I'm worried that this could have unforeseen knock on effects or create havoc. Fukushima knocked out global supply chains for parts on cars so for a couple years there were no Honda fits for example (they were missing a necessary but small part). Is there any risk of domino effects having to do with business closures or is it just moronic and annoying?
Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
241–250 of 459 posts
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#242There was chatter about this in one of the NYC subreddits over the weekend. Apparently ending the de minimus exemption is closing the grey market for e.g. sunscreen; places that used to sell Japanese sunscreens on American shelves no longer are. There's a frustratingly long list of goods that the US decided to put requirements on in previous generations, and then stopped maintaining. Sunscreen is one; other countries…
> Closing these de minimus exemptions is making it harder for discerning consumers to buy higher quality goods than are currently available in the US right now.
Everything has a trade-off.
On the other hand, it also prevents companies from dumping artificially cheap and crappy goods (TEMU) on US markets and making it nearly impossible for others to compete.
Unsuspecting consumers buy a super cheap (subsidized) crap product on Amazon or Temu or Shien or wherever - probably a knock-off of an American product, have it shipped to the US, then it disintegrates after a couple of uses or stops working, and we wind up with pollution, additional landfill, and relentless consumerism that's harmful to the country all so we can help a certain country whose name starts with a C keep the lights on and keep factories running so that they don't see unemployment numbers tick up.
Legitimate businesses selling higher quality products where they exist will be able to figure it out. Or not. It's not a big deal if your sunscreen is slightly worse than the Korean version (which I use). Maybe it just hasn't been approved because they haven't done the work to apply because they can get around working with our government and making sure their product meets our safety standards because of the de minimus loophole?
There's also safety concerns, which I think the CBP did a good job of overviewing here: https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/buyer-beware-bad-actors-exploi... . Send drugs or guns or illegal animal products to the US, get caught, who cares you live in (not the US) so you can just spin up another sham company and do it again.
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not all tax is the same. The left prefers progressive taxation (if you make more income you pay more tax), the right prefers regressive (if you buy or use goods or services you pay tax on them). Sales taxes and tariffs are in the latter category.
It’s disingenuous to consider one’s total income when weighing the fairness of a tax like sales tax. The thought that a sales tax is somehow benefiting one group over the other is ridiculous far left extreme thinking. You pay for a service and that service has a rate. To think that the only good kind of taxation are those that are progressive is the dumbest thing I ever heard.
It’s very, very basic economics - the marginal utility of money decreases, so progressive taxation is better than regressive taxation.
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a ridiculous attempt at sanewashing. When has Trump or anyone in the GOP EVER stated that they want to end consumerism?
https://apnews.com/article/trump-two-dolls-tariffs-toys-7b0e...
Pretty dishonest. There is nothing about curbing consumerism there. Just telling people that they will HAVE TO buy less if consumer prices increase, in order to hurt China.
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#245I'm worried that this could have unforeseen knock on effects or create havoc. Fukushima knocked out global supply chains for parts on cars so for a couple years there were no Honda fits for example (they were missing a necessary but small part). Is there any risk of domino effects having to do with business closures or is it just moronic and annoying?
This is specific to mail service, it does not impact private carriers (fedex, dhl, etc)
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#246Went from #1 on the frontpage to >30 in under 10 minutes, impressive: https://hnrankings.info/45016517/
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Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
And several European countries: https://apnews.com/article/us-tariffs-goods-services-suspens...
DHL's announcement "Temporary restrictions on postal goods shipping to the U.S. for private and business customers" https://group.dhl.com/en/media-relations/press-releases/2025...
I looked it up. Sending a regular smallish package (2 kg, 35 x 25 x 10 cm, think small laptop) from Germany to NYC is about 25 EUR, now only available for gifts under 100 EUR. Sending it as express, which is what businesses now apparently have to do, is about 80 EUR.
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#248India has done the same as well https://www.business-standard.com/immigration/india-post-sus...
As did Thailand
Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#249Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
#250Title is not accurate. They're allowing personal shipments under $100, and the rest can be shipped via their UGX service. It sounds like JP doesn't want to deal with the customs paperwork at scale (edit: also the deposits).
Under $100... by what measure? I'm going to Japan soon and was planning on shipping a bunch of clothes, books, etc to myself. I'm not going to sell any of it, I just want to send a bunch of stuff back without having to deal with checking another bag. So as far as I'm concerned, there's no dollar value. I'm buying stuff in Yen for my own personal use... But I suppose I'll just check a bag or use a different carrier...
Declared value. When you ship, they ask you to list the items you're shipping, and what they are worth. These go on the customs forms. Boxes can be opened and inspected, so lying is a gamble, but there's obviously a lot of wiggle room here.
The changes are to the commercial de minimis rule, so AFAIK, the personal $800 exemption when you bring something with you still applies, and you might not have anything to worry about at all. Also, when you declare something as "American goods returned", they are not subject to either de minimis rule, even if you send them by mail.
Things you purchased outside the US could qualify as well, if you can prove that you owned them for more than a year while living abroad. But realistically, nobody is going to make a federal case about a box full of old books and underwear...a box full of Louis Vuitton bags and Moncler jackets with tags, on the other hand...