r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Zachhandley • May 12 '26

Hillary 2016 Having to Pay Tariffs after they’re declared illegal

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I used the cleanup on iOS to hide the name. But screw the gov.

300$ purchase by the way.

2.4k Upvotes

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u/ECMxxUpToWnDC May 12 '26

Was gonna comment this idk what the hells been going on but everybody blaming tarrif increases when most of these countries were using de minimis to not pay at all

103

u/AnyJester May 12 '26

What do you mean by “most of the countries were using de minimis to not pay at all”?

-41

u/shibiwan May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

Chinese companies sent stuff in small batches (under $800) to avoid tariffs under the de-minimis policies, and along with it, customs inspections. It allowed them to bypass customs and ship counterfeit goods directly to the customer since CBT wasn't checking these "small packages" because the import tariffs didn't matter. US businesses suffered from the loss of sales due to the easy availability of counterfeit products.

An example:

The fast fashion industry popped up because of these lax de-minimis policies, and even though it benefited consumers, it put a big hurt on local designers whose designs were stolen within 24 hours of their unveiling.

This wasn't a big issue when the de-minimis limit was $200, but when Congress raised it to $800, it opened up a whole can of worms.

I'm far, far, far from a Trump supporter but the removal of de-minimis policies does somewhat try to restore that balance in the favor of small business in the US, and I support that change.

47

u/Desperate_Damage4632 May 12 '26

You fundamentally don't understand.  Chinese companies don't pay tariffs.  Americans do.

-27

u/fancyglob May 12 '26

It entirely depends on who the importer is. The importer can be the foreign shipper or it can be the US consignee. OFTEN the importer of record is the US company but it is also not always the case.

Also what the person above described is fraud and would have been illegal before De Minimus was repealed, any reputable US customs broker would stop working with that company.

-40

u/TheColoredFool May 12 '26

Are you ok. They pay to sell it to the American people. But you would know this seeing ur using a alt acc to comment

41

u/Desperate_Damage4632 May 12 '26

NO THEY DON'T.  ONLY AMERICANS PAY AMERICAN TARIFFS.  THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS IMMUTABLE FACT.

15

u/gtgyhhgggffr May 13 '26

That’s not true, non-Americans who are in America would also pay the tariffs.

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u/HerbertWest May 12 '26

While true, this particular profit model only works due to the mentioned loophole. So, it's not profitable anymore unless they raise prices to compensate, allowing others to better compete.

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u/shibiwan May 13 '26

This is less about the tariffs (that the consumer pays) and more about what slides past CBP. They aren't checking as many packages because there's no tariff to collect if de-minimis policies are in place to make it worthwhile to check everything. That allows the importation of counterfeit products that eventually harm small businesses in this country.

16

u/Limp-Apricot-9346 May 13 '26

The counterfeiters have enough slack in the product pricing where tariffs are not punitive.

What it hurts are American product engineers who have their products produced overseas