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High Tariffs Become 'Real' For Adafruit - With Their First $36K Bill Just For Import Duties (adafruit.com) 126

Adafruit's managing director Phillip Torrone is also long-time Slashdot reader ptorrone.

He stopped by Thursday to share what happened after a large portion of a recent import was subjected to a 125% +20% +25% import markup... We're no stranger to tariff bills, although they have definitely ramped up over the last two months. However, this is our first "big bill"... Unlike other taxes like sales tax where we collect on behalf of the state and then submit it back at the end of the month — or income taxes, where we only pay if we are profitable — tariff taxes are paid before we sell any of the products. And they're due within a week of receipt, which has a big impact on cash flow.

In this particular case, we're buying from a vendor, not a factory, so we can't second-source the items. (And these particular products we couldn't manufacture ourselves even if we wanted to, since the vendor has well-deserved IP protections). And the products were booked & manufactured many months ago, before the tariffs were in place.

Since they are electronics products/components, there's a chance we may be able to request reclassification on some items to avoid the 125% "reciprocal" tariff, but there's no assurance that it will succeed, and even if it does, it is many, many months until we could see a refund.

We'll have to increase the prices on some of these products. But we're not sure if people will be willing to pay the higher cost, so we may well be "stuck" with unsellable inventory — that we have already paid a large fee on...

Their blog post even includes a photo of the DHL customs invoice with the five-digit duty fee...

Share your own stories and experiences in the comments. Any other Slashdot readers being affected by the new U.S. tariffs?

High Tariffs Become 'Real' For Adafruit - With Their First $36K Bill Just For Import Duties

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  • by bramez ( 190835 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @11:45AM (#65366585)

    e.g. move to Europe and start building a new customer base there.

    • This is the way and what smart people will be doing

      • Ironically, this is what Trump wants for some businesses. Locating a part of your business near your customers. Locate in the USA to serve USA customers, locate in the EU to serve EU customers, locate in Asia to serve Asian customers, etc.
        • by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @12:24PM (#65366687)

          LOL isn't even capable of understanding that. What Trump wants is your worship and your money, that's it.

          And isn't Adafruit "located in the USA to serve USA customers", yet there's a problem. I'm sure it's just what Trump wants.

          • by drnb ( 2434720 )

            And isn't Adafruit "located in the USA to serve USA customers", yet there's a problem.

            There would be more problems for Adafruit to relocate to the EU to serve US customers.

        • But Americans don't want to pay the prices for things made by Americans. Nor do they want those jobs. That is already well proven.
          • Chinese don't want those jobs either. They need those jobs to survive. The way the world unfolds, what Americans "want" will no longer be relevant in the long term. They will have no choice but to take those jobs. US government can slow down this process but they cannot stop it - Trump or no Trump.
            • So then you casually admit that it is true that Trump intends to run a dictatorship. That's the only way you can force people to do things they don't want to do at wages far less than what they want. I only hope that Canada can keep out the dumb ones while accepting the smart ones.
            • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

              No, the Chinese don't want those jobs either, they're moving on to better jobs, just like the US did.

              China's real GDP per capita is about the same as the US in 1980. Like the US in 1980, their economy is moving on to services, higher end manufacturing, and outsourcing the low end stuff.

              FAILING to do so is called the "middle income trap." Providing the world's cheap industrial labour is a great way for developing countries to get industrialization going, but failing to advance beyond that dooms you to stagna

          • by drnb ( 2434720 )

            But Americans don't want to pay the prices for things made by Americans.

            That's true for many, and they have been learning the error of that choice for decades. And Americans have widely approved of various efforts over the decades to have foreign product made in the USA. For example many autos from Japanese and German auto makers. And coercive tactics were used to get these automakers to open factories in the USA.

            Nor do they want those jobs. That is already well proven.

            Again, auto plants of Japanese and German auto makers proves otherwise.

