MadHeaters Shipping Thread

[jaanky]

A new EO is in effect, and we aren't benefiting. This NY Times article (paywalled) explains what it means for consumers and businesses like MH. Select excerpts:

Earlier this month, President Trump closed a longstanding loophole that had allowed a flood of inexpensive Chinese goods to be mailed to the United States without any tariffs.

Starting on May 2, those packages faced a tariff of 120 percent or a $100 flat fee.

After the United States and China agreed this week to a temporary truce in trade tensions, that tariff is now 54 percent. The changes, which took effect on Wednesday, were described in a White House executive order and guidance from Customs and Border Protection.
---
Under the rules for de minimis shipments, carriers of international mail packages can pay either the 54 percent tariff or the fee of $100 per package. In practice, that means a $10 pair of cargo pants on Shein would be taxed $5.40 if the carrier chose the tariff, but for a package with 25 pairs of cargo pants, it would be cheaper to pay the flat fee. One caveat: Carriers must use the option they choose — either the tariff or the fee — on all packages they ship, and can elect to change only once a month.

"Carriers must use the option they choose — either the tariff or the fee — on all packages they ship, and can elect to change only once a month." That sounds like it could really complicate things...

Edit: Wouldn't that make it far more economical to import the T2s in larger quantities as to exceed the $800 value mark, pay a smaller tariff rate of 30-ish%, and then send out individual parcels once in the States? I'm guessing the whole idea here is to deter direct sales from China. Trump would rather you buy your stuff through a middleman who is presumably American. MAD Heaters, LLC based in Delaware coming soon!!

 

[sedentree]

 

[crustycorvus]

Liking Jaanky's idea quite a bit myself

 

[jaanky]

Liking Jaanky's idea quite a bit myself

At a certain scale it would make sense, but a business would only do that if there's a measure of certainty the investment yields a consistent 24% (or whatever) reduction in cost or a meaningful gain in market share. There's also the question of MH's long-term business goals, global demand, production cost, production rate, etc. There might be more reasons to not do it. I'm just throwing spaghetti against the wall lol

 

[cybrguy]

Unfortunately, spaghetti against the wall is pretty much how our trade decisions are being made these days. Kind of like Chicago weather. Wait a few minutes, and it will change...

 

[mcscruffy]

A new EO is in effect, and we aren't benefiting. This NY Times article (paywalled) explains what it means for consumers and businesses like MH. Select excerpts:



"Carriers must use the option they choose — either the tariff or the fee — on all packages they ship, and can elect to change only once a month." That sounds like it could really complicate things...

Edit: Wouldn't that make it far more economical to import the T2s in larger quantities as to exceed the $800 value mark, pay a smaller tariff rate of 30-ish%, and then send out individual parcels once in the States? I'm guessing the whole idea here is to deter direct sales from China. Trump would rather you buy your stuff through a middleman who is presumably American. MAD Heaters, LLC based in Delaware coming soon!!

By carriers, they're referring to UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, and the like rather than the business, so I think from a business' standpoint it's just selecting the carrier that has gone with whatever option runs cheaper each month. It's more complicated but I don't think that crazy since there's only so many carriers Brenyo would need to check once a month.

To be clear, none of this is ideal but at least that part would give some stability rather than having UPS etc show different rates from day to day. I really just want my damn T2 to ship.