- US tariff exemption for low-value items from China ends Friday
- Ecommerce goods from China face jump to 145% tariffs
- Some online retailers stop serving US over tariffs
- Shein seeks to reassure shoppers in Instagram post
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - With the end of a U.S. tariff exemption for small parcels on Friday, some retailers have stopped selling to customers in the United States while others are seeking temporary workarounds in the hope the tariff rate may be reduced.
The removal of “de minimis” - duty-free treatment of e-commerce packages worth less than $800 - for products originating from China and Hong Kong exposes those goods to tariffs of 145% on most Chinese goods following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision last month. The move upended global trade and triggered retaliation from Beijing.
British beauty products retailer Space NK has paused e-commerce orders and shipping to the United States “to avoid incorrect or additional costs being applied to our customers’ orders”, the company said in a notice on Wednesday.
It is not alone. Understance, a Vancouver-based company that sells bras and underwear manufactured in China, told customers in an Instagram post that it would no longer ship to the United States due to the tariffs, saying it will resume once there is clarity.
“We’re going from zero to 145%, which is really untenable for companies and untenable for customers,” said Cindy Allen, CEO of Trade Force Multiplier, a global trade consultancy.
“I’ve seen a lot of small to medium-sized businesses just choose to exit the market altogether,” she added.
PRICE HIKES UNDERWAY
Players willing to continue to access the U.S. market are forced to hike their price tags.
Oh Polly, a British clothing retailer, has increased prices in the U.S. by 20% compared to its other markets, and may have to consider further price increases because of the higher tariffs, said managing director Mike Branney.
Singapore-based fast-fashion giant Shein sought to reassure customers in a post on its U.S. Instagram account on Thursday, saying: “Some products may be priced differently than before, but the majority of our collections remain as affordable as ever.” Shein sells clothes mostly manufactured in China, and the U.S. is its biggest market.
Temu, the international arm of Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings (PDD.O) , prominently featured products already in U.S. warehouses on its website, labelled ‘Local’, and a pop-up informed customers there would be no import charges for local warehouse items.
“All sales in the U.S. are now handled by locally based sellers, with orders fulfilled from within the country,” Temu said in a statement, adding that its pricing for U.S. customers “remains unchanged”.
But items imported before the May 2 change will eventually run out. Both Shein and Temu have slashed their U.S. digital advertising spending in the past weeks as they prepared for the change that is likely to hit their sales.
Shein did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“E-commerce companies have had it really good for a really long time, and this is a seismic shift in how trade works,” said Hugo Pakula, customs expert and CEO of trade automation platform Tru Identity. “If your inventory is not already in the U.S., selling to the U.S. is going to hurt.”
Literally none of this small handed orange leather bag’s decisions make sense unless he is the puppet of someone whose explicit goal is to destroy the US… oh!
This theory that it’s all Putin’s master plan is giving Trump too much credit.
There’s no conspiracy here. He really is that much of an idiot all on his own. He’s been going on about trade imbalances and the need for massive tariffs hits entire adult life. It’s a personal obsession for him. It didn’t just come out of nowhere.
The reason it seems incredibly stupid and self defeating is because it’s incredibly stupid and self defeating. People who are born rich never have to learn how much of an idiot they are, so Trump genuinely believes this is a good idea.
Here is a full page ad that he took out in the NYT from 1987 to back you up
I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to assume Putin helped Trump get elected with the destruction of the US in mind. I don’t think he’s pulling any more strings, though, Trump is kind of a fire-and-forget idiot.
Everyone just needs to remember what one of Trump’s professors at business school said of him:
“Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.”
For companies like Temu and Shein, good. Their manufacture, sale, and shipping of garbage products is a net negative in the world.
And “garbage products” isn’t my opinion. A lot of them, you order, and when you get it, say “wtf is this” and throw it out because it’s not what you expected or needed. I’m sure you’ve seen the “wish.com version” memes.
Yet you buy the very same products from Amazon and Walmart for 30% more.
I put Amazon in the same category these days
America is a lost cause. The idiots have taken over.
The idiots are the UX.
The back end is run by very well informed and devoted folk with contempt for humankind.
eBay is going to be hit hard with this. I can’t count how many tiny electrical components I’ve brought from asian sellers because they’re the only ones who sell in super small quantities at reasonable prices.
PC case power switch broken? $3.95 shipped.
Funky capacitor leaking? Pack of 4 for $5.
I don’t even know where to begin looking for another source of this stuff. I don’t need units of 500 from Mouser.
I don’t need units of 500 from Mouser.
You can buy them at Digikey instead, if you are willing to pay the price.
Digikey was always my reliable source for parts. Though I haven’t been doing anything for a while so I can’t speak for recent times.
I’m sure Digikey is reliable, but it’s also an order of magnitude more expensive than places like Ebay or Aliexpress.
I don’t need units of 500 from Mouser.
If there’s demand, I expect that they’ll offer smaller shipments at a higher price. There’s lots of stuff that they do sell in smaller shipments. If not, theoretically some electronics distributor could go into business just buying larger shipments, repackaging them into smaller shipments, adding a markup, and addressing that market.
Poor Radio Shack didn’t live long enough, but this would have probably been a good time for them.
Ah, the good ole days. When I was a wee tot just learning about electronics, I would head on down to radio shack for parts, wire, breadboards, solder, or a little booklet with diy schematics to make something like a little amplifier.
I still remember my first major repair - changing a bridge rectifier and some capacitors in my pioneer stereo amplifier.
I couldn’t have done that without RadioShack. RadioShack was the source of all my early knowledge, and foundation for my future skills and knowhow.
Yeah, I’ve got some warm fuzzies for 'em too, have had a few situations where I needed some component or exotic battery cell ASAP and having it minutes away was really nice. That being said, I wouldn’t have wanted to try to keep them afloat as a business.
So much winning with all the people this will put out of work. Both foreign and domestic. Except foreign companies and workers can rebuild elsewhere. Americans can’t.
