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China Government

USPS Halts All Packages From China, Sending the Ecommerce Industry Into Chaos (wired.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the trade-war dept.
The United States Postal Service has suspended all package shipments from China and Hong Kong following President Donald Trump's decision to eliminate the de minimis exemption, which previously allowed small packages under $800 to enter the U.S. without import duties. "The move could potentially create chaos and confusion across the online shopping industry, as well as make purchases more expensive for consumers, especially because many global manufacturers and internet sellers are located in China," reports Wired. "Shoppers are now on the hook not only for the additional 10 percent tariff, but also whatever original tax rate their products were exempted from until Tuesday." From the report: Cindy Allen, who has worked in international trade for over 30 years and is the CEO of the consulting firm Trade Force Multiplier, gave WIRED an example of how much additional cost the tariff will incur: A woman's dress made of synthetic fiber shipped from China through de minimis will now be subject to a regular 16 percent tariff, a 7.5 percent Section 301 duty specifically for goods from China, the new 10 percent tariff required by Trump, additional processing fees and customs brokerage fees, and perhaps increased brokering and handling costs due to the sudden change in rules. "Will the dress that was $5 now cost $5.50 or $15?" says Allen. "That we don't know. It depends on how those retailers react and change their business models."

In the immediate term, clearing customs will become a challenge for most ecommerce companies. Their long-term concern, though, is the potential impact on profitability. The appeal of Temu and Shein and similar Chinese ecommerce companies is how affordable their products are. If that changes, the ecommerce landscape and consumer behavior in the US may change significantly as well. While the USPS has announced the suspension of accepting any parcels from China and Hong Kong, CBP hasn't elaborated on how the agency will enforce Trump's new tariffs other than saying in an announcement that it will reject de minimis exemption requests from China starting today.

USPS Halts All Packages From China, Sending the Ecommerce Industry Into Chaos More | Reply

USPS Halts All Packages From China, Sending the Ecommerce Industry Into Chaos

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  • The pcie riser I have on order from China was supposed to be on the way... Wonder how that will turn out.

    Well, no homelab for anybody now!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vilain ( 127070 )
      Yep. I've got a chassis from AliExpress that just shipped today. When and if it arrives is anyone's guess. Last couple of things I bought from there were delivered by a courier rather than USPS. Amazon's costs are surely going up. I wonder what their head of Logistics is doing right now.

    • Re:Oh great (Score:5, Funny)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:44AM (#65142659)
      What's the problem? This will spur a great resurgence in American manufacturing of small low-value electronic components and you'll get your parts, perhaps as soon as 4-10 years from now.

      • What's the problem? This will spur a great resurgence in American manufacturing of small low-value electronic components and you'll get your parts, perhaps as soon as 4-10 years from now.

        Not to mention more locally-grown food instead of imports.
        I'm planting avocado trees tomorrow ... :-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I am sure you can get a far more expensive (but not better) one domestically now. Or maybe not if the market is not interesting enough. But hey, maybe you can import one yourself with just a few $100 in taxes and fees and a few hours of bureaucracy for that $10 card!

  • ORANGE PIGFUCKER PIECE OF SHIT (Score:3, Informative)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:15AM (#65142613)

    Hard to believe all these MORON MOGAS votes for this PIECE OF SHIT.
    Egg prics - up.
    Fuel prices -up
    Milk prices - up

    FUCK you magas and orange pigfucker supporters.

    • But, but, but, you are supposed to be distracted by the onslaught of crazy and lose focus on actual results

      Wait! Are you not watching your required quota of Fox News?

      This WILL be reported

      • It's funny. It's not like there's a tube maker here. It just means I am paying extra to a guy who ordered them from aliexpress before I did.

    • Re:ORANGE PIGFUCKER PIECE OF SHIT (Score:4, Informative)

      by tiananmen tank man ( 979067 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:45AM (#65142665)

      egg prices are up because of the bird flu and chickens being euthanized, not because of orange man.

      • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

        by Frogking ( 126462 )

        And the best way to decrease egg prices is to end bird flu, which you can't do by hiding all of the health reports and banning testing, like the orange man wants.

