I have no doubt some people believe patriotism is involved, and some large companies will get exemptions. But I also have no doubt these decisions aren't being made for the long-term benefit of the US as a whole. Or even most of it. Or even those parts of it which are currently exempt. This is Brexit++, sponsored by the same people, with similar - but much worse - lasting effects.

StefanBatory 1y ago
Damaging economy - and slowly, but surely, closing America from the external world. It does feel very much this way. :| American own Cultural Revolution.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
jordanpg 1y ago
> But I also have no doubt these decisions aren't being made for the long-term benefit of the US as a whole Then why are they being made? That is the real question that in my opinion is not being discussed enough. A lot of reacting to what's happening in the US, but not enough pondering about what the real goals are here. I have my own views about this, which I used to think were somewhat conspiratorial and hyperbolic, but no more.
- coldpie 1y ago
  The goal of Republican policy is to make the wealthy & powerful, more wealthy & powerful. As we see here, small companies can't deal with the tariff complexity, and so they turn away American customers. Large companies can handle the complexity, both by having compliance employees and lawyers who can cover over mistakes. So, Americans must do their business with the only remaining suppliers, which are the large companies who can now charge higher prices due to less competition. The mega-wealthy individuals will not suffer from any economic downturn, so it doesn't matter if their policies harm the economy.

sschueller 1y ago

The Swiss Post has also stopped shipments to the US. [1] Your only option now is to use FedEx or UPS which cost a significant amount more. [1] https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us-customs-regulations-hamper-the-shipping-of-goods-to-the-usa https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us...

sphericalkat 1y ago
Japan Post has stopped shipments as well https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_en.html https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2025/0825_01_e...
mamonster 1y ago
Serious question: Do you ever actually ship things to the US using La Poste? I've NEVER shipped things to the US using La Poste, although the fact that I work in finance might have something to do with it.
- sschueller 1y ago
  I have many times.
- uncircle 1y ago
  > although the fact that I work in finance might have something to do with it What do you use to ship money overseas then?
- AlecSchueler 1y ago
  You think they just offered the service to look good?
tyfon 1y ago
The Norwegian postal service as well [1]. [1] https://www.nrk.no/urix/posten-stopper-sendinger-til-usa-1.17534328 https://www.nrk.no/urix/posten-stopper-sendinger-til-usa-1.1...

amarcheschi 1y ago

FYI, poste italiane - Italian mail service - stopped shipping to USA too today or yesterday, if I had to guess other eu mail services have already followed or will follow soon

derelicta 1y ago

This is the price of freedom /s

standardUser 1y ago

We're gradually becoming a pariah state. Foreigners are afraid to visit, citizens are afraid to move freely, and more and more companies are going to stop doing business with us because of these erratic, incompetently implemented tariffs. Not to mention the daily threats of martial law. Being a US citizen used to be a perk, not a liability.

roshin 1y ago
US citizenship is a big liability for citizens living abroad. Our banks have to report how much money we have to an American criminal monitor. The fines of doing it improperly are so draconian that some financial institutions have refused to work with Americans for many years already. We have to file and sometimes even pay taxes on money earned abroad. We are practically forbidden from investing in many products that someone living abroad would typically do.

tritipsocial 1y ago

Let's do the math for a raspberry pi sized board: Dimensions: 85 mm x 56 mm Area: 4760 mm^2 or 7.38 in^2 Copper: 4 x 1oz layers Copper Weight: 0.205 oz = 0.013lb Copper price: 0.013 * $4.50/lb = $0.0585 And that doesn't include the copper removed by etching. So if they paid a 6c tariff on each raspberry pi board, they'd be overpaying. Can they generate a certificate claiming each board contains no more than this amount of copper, overpay the tariff by a few pennies, and carry on?