            • by skam240 ( 789197 )

              So you're using the auto industry as a proxy for all manufacturing? You don't see the glaring problem that auto manufacturing is unusually high value relative to pretty much all other manufacturing?

              Auto manufacturing is one of the few bits of manufacturing that actually makes sense to do in a first world country as an auto company can afford to pay first world wages on big ticket items like cars. Not so much for most other manufacturing, low value work similar to this is typically done by under paid illegal

              • Especially when you have 100% tariffs on Chinese cars protecting the industry. We are paying far more for automobiles than much of the world.
              • So you're using the auto industry as a proxy for all manufacturing?

                Nope. Just one well known example to debunk a false statement.

                You don't see the glaring problem that auto manufacturing is unusually high value relative to pretty much all other manufacturing?

                It's not about high value. It's about profitability. With a high degree of automation, the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse), many things become practical to manufacture in the USA.

                ... low value work similar to this is typically done by under paid illegal immigrants in this country.

                So you're going with the false straw man that we are returning to 1960s era manufacturing? No, we will be going highly automated, it will employ few people than in the 1960s. Yet it will economically benefit t

                • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                  Nope. Just one well known example to debunk a false statement.

                  No, you very clearly were when you pointed at the auto industry as a reason manufacturing would work in the US. You narrowed the conversation to a "winnable" point while ignoring how different the auto industry is relative to other manufacturing.

                  It's not about high value. It's about profitability. With a high degree of automation, the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse), many things become practical to manufacture in the USA

                  If making low value things in the US makes so much sense why aren't we already doing that? Why does it require triple digit tariffs on China to get to happen if it makes so much sense all on its own?

                  • by drnb ( 2434720 )

                    Nope. Just one well known example to debunk a false statement.

                    No, you very clearly were when you pointed at the auto industry as a reason manufacturing would work in the US.

                    "could", not "would".

                    You narrowed the conversation to a "winnable" point while ignoring how different the auto industry is relative to other manufacturing.

                    Nope. There was no such narrowing. Just a well known example to debunk a false claim.

                    It's not about high value. It's about profitability. With a high degree of automation, the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse), many things become practical to manufacture in the USA

                    If making low value things in the US makes so much sense why aren't we already doing that? Why does it require triple digit tariffs on China to get to happen if it makes so much sense all on its own?

                    What part of "the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse)" did you find confusing?

                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      Nope. There was no such narrowing. Just a well known example to debunk a false claim.

                      An example which, as I've been saying all along, is not representative of the rest of the industry. Cars are high value product, most manufacturing is not.

                      What part of "the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse)" did you find confusing?

                      So China has ongoing "unfair trade advantages" that can only be over come by radical triple digit tariffs? You sound like an expert! Why don't you go ahead and tell me what these trade advantages are and how they amount to such a truly massive advantage that we need such incredibly high tariffs to over come them?

                    • by drnb ( 2434720 )

                      Nope. There was no such narrowing. Just a well known example to debunk a false claim.

                      An example which, as I've been saying all along, is not representative of the rest of the industry. Cars are high value product, most manufacturing is not.

                      Which I demonstrated was another flawed argument, that high value was not required.

                      What part of "the elimination of unfair trade advantages via tariffs (ex tolerating pollution and labor abuse)" did you find confusing?

                      So China has ongoing "unfair trade advantages" that can only be over come by radical triple digit tariffs?

                      Addressing a predatory practice is precisely one of the recognized uses of a retaliatory tariff. In this case, it would go something like this. Country A's factories are estimated to have a 10% economic advantage from being able to externalize the cost of pollution and not being required to control pollution at the manufacturing level. Unlike its competitors in the US and EU. A retaliatory tariff of 10% would erase this unfai

                    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      Which I demonstrated was another flawed argument, that high value was not required.

                      No you didn't. You hand waved "automation will solve everything" as if automation was the answer to outdoing China even though China could be doing this themselves. They arent because their cheap labor means more automation then they currently do is not cost effective so why would it be for us?

