Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

post.japanpost.jp

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 459 posts

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#401

Post by anigbrowl »

philwelch wrote: post #310
anigbrowl wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baby, bathwater. For every person abusing it by splitting shipments (easily detectable and prosecutable) I'd bet there are many more taking their first small steps into entrepreneurship with goods or parts worth $100 or $500.

Splitting shipments is different from drop shipping. Splitting shipments would be if, instead of moving a whole container of goods from a Chinese warehouse to a US warehouse, you just mail each item over by itself. Drop shipping is when you mail each item directly to the end customer.

Yes, that's why I wrote 'splitting shipments'. I don't think drop shipments to a bunch of different customers should be tariffed, that's why the de minimis exception exists in the first place.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#402

Post by warpspin »

stefan_ wrote: post #275
bsimpson wrote: post #198

There 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…

De minimis makes no sense and the EU doesn't have it either - in fact they recently managed to even make the Chinese properly fill out the tax forms and in most cases prepay it.

> De minimis makes no sense and the EU doesn't have it either

You're conflating tax with tariffs here. EU does not have a de minimis rule for tax - you always pay tax on import - but it does have a 150 Euro de minimis rule for tariffs.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#403

Post by hdgvhicv »

dpkirchner wrote: post #354
yibg wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If non imported goods were price competitive with imported goods then tariffs won't be needed in the first place. Tariff's are there for artificially force imported good to be more expensive so the previous more expensive domestically produced products become price competitive.

And if the tariff is set too high domestic goods will become more expensive as well as there'd be no reason for a domestic manufacturer to charge substantially less than the price of the imported goods.

Two domestic manufacturers compete to get more customers by reducing prices, price trends to cost.

All tarrifs do is remove foreign competition who have lower costs for a variety of reasons, some which benefit the country imposing the tariff, some not.

Neoliberal approach is to always require the cheapest goods, no matter the cost. That’s not the only approach.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#404

Post by arghwhat »

Retric wrote: post #328
arghwhat wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't really. They misreport the value for tax purposes, they own it through some other legal entity that is all negative, they own it through a company that negotiated tax rates to have some other business happen there, they own it in countries that don't to property taxes, etc. etc. You can be damn sure they're paying at most a tiny fraction if not zero of any tax rate you'd be paying for that asset as they'd…

> They misreport the value for tax purposes Regular people also commit fraud which can make some differences here. But in general it’s the state who decides what something is worth for tax purposes not the individual. > they own it through some other legal entity that is all negative Unpaid property taxes result in forfeiture, so again the state’s getting paid here. It’s financial voodoo around other taxes which caus…

> Regular people also commit fraud which can make some differences here.

Yeah, but it's hard for a regular person to under/overreport a property by, say, 200 million USD, and most people do not have the power to negotiate with or bribe municipalities to get different tax treatment like big companies and the rich people owning them do.

> Unpaid property taxes result in forfeiture

Avoided taxes are not unpaid taxes - we're not speaking of people on the run from debt collectors, but people who cheat their way out of having to pay anything.

> So do regular people

What regular people own properties in foreign countries selected for their tax benefits, for investment or recreational uses?

Most regular people own between zero and one property. Granted, they could move, but it takes extra riches to be able to casually straddle multiple borders.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#405

Post by pjjpo »

Kye wrote: post #146
timr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's literally the same as the title on the page so I get it, but unfortunately it's a hot-button political issue and people are eager to misinterpret. I'd suggest something like: "Japan Post stops accepting US shipments over $100."

I did that with a slight change: "Japan Post to temporarily stop shipments to US over $100" To emphasize that it's not in effect yet and that it's to, not from. edit: Someone went and reverted it to something less clear than everything else

FWIW I came in from RSS and am glad to see the better title. Maybe not ideal, but as someone living in Japan, I can see what the official title was trying, but failing, to convey. But it is what it is and probably the best in this case. The move itself seems good on both sides since proper logistics from Asia to US has been strong for a long time, there shouldn't really be a strong need for personal shipment of goods.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#406

Post by ericmay »

mlyle wrote: post #400
ericmay wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of getting cheap Chinese made clothing for $5, you now get to pay Walmart $17 for the same thing. Right... but now that is (arguably) cost competitive with American labor and manufacturing. Or at least it's more cost competitive than it otherwise would be. I mean this is kind of the price of putting what we say first. Want higher minimum wages, higher environmental standards, unionized labor, benefits/healt…

> We will have to pay more, and we should, for those things. No. US labor costs are high and working conditions are better, in large part, because US labor is worth it and US productivity is high. That labor is spent in high value industries and is often highly skilled. We should accept we're better at some things and trade according to the principle of comparative advantage.