        • Do you have a source for that claim? It seems out of character for someone that appointed a person so dedicated to food health and safety as Secretary of HHS. BTW, I heard RFK Jr. was confirmed by the Senate today. I suspect he'll be sworn in before the end of the week, after that we could see a change on what the "bad orange man bad" wants. RFK Jr. was picked for a reason, he and Trump get along on "making America healthy again". I know Trump and RFK Jr. don't agree on energy but there's a new Secreta

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        B-b-but the orange man blamed it on Biden and said he would fix it day one, and you idiots ate it up. Are you saying he was lying? Funny how it's only now that you pretend to understand nuance. Anyway it's obviously because the chickens are DEI hires. If we just stopped testing them it wouldn't be a problem.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dargaud ( 518470 )
        Other countries have started to vaccinate free range ducks and chickens against bird flu. With success. But the the US, no, too expensive !
      • He slashed regulations that would have reduced the spread of the disease those chickens were slaughtered for. Biden didn't even try and put the regulations back because Trump and pretty well packed the courts and he expected he was going to lose there so he didn't want to spend a limited supply of political capital fighting for it. Instead he focused on other things to fight inflation like antitrust law enforcement and increasing supply elsewhere in the economy.

        Regulations are written in blood. You can'

        • ... packed the courts...

          Court packing means adding seats to a court, then filling those seats with agreeable judges/justices, in order to get favorable rulings. Trump did no such thing. He nominated justices as seats opened up as any POTUS is supposed to do. The fact that he nominated an unusually high number of justices was just a matter of random chance.

          One thing that allowed Trump to appoint so many justices to SCOTUS was that Ginsburg chose to stay on the court than retire due to declining health while a like minded POTUS

    • Gas is down where I live. Eggs were gonna go up no matter what, we don't import those anyway. But we do import bird flu.

    • Melania is the ORANGE PIGFUCKER.
      Porky is also full of shit; also literally. I bet it does take him 12 flushes as he says... and it's reported the plumber was constantly busy at the whitehouse.

      Seriously, did nobody realize that is most likely because he's flushing his diapers? And look how he stands and walks sometimes. Plus the baggy suits. The only odd part is how he's been doing that for decades... but his personal doc was a specialist... can you guess in what? (go look. lol.)

    • Right on.
      As not a complete moron I knew I would be getting fucked by massive price increases (among endless other ways), but there is some tiny satisfaction in you evil and/or idiotic jackasses who voted for that fucking orange rapist deranged senile moron currently calling himself President being surprised by just how badly you're getting fucked too. Buckle up you conservative pieces of shit, your life is going to keep getting worse, and it's your own god damn fucking fault. Democrats aren't perfect and do

    • Making America great again has a price. Nothing on this world is free.

  • Wait... what? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:19AM (#65142619)

    You mean the entire world and EVERYBODY on it is dependent on each other?

    Crazy, just crazy, it is like the whole world has been integrating for the past 80 years, and the trumptardians are going to change it on their say-so

    What is next? Drag their throne to the beach and decree that the tide won't come in

  • Show Pitch: Surprise Shipping Container (Score:3)

    by EreIamJH ( 180023 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:19AM (#65142621)
    Contestants bid for an unopened shipping container fresh off the boat from China. Winners are on the hook for the bid price + the taxes on whatever is inside.

  • I flooded Aliexpress with orders for the past three months, ordering all the small shit I could think of. Got me lots of crap. I was too late on the Chinese vacuum tubes, though. I'll have to pay the US markup from a reseller.

  • Urgh (Score:4, Informative)

    by karmawarrior ( 311177 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:27AM (#65142635) Journal

    Almost none of the things I've ordered from Aliexpress et al over the last few months was available via an American manufacturer. And they were too obscure to be anything an American supplier would be interested in importing (HDMI EDID simulators?)

    This is going to suck especially for anyone waiting for spare parts to come in.

    Yes, the supply of cheap sprocket sets is at an end, but so is a lot of the stuff that only comes from China after the same Republican party that's gung ho about tariffs and destroying imports today destroyed our manufacturing industry in the 1980s, encouraging businesses to off shore manufacturing and celebrating the resultant destruction of unions as a result.

    I am genuinely worried with this level of malignant mismanagement we'll be looking at food shortages by the end of the year. And Trump's supporters are so tribal they'll respond to this claiming I'm an alarmist, and then justify it as "necessary" when it happens, because nobody is willing to admit Trump's a problem who has any influence over the bastard.

  • The really messed up thing is that it will still cost me more to send the same thing to another state than it does for someone to ship it from China to my front door.
    https://www.ecomcrew.com/why-c... [ecomcrew.com]

  • If you order a new laptop from, say, Lenovo, it drop-ships from China.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Your Lenovo laptop probably wasn't under $800 so it wouldn't be under de minimus. No change, except for the new taxes.