                      Addressing a predatory practice is precisely one of the recognized uses of a retaliatory tariff. In this case, it would go something like this. Country A's factories are estimated to have a 10% economic advantage from being able to externalize the cost of pollution and not being required to control pollution at the manufacturing level. Unlike its competitors in the US and EU. A retaliatory tariff of 10% would erase this unfair advantage, removing the benefit of tolerating pollution.

                      We are at triple digits not due to the underlying base tariff but due to various rounds of doubling down by both sides. Its just a negotiating tactic.

                      You think a 10% tariff makes up for developing world cheap labor, their real advantage which does not qualify as "unfair" and which needs to be overcome to make manufacturing profitable in America? That's a laugh.

                      Show

            • And coercive tactics were used to get these automakers to open factories in the USA.

              Those coercive tactics were a lot more surgical and strategic than blanket tariffs. With the current tariffs, the vast majority of car parts will be subject to tariffs. Add on the higher cost of manufacturing in the U.S. and it's just about as cost-effective to keep importing fully-manufactured cars than assemble them with high-tariffed parts using high-cost labor.

              • by drnb ( 2434720 )

                And coercive tactics were used to get these automakers to open factories in the USA.

                Those coercive tactics were a lot more surgical and strategic than blanket tariffs.

                The high tariffs aren't blanket. They are being individually negotiated, exceptions are being discussed for certain US importers, etc.

        • I don't think that's what they're talking about. I interpreted it as companies creating proxy companies in low-tariff countries, importing products from high-tariff countries to those proxies, and then having the proxies sell the imported goods to the U.S.-based companies for a song and a dance. As much of a pain as that is, it's far easier to do that than establishing an enormous supply and manufacturing chain in the U.S.
          • by drnb ( 2434720 )

            I don't think that's what they're talking about. I interpreted it as companies creating proxy companies in low-tariff countries, importing products from high-tariff countries to those proxies, and then having the proxies sell the imported goods to the U.S.-based companies for a song and a dance. As much of a pain as that is, it's far easier to do that than establishing an enormous supply and manufacturing chain in the U.S.

            Such practices are already targets of the current tariff policy. For example the US has applied tariffs in excess of 40% on products falsely labeled Made in Vietnam. to avoid Chinese tariffs.

            • I'm not talking about falsely labeled products. I'm saying that I imagine a company like Apple could create a company called Apple UK, have Apple UK buy their inventory from China at the normal price, thereby bypassing tariffs, and then sell those products to Apple, Inc. for $1 each. Even if Trump enacts 200% tariffs, that would only be $2 per device. While there may be technicalities that prevent that specific scheme from working, there's no doubt in my mind that large corporations are working feverishl
    • "Why should I change my name? He's the one who sucks."

    • by larwe ( 858929 )
      Adafruit is explicitly the (or the biggest) US distributor for many products. That's their business model - "we import various classes of product to the USA and support them once imported". The same niche is occupied in other countries by other companies.
      • They aren't just an importer, all the things they import you can also get from Digikey or mouser. Their real business is the making of the development boards that use those cups and make them friendly to hobbyists. The kind of "manufacturing" the orange turd claims to want in the USA.

        • by larwe ( 858929 )

          That was what I meant by the support part. Adafruit is a community and a supply ecosystem - yes a lot of what they import are commodities (though, having been trying to source parts for a low-production-run commercial product I can testify that _not_ everything on Adafruit is available on the biggies like DK :)), but again, their community aspect exists in other countries too - they would find it hard to just muscle in there.

          PCBs can be etched and stuffed here. That industry exists (unlike almost all of the

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      No need to build a new customer base. Adafruit already has a presence worldwide through Mouser, Digikey and lots of smaller operations like PiShop. They might even save money importing from themselves into the US on anything they assembled.

    • by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Yep, or Canada, which is likely to be a bit easier than EU if you're moving from USA.