TZubiri 1y ago
It was easiest to do some napkin math than throwing their hands in the air and writing a blog post. I suspect this is more about politics than it is about international trade. If you've ever done imports you know that there's a substantial amount of paperwork and compliance, demanding that products state their composition doesn't seem extraordinary at all. Maybe OP should try consulting what regulations food exporters must follow.
thisisit 1y ago
Repeating my comment. That is not how this works. Governments ask for something like a metal spectrometer analysis of components. They might even say each batch needs to be analyzed and we trust analysis from spectrometers manufactured and/or operated in US. Each condition raising the price for certificate/analysis even more. Or directly from the post > U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product), otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product.
- runako 1y ago
  Do they have to do this each time they change the composition of the board? What about if they just move/change the layout of the copper traces?
- tritipsocial 1y ago
  I don't believe your claim that governments ask for something like a metal spectrometer analysis, especially since Digikey hasn't reported the same disruptions. There's no way Digikey did this for all 16.5 million parts. In later comments on their blog they admitted they didn't even file the paperwork and left it up to the customer, who obviously wouldn't know how, causing the part to get stuck in customs. It's a frustrating situation for them but there's no way CBP is making people break out lab equipment to import a PCB.

mvieira38 1y ago

Love this for the US. I hope many more companies follow the example

DaSHacka 1y ago
They probably will, temporarily, before they lock down a method of passing on the cost to the importer, and continuing business as usual. If companies didn't leave the userbase of the EU over their (arguably) restrictive fines and regulations, no way they'll let some tarriffs interrupt their business opportunities.

czhu12 1y ago

how do situations like this typically progress in high tariff countries? I know for instance Brazil has a high tariff rate on certain imports. Does a black market typically spring up to fill the gap? It's hard to imagine that can happen here, no matter how bad the tariffs got.

adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
poorly
carlosjobim 1y ago
The European Union has been a high tariff zone for a long time, so you can study their situation.
- jddj 1y ago
  Are you referring to VAT?
  - carlosjobim 1y ago
    Steel. The EU started out as a steel customs union, and has always had high import duties on steel, which is the subject matter of the article. Just a few months ago, the European Commission put on new, massive tariffs on Asian steel manufacturers. So I guess I invite all hackers here to freak out, scream about "Bat shit insane fascist!", tear their own hair, etc. Especially since an eight of the EU budget comes from tariffs. Or quietly ignore the facts and wait to jump onto the next outrage bandwagon.

dsign 1y ago

Economy is the realm of unseen connections and unexpected consequences. If USA's tariffs look obviously troublesome, I'm probably just seeing the tip of the shark fin of this black swan as it swims under the water. I have this feeling in my bones that this is gonna bring the mother of all recessions, and not only to USA.

CheeseFromLidl 1y ago
Adam Curtis recently released his series “Shifty” (it’s on YT). It portrays what happened when Tatcher stuck a crowbar in the economic machinery. The series shows the aftermath.

MandieD 1y ago

Deutsche Post/DHL Standard shipping to the US from Germany is off for all commercial goods as well as gifts worth more than $100 (85 EUR); DHL Express is still accepting shipments, but is far more expensive - going from 27 EUR for a 2kg parcel to 82 EUR.

namibj 1y ago
Worse: the 16€ option only curtailed in tracking& insurance, along with a secret height limit (35x25x3 cm limit), is now unavailable for shipping say a singular music CD, or an issue of a magazine. Sure, paying on the order of the goods value in shipping isn't cheap, but that's niche imports for you. Now, paying 5x? That's no longer reasonably.

varelse 1y ago

[dead]

sitkack 1y ago

Congress should be setting tariff rules. Regardless of your political philosophy, these tariffs will crash the economy and move innovation out of the US.

wrs 1y ago
Congress does set tariff rules. Tell Congress to start enforcing its authority and end the fake “emergency” that supposedly justifies this executive override, otherwise it doesn’t really matter who’s nominally in charge.
techpineapple 1y ago
I mean, someone will get rich off that, which may be all that person cares about.

the_mitsuhiko 1y ago

It has been pretty challenging to ship to the US already for a few weeks. Unless it’s a gift with a value under 100 USD most EU postal services will no longer let you mail to the US due to the customs chaos. It’s really frustrating if you need to ship stuff around as an individual.

bethekidyouwant 1y ago

“otherwise they assume the entire PCB consists of copper, aluminum, and steel, and charge a 100% tariff on the whole product. This is a prime example of unnecessary complexity in international trade.” Pay me 20$ i will tell you the upper limit and then bobs your uncle, you can change your customers the added cost.

pradn 1y ago

How can anyone actually defend these silly, self-defeating tariff maneuvers?

thedogeye 1y ago

Flexport’s tariff simulator accounts for the 232 requirements: Tariffs.flexport.com It’s free even for non Flexport customers.

rand17 1y ago

Good. I have removed the USA from my mental map, with its petty little money hungry king. In the meantime China delivers on promises, in time, high quality gadgets, toys and metalworks, with excellent customer service and care.

