Mail Carriers Pause Us Deliveries as Tariff Shift Sows Confusion

The crash in October is going to be devastating.

To be determined what Canada Post's charges will be in addition to the tariffs. If Canadian items inflate in price by 35% from the first $1, that's going to cook a lot of sellers/sales.

(Note: if it's sold on a marketplace like eBay, the US state/local/county/blah sales taxes are already being charged).

I plan on jacking up my "shipping" costs to USA to make it revenue neutral. But it's a bit of a pain if you sell items with different countries of origin and tariffs changing by the bathroom trip.

Do the prices of consumer-imported items get captured in inflation numbers?

>The company suggested that shippers use carriers with services in place that allow them to pay duties before goods arrive in the US, such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.

Is there anything about those two companies, aside from the fact that they're not foreign or US public institutions having their remaining metaphorical windows smashed, that make you think this is payola?

> You'll pay $1.99/month beginning today for 1 month. Then your subscription will automatically renew at $39.99 every month after the first month, unless you cancel before the 1 month intro period.

lol 20x increase after the first month

These are 40+ year old consoles and accessories that are no longer being produced anywhere, certainly not in the United States. There will not be a factory built for these items, they're not in high demand. They just got way more expensive.

I bought a linen sheet from Lithuania this year. I couldn’t find any in the US that weren’t just similar probably-imported-from-Lithuania-or-Italy foreign ones marked way up, or that didn’t set off my “this is low-quality bullshit sold at a premium” alarms.

I don’t know of a US equivalents to Dent’s Gloves. Not at the same price/quality combo, in those styles.

Raber Garbage Mitts from Canada. Dunno of US equivalents.

Last time I ordered Meermin shoes they shipped from Spain. They have or had some presence in NY too, but Spain’s where they shipped from.

If you want equestrian leather shoes, I dunno of anywhere but places that ship from Spain and Portugal that won’t empty your bank account for them.

Western riding shoes (“cowboy boots”), best bang for your buck by a long shot will probably come straight from Mexico. Or maybe Argentina.

Best bargains in decent hats I know come straight from Canada, the EU/Britain, Mexico, or Australia.

[edit] OK, so then what do I buy that’s made in America? Red Wing boots, Darn Tough socks, Rancourt and Company for loafers and mocs and such, Pendleton wool blankets and shirts (the cloth’s made in the US, anyway, though the sewing’s usually elsewhere) and a bunch of other MIUSA (and some Canadian and Italian) clothes but I only buy them used because I don’t make FAANG or finance tier wages (stuff like Sid Mashburn, made in NYC) so I’m not actually giving those companies money.

For me, most items on McMaster-Carr have Chinese equivalents available for 1/10th the price. This goes for many other things which are very "B2B" in the US but commonly sold to the public in other markets (PCBs, solar panels, power supplies, etc.). The quality might not be as good but a lot weekend projects were made viable by cutting out the middle man and/or cheap access to a larger market. (You can find some of this stuff eBay as well, at a moderate premium. Until recently most of it was shipped from China but there are plenty of importers with US warehouses on there as well.)

A lot of bigger Canadian sellers identify with a US location as they use a shipping service that trucks things over the border it's "received" by USPS in 1-2 business days. So they get away with it as long as they don't over-promise handling/delivery times.

The thing that surprised me most was how on point the shipping emails have been. The kit itself is worth about a dollar and was great for my 8 year old to practice soldering. Though if I skim the Temu site, it’s like 98% absolute trash.

Bags, odds and ends around the house, component assortments, screw assortments, and some tools (with careful judgement).

Sometimes the difference is only 1/3rd the cost, but I’ve had some items be 1/20th the cost by removing Amazon and whichever third party seller.

There's a lot of government officials in their 80s, I'm betting a lot of them will die and these tariffs get thrown out with them.

It's an instant win for any politician to lower taxes on consumers.

Given generally speaking imports and exports tend to be distinct products we would need to add 118% goods production to not need to import.

The US isn't capable of doing that in even a decade.

And it is going to impact everything because unlike most tariffs which exclude manufacturing goods this set hits everything so you cannot competitively produce things unless the entire production chain from raw materials is in the US.

Seems unlikely under the current administration

The US doing similar stuff is much harder to ignore.

That's basically what US companies were doing with Chinese stuff when those tariffs were announced but not in force yet (and maybe earlier if they got early wind about it).

Dunno what's going on with NAFTA/CUSMA/USMCA. Changes with the wind. Or maybe you'll qualify for duty-free under our supposed trade agreement if you pay some assessor mafia $9999 to confirm that your handmade good is Made in Canada.

Can you get ahead of this by putting a message on your checkout page when the recipient is in the US? Won't stop all of the complaints of course.

If it makes you feel any better it’s worse for Americans having to live through this stuff. It’s going to be a long three and a half years.

That's the intention of the tariffs, correct? To create a cost advantage for US businesses against foreign competition.

To maintain the illusion that the sender pays for tariffs?

Keep receipts and customs declarations on everything imported. There's a lawsuit underway and it may well be decided that Trump doesn't have the authority to levy tariffs at all under the Emergency Economic Powers Act. In that case, importers will be due a refund.[1] The Constitution says that Congress sets tariffs and the Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't mention tariffs. As usual, Trump's strategy is to stall, probably until 2026 when this is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Congress could enact Trump's tariff schedule to resolve this, but that would lock it into law.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-happens-next-u...