  • As an American occupier, I ask that you boycott us and nuke Washington DC. That is all. We might take care of the rest.

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      We've seen the news around Black Friday when the hot new toy is in short supply. I doubt any nuking is necessary.

  • by ChesterRafoon ( 4205907 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @11:54AM (#65366609)
    Trump bad for business? After six business bankruptcies, who could have predicted that?
    • Trump bad for business? After six business bankruptcies, who could have predicted that?

      Trump's business dealings tend to be those that create a new company for each project, Each project is often a different collection of partners. So you are really saying over his career he's had six failed projects.

  • National sales tax (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @11:54AM (#65366611)
    Trump is repeatedly tried to sell the idea of eliminating income tax using tariffs, basically a national sales tax did he can implement without congress's authority.

    If you have less than $10 million in the bank (not your 401k or your house in the actual bank as liquid cash) then this would effectively double your taxes.

    It basically takes all the taxes we've managed to get the 1% to pay, which is a large number even if it's a low percentage of their wealth, and it shifts that burden on to you.

    And unless a miracle happens this is exactly what's going to occur. Voter suppression and moral panics means Trump is likely to get a third term and if it's not Trump due to his health it'll be someone just like him.

    So you need to be looking at what you paid in taxes last year and you need to double that and then you need to start making plans to live without that money.

    Basically you need to plan to have about 1500 to 2,500 less per month in your pocket.
    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @12:09PM (#65366651)

      basically a national sales tax did he can implement without congress's authority.

      The president of the United States doesn't have the authority to levy tariffs. That's congress's job. Congress passed a law that the president can do so in very specific circumstances, involving a serious security threat to the US.

      That's why the bullshit about fentanyl and trade balances. They're flimsy excuses to declare national emergencies and use emergency powers.

      • Congress has abdicated its responsibility out of fear of mask money. Musk is threatened to primary any Republican that challenges Trump and must have billions and billions of dollars so he can easily end the political career of any Republican that crosses him using primary elections where throwing 10 or 15 million dollars into an election that normally costs maybe half a million completely throws everything off.

        This means that Elon musk is effectively in charge of the US government.

        This is what happ
    • I don't see such a direct relation between sales tax / tariffs, income tax, and capital gains tax. Swapping income tax for tariffs probably isn't going to affect the 1% much, and it doesn't matter much if you have $10M in the bank or not. With that said... a sales tax is a bigger burden on those who spend the largest part of their income on necessities, i.e. the lower incomes. If lowering income tax and raising tariffs is done budget-neutral, then the lower incomes will be worse off, the higher incomes b
      • Tariffs are a regressive tax when they are applied broadly. They're basically a tax on import goods.

        If you're a developing Nation the tariffs are less of a problem because you are probably exporting a lot more than your importing because you're being used for cheap labor and we are allowed to pollute your groundwater.

        As a developed Nation you have a enormous amount of exports but they tend to be very high-end stuff like planes and medical equipment and advanced electronics built from partially finis
    • Trump is repeatedly tried to sell the idea of eliminating income tax using tariffs, basically a national sales tax did he can implement without congress's authority.

      Companies should be hating the idea of tariffs. It's like a tax, that is collected before even receiving any revenue, at a higher rate than any sales or income tax. So, the American company pays more and pays without sales money in the bank. Trump hopes that the tariff money will be recouped from the overseas non-Americans, but that likely won't happen in full and the American company assumes 100% of the risk.

      Paradoxically, Trump wants to simultaneously move manufacturing to the US and choke off imports

  • Including the remark that the markup may make things unsellable and make the situation even worse. Tariffs are ecconomically massively problematic. Anybody with basic (but real) knowledge how trade works knows this.

  • It gets better (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @12:03PM (#65366639)

    As of now, there are no inbound ships from China [cnn.com] to California's two largest ports. It's been five years since this last happened. If there are no inbound ships with goods that means empty shelves in about three weeks.