DaSHacka 1y ago
Thanks for sharing.

danny_codes 1y ago

“What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.” protectionists tariffs are an interesting gun with which to shoot one’s own foot off. Good for China though. They get to take over as the central trading entity, and they didn’t have to do anything! We shot our own foot off. Both stable and genius

fuzzfactor 1y ago
Well you can sanction an adversary or a nemesis or you can sanction yourself. Sometimes it doesn't make any difference because it's the same action. How can you get more stable than that?

dang 1y ago

Recent and related. Others? Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45016517 - Aug 2025 (351 comments) Australia Post halts transit shipping to US as 'chaotic' tariff deadline looms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44970269 - Aug 2025 (173 comments)

lvl155 1y ago

Didn’t you guys on Silicon Valley vote for this? If I remember correctly, this whole thing was managed by the libertarians of the tech industry. Own it.

DaSHacka 1y ago
Why would these supoosed libertarians vote to restrict free trade?
EasyMark 1y ago
This policy has nothing to do to libertarianism, it actually the opposite of what a libertarian president and government would do.
- lvl155 1y ago
  Yeah that’s my point.

rkagerer 1y ago

...importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials I ordered a lock and some keys valued at about $400, and paid an extra $400 in duties because of this. It's insane.

kacesensitive 1y ago
Wait consumers are paying the tariffs??
- baggachipz 1y ago
  That's what has been said since the beginning of this madness. People don't understand how this works, and took the word of a corrupt madman.
- jrochkind1 1y ago
  Whoever imports pays the tarriff. If you order something over the internet from someone not in the US, that's the consumer. There is a lot more direct consumer ordering from international vendors now than there was 20 years ago of course, for obvious reasons. Note Aug 29th is also the end of the "de minimus" rules for import duties, where a shipment worth less than $800 was exempt from import taxes and duties. Some tariffs and other import taxes have always existed, but that's why you rarely saw them when ordering consumer goods internationally to the USA, if it was worth less than $800 they were skipped. That's going away, you'll be paying import taxes on every international shipment you order directly as a consumer, even if it's a $25 t-shirt -- exactly how you pay these, at what point they are calculated by who (even how to calculate them?), and who invoices you how and when as a consumer -- well that's what nobody including international shippers have figured out yet, which is what the OP is saying means they can't really ship internationally to consumers in the USA for the time being. it's gonna be a clusterfuck. Turns out maybe there's a reason there aren't usually major changes to whole structure of import taxes made with only months notice, and tweaks and changes to them still being made only weeks/days before implementation, with no real implementation guidance provided?
  - 1y ago

jrochkind1 1y ago

Even aside from the advisability of the tariffs -- it turns out there might be a reason that tarrifs haven't usually been imposed with like weeks notice, after months of back and forth, with no real advance implementation planning on the government's part and not enough time or reliable info for anyone else to do so either? It is very strange to me that the government seems to be going for maximum shock and uncertainty on the US economy. Again, apart from the advisability of the actual tarrifs, they could have been implemented in the usual way to allow people to plan for them (and possibly give feedback on them), but they were not.

ModernMech 1y ago
> It is very strange to me that the government seems to be going for maximum shock and uncertainty on the US economy. Again, apart from the advisability of the actual tarrifs, they could have been implemented in the usual way to allow people to plan for them (and possibly give feedback on them), but they were not. It's only strange to you because you don't understand the purpose of government anymore. It's changed -- before, the government was supposed to protect and provide for the citizenry. Provide military defense, manage the economy for everyone's economic benefit, and part of that work was maintaining global order and stability. That's not its purpose anymore. Now, the purpose of the government is to provide for Trump's security, to provide for Trump's stability, and to maintain a global order where his will rises above all others. To that end, economic instability is a feature, not a bug. Trump loves it when the world is off kilter, because they perceive that in order to achieve stability, they must assuage him personally with gifts, bribes, and praise. Witness the Qatari jet bribe, Tim Cook's oval office visit where he gave a bribe, and the cabinet meeting yesterday which was 4 hours of everyone praising Trump rather than talking about the business of the country. America is now a dictatorship, Trump is the dictator, and the country/economy will only be as stable as his ego allows. Which, after watching the guy for 10 years, means nothing will be stable again until he's gone for good.
sumeno 1y ago
If your goal was to see the US recede as the global economic leader you couldn't create a better playbook than the one being done by this administration.