I don't disagree with you, but I think it would be better for society if we had fewer gig workers and Wal-Mart greeters, and more artisans who become more price competitive.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#407

Post by Retric »

arghwhat wrote: post #404
Retric wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They misreport the value for tax purposes Regular people also commit fraud which can make some differences here. But in general it’s the state who decides what something is worth for tax purposes not the individual. > they own it through some other legal entity that is all negative Unpaid property taxes result in forfeiture, so again the state’s getting paid here. It’s financial voodoo around other taxes which caus…

> Regular people also commit fraud which can make some differences here. Yeah, but it's hard for a regular person to under/overreport a property by, say, 200 million USD, and most people do not have the power to negotiate with or bribe municipalities to get different tax treatment like big companies and the rich people owning them do. > Unpaid property taxes result in forfeiture Avoided taxes are not unpaid taxes - w…

> What regular people own properties in foreign countries

Expats often chose their location based on such factors.

> people who cheat their way out of having to pay anything.

Good luck finding someone who actually pays zero property tax on US land they own. You’re assuming loopholes exist that don’t.

> it's hard for a regular person to under/overreport a property by, say, 200 million USD

Comparing wealthy taxation is only meaningful based on percentages. There’s definitely people who avoid property taxes by failing to disclose they built a house on undeveloped land thus avoiding 50+% of their tax bill.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#408

Post by mlyle »

ericmay wrote: post #406
mlyle wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We will have to pay more, and we should, for those things. No. US labor costs are high and working conditions are better, in large part, because US labor is worth it and US productivity is high. That labor is spent in high value industries and is often highly skilled. We should accept we're better at some things and trade according to the principle of comparative advantage.

I don't disagree with you, but I think it would be better for society if we had fewer gig workers and Wal-Mart greeters, and more artisans who become more price competitive.

I don't think making things more expensive for consumers is going to help that happen. I think it's going to steepen the divide between capital and labor.

And most of the products we're talking about that are coming in via de minimis are not exactly competing with US "artisans."

Indeed, I'm helping train future US artisans, and we depend upon being able to get input components cheaply and consistently, which is becoming more and more of a problem and endangering my programs being able to do as much.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#409

Post by CamperBob2 »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #403
dpkirchner wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if the tariff is set too high domestic goods will become more expensive as well as there'd be no reason for a domestic manufacturer to charge substantially less than the price of the imported goods.

Two domestic manufacturers compete to get more customers by reducing prices, price trends to cost. All tarrifs do is remove foreign competition who have lower costs for a variety of reasons, some which benefit the country imposing the tariff, some not. Neoliberal approach is to always require the cheapest goods, no matter the cost. That’s not the only approach.

Two domestic manufacturers compete to get more customers by reducing prices

Which is hard to do when the idiots in charge place tariffs on the raw materials that both manufacturers rely on.

That wasn't my first clue that a rational and charitable interpretation of the Trump tariffs doesn't exist, but it was a big one.

Re: Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States

#410

Post by ericmay »

mlyle wrote: post #408
ericmay wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with you, but I think it would be better for society if we had fewer gig workers and Wal-Mart greeters, and more artisans who become more price competitive.

I don't think making things more expensive for consumers is going to help that happen. I think it's going to steepen the divide between capital and labor. And most of the products we're talking about that are coming in via de minimis are not exactly competing with US "artisans." Indeed, I'm helping train future US artisans, and we depend upon being able to get input components cheaply and consistently, which is becom…

But as I look around with our current trade strategy (pre-tariff) I've only seen exactly what you describe happen - the divide between capital and labor has only increased exponentially, and as prices have gotten lower people we see less entrepreneurship, less new business starts, fewer products made in America, and more consolidation into Wal-Mart scale corporations.

> And most of the products we're talking about that are coming in via de minimis are not exactly competing with US "artisans."

Sure they are - they're much cheaper, mass manufactured goods which people default to because they are only exposed to the price of the product. Raising the prices of those goods makes artisan products more cost competitive.

Post reply on HN