    But that's a good thing according to our glorious leader. It means we're losing less money [yahoo.com].

    • Take into account that there was only one third of the ships last week.
    • That's Great Again! We will have more shooe and cloth makers in USA! Our core competencty! That's why we do not need schools. A lot of savings, eh? /s

  • by groobly ( 6155920 )

    IP can be licensed, and I believe courts have ruled in some cases that it must be licensed. China's Yellow River miracle might be the result of stealing IP daily, but the US should be able to hold its own.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Well, the US government has claimed ownership of some patents on nuclear processes by (essentially) eminent domain, so it definitely can be done. And that's officially not stealing, because it was defined as not stealing, even though it was without recompense. I'm *not* saying it was a bad idea. Just that it was stealing. But it was actual theft rather than copying, as the originators were prohibited from using the patent which the US then officially owned. (FWIW, I'd be really nervous if even more fol

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        The US is the world's largest holder of IP rights and consistently pushes stronger IP protections on the rest of the world. Ignoring them because they don't want to pay would be a very interesting development....

  • Masterful Gambit! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Saturday May 10, 2025 @12:29PM (#65366715) Journal
    It's not a surprise but this sort of thing (along with the less consumer-facing; but also pretty serious, tariff burdens on obtaining manufacturing equipment) really emphasizes how counterproductive the "announce huge blanket tariffs based on some mixture of nonsense and a quasi-mercantilist-with-a-heap-of-bitterness theory of balance of trade" 'strategy', if you can call it that, really is.

    If you want American greatness generally, or onshore manufacturing in particular, you are making things vastly harder for yourself by just abruptly making more or less anything that isn't already domestically manufactured harder and more expensive to get. Does Adafruit or Sparkfun's catalog run a bit into fairly casual nerd toys at the shallow end? Arguably. Does it also include a wide variety of bits and pieces that people who are most likely to be interested in entering the engineering pipeline as they grow up, along with people who are doing engineering and need a given bit or piece quickly and reliably, would definitely want? Indeed it does.

    Are you going to win the future by making it harder for someone interested in robotics to get a PWM/servo driver board because it's on a Chinese PCB? Even if your desired end-goal is a 100% vertically integrated mine to customer production chain it's absurd to think that the most efficient(or even possible) way of doing that is by blanket restrictions on basically everything all at once. If anything (not unlike we've been accusing China of doing for some decades) you'd presumably want zero to effectively negative tariffs/other regulatory incentives on certain things precisely because you wish to develop capability in areas downstream of them.

    It's only really in more or less purely frivolous consumption goods where just flatly increasing the cost of the foreign stuff isn't obviously self-destructive(still not necessarily good policy; but if football-watchers went from 65in TVs to 45in ones and more tailgating it wouldn't cause obvious injury to the football industry; while someone doing boutique electronics for specialist applications could easily go from viable to out of business if they can't get a PCB spun quickly or get some test leads nice and fast).
  • Oh no! You mean the company that charges 200% markup on cheap Chinese garbage is being charged a markup? How terrible that someone applied their own business model against them! Seriously though, half of the crap they sell can be had from your preferred Chinese online vendor for less than half what they charge for the exact same product. I was pricing out analog joysticks (not thumbsticks) for a project and found they were selling a $20 model that was literally the same as ones I could pick up on eBay for $
    • Many businesses - including Amazon, Walmart, and pretty much any big-box retail website - have a huge hunk of their 'product line' that is just an obscured link to a Chinese supplier with a huge markup.

      The biggest tell is when you try to order it, and it's online only and it has a lead time of several weeks.

      Just go to Aliexpress and order it directly. With a little bit of patience you get the same product for much less. Yeah, you're paying some Chinese vendor. The difference is you're not paying an Ameri

  • High Tariffs Become 'Real' For Adafruit ...

    Get SCOTUS to re-classified them as a vegetable to avoid the tariffs, like tomatoes [wikipedia.org]. :-)

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