tlogan 1y ago

I just want to explain how I understand this, and please correct me if I am wrong. In theory, importers have been required to provide a Certificate of Analysis (COA) since around 2003. This comes from federal TSCA regulations as well as California’s RoHS requirements (bill SB 20). But in practice, nobody really followed those rules because they could claim the “de minimis” import exemption. The problem now is that Trump issued Executive Order 14324, “Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries.” This means that shipments valued at $800 or less from any country are no longer eligible for de minimis treatment. So in order to properly calculate taxes you need CoA.

jeremyjh 1y ago
And no one is going to update their systems because TACO.

lgleason 1y ago

The goal is to encourage people to make things in the US and they are plugging the large hole first. It will be interesting to see if they also apply more customs scrutiny to checked luggage for air travel when returning to the United States. Right now they are not. But, if you go to places like Costa Rica, which has had high tariffs on many imports for years, they make you scan all of your luggage when you enter the country and will stop and scrutinize what you are bringing in. CR will also periodically have raids on retailers who obtained goods that circumvented customers via things like clandestine border crossings. There will be some secondary challenges with enforcement of this as some decide to roll the dice, import illegally and hope to not get caught. If there is enough of a price difference between buying something with a high tariff in the US vs locally I can also see some people travelling to Mexico or Canada to buy some higher dollar smaller items if the cost savings offsets the trip.

overfeed 1y ago
Organized crime also thrives arbitraging the tariffs by smuggling imports. The Sinaloa cartel may discover there's more money to be made smuggling copper compared to Colombia's finest.
- rchaud 1y ago
  that's one way of bringing Mexican jobs to America.
rchaud 1y ago
and as the experience of every democratic developing country has shown, all this will do is create a new layer of corruption where smuggled goods will be let in for a bribe, while the infant industry strategy largely falls flat due to the above black market workarounds and lax enforcement standards.

Scoundreller 1y ago

Many Canadians (90% of us live within 100km of US border) have the concept of an “Amerifriend”. A US relative/friend they utilize to get cheaper US goods shipped to and pick up on visits. Most border towns have shops that will receive and hold orders for pickup for a small fee. I wonder if this will reverse where Americans send to their Canadian friend to pickup. Canadian retail has been pretty dumb/expensive. Much Cheaper to buy from US for auto parts than buy local, even though virtually none is made in USA. I wonder if tariffs will eliminate that price advantage.

nostromo 1y ago

I'm sure this will be painful for a lot of people and that sucks. But drop-shipping into the U.S. has been absurdly one-sided for years. Americans have been subsidizing it through taxes and mailing rates our own government negotiated, and that basically fucked over American small businesses for decades. It’s been dramatically cheaper to ship items from Shenzhen to Anytown, USA than to mail something across town. That killed domestic mail-order growth and flooded us with mountains of plastic Temu junk instead. It's obvious that it should be more expensive to ship from China to the US than from the US to the US. It no longer makes sense to subsidize these rates and the entire system needs to be rethought.

redox99 1y ago
DHL and UPS are generally not subsidized. Usually it's when USPS is involved.
Yeul 1y ago
The American economy is not collapsing because of cheap TEMU crap from China. So what we are left with is pure ideological pseudo fascist BS that boils down to "real men work in factories"

charcircuit 1y ago

>U.S. customs is demanding a Certificate of Analysis (which could cost thousands of dollars and to determine what exact amount of Aluminum, Copper and Steel are in the product) https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/entry-summary/232-tariffs-aluminum-and-steel-faqs https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/entry-summ... >At this time, CBP does not require an aluminum certificate of analysis to be filed at the time of entry. This does not read as a demand.

mrjay42 1y ago

I know this is besides the point but this is probably one of the ugliest website I've seen in a long while. Why would someone choose a dirty-yellow background :sob:

anon6362 1y ago

Don't worry, the Oval Office regime will find new ways to turn America into a pariah state that only trades with Russia.

EasyMark 1y ago

I've got a lot of neat stuff from them over the years. It's a sad day as the the US looks inward, isolates trade and betrays allies and goes down a path of totalitarianism and extremism to please the ego of a mad Orange and his followers.