      But the average de minimus package is ~$40 and there are a LOT of them. The point of de minimus is to not tie up customs with insignificant shit. The US has traditionally been a big proponent, bullying other countries into raising their exception limits. But now slamming it to zero... that's going to be some nice chaos.

    • How long til it drop ships from Vietnam instead?

  • If Trump really wants to go after China he should end the special rules under the international postal agreements that make shipping stuff from China to the US so cheap.

  • In the EU the post office can charge anything they like as 'handling fee'.
    So besides getting your packages 3 weeks too late, the post office will rip you off with exorbitant handling fees although the whole process is completely automated.

  • Good job Trump voters (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:51AM (#65142679)
    You have put our entire fucking economy into a tailspin because of whatever stupid reasons you had for voting for a senile felon who stole classified documents.

    For fuck sakes get over your goddamn pride and admit that you fucked up so we can try to fix this shit. I know some of you think because you're old and retired you're untouchable and maybe you are. Right up until they stop paying for your pills. As for the rest of you when this bullshit costs you your job at 50 and you're completely unemployable what the hell do you think is going to happen?

    You are in the fuck around and find out stage. If you start panicking a little maybe just maybe your other elected representatives who still think they need your votes might move to put the brakes on the worst of this shit long enough for people like me to clean up after your mess

  • National sales tax (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:52AM (#65142683)
    Trump's goal here along with the tariffs is to create a national sales tax so that he can eliminate his tax burden and the tax burden of his buddies. As a percentage is still much much much less than you pay but because they have about 60% of all the money in America it's still a pretty big number and they wanted for themselves.

    Take a look at your tax bill from last year. Now double it.

    That's the Donald Trump tax plan.

  • Dresses for $5 shouldn't exist at all. (Score:4)

    by henrik stigell ( 6146516 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:53AM (#65142685) Homepage

    Dresses for $5 shouldn't exist at all. That is in practice a one-usage-dress. Buy quality instead, not dresses made of plastic ("synthetic fiber").

    • Don't wear a dress at all then (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Exactly the statement that Kayne was making.

    • You were just paying a 1000% markup.

      Outside of a few people who can afford extremely expensive tailored clothing everything we buy is made in sweat shops by slave labor. There used to be a website that would tell you who made your stuff. Years ago I remember looking up a soccer ball I bought my kid and finding it was made by a kid about the same age as mine.

      The point is cutting out middlemen is all that happened here and all that's happening now is a new tax is being imposed by Republican so that t

  • The real issue (Score:3)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @12:56AM (#65142689)
    The real issue is not the cost, it is the paperwork. Instead of sailing through customs, even item under $800 will now generate a sheaf of paperwork. It may even require someone to physically visit the custom office in question and sign for the individual item. Given that customs is as understaffed as most of the working parts of the US government and Trump and Musk are determined to get rid of the staff that exists, the chances of minor items ever seeing the light of day seem remote.

  • Another round of Calvinball every day for the next four years?

  • If you really want piss the US off, stop with the currency manipulation. Trump has already started threatening BRICS if they use their own currency(ies) within their own clique, what if you called his bluff?

    Price everything in Yuan or euros instead of $US and my ordering of stuff from your country won't be more expensive when the USD to AUD exchange rate changes.

    (Sure, I'm an Aussie who is sick of the Canberra sycophancy but after Scott Morrison cluelessly trashed our relationship with China when Mr Trump w

  • Australian and New Zealand eliminated their de minimis equivalents for large overseas retailers some years ago. What they did was reach an agreement with the big resellers, AliExpress, Temu, etc that they would charge the very simple GST at order time. Then remit the tax to the government much like onshore companies. There was an exemption for small/occasional shipping companies (like those that couldn't even find New Zealand on a map but ship there because they're shipping provider can), this levelled th

  • Return to yesteryear (Score:4, Interesting)

    by khb ( 266593 ) on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @01:41AM (#65142751)

    Back in ancient times, like the 1970's, there were companies specializing in "import/export", mostly the import for China->US trade in trinkets, and low end electronics. These companies were put out of business by direct ship to consumer. Their value add was paperwork, warehousing and for the better shops ... some quality control (they actually vetted the supplier, rather than playing Russian roulette with some mostly anonymous figures on the China side.

    Going from direct back to intermediaries is going to be disruptive and will cost more. But it wouldn't be the end of the world, and we might have a lot less waste, and perhaps energy savings (surely shipping by the pallet by boat is more efficient than packaging each item in plastic and sending by air mail.

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