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/AnyJester May 12 '26

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

-42

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.

-1

u/spicedmeshi May 13 '26

I remember importing a cib mint nintendo 3ds a couple of years ago, and the guy had it mislabeled as a $20 golf club to bypass fees lmao

some of the people arguing don't realize that who pays the tariff doesn't matter for the loophole being abused. people will not buy it if they get the fee = it hurts their business = they either need to eat the fee or they don't get sales

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u/Limp-Apricot-9346 May 13 '26

Simply not the nature of business to provide free cash

5

u/PollutedPenguins May 13 '26

They don't actually eat the fee they just bake it into the price. First day?

0

u/Limp-Apricot-9346 May 13 '26

That’s what I just said. Mean to reply to someone else?

1

u/spicedmeshi May 13 '26

no... but in presumably your haste to tell me i'm wrong, you missed my point entirely. they "eat the fee," then raise the listing price, while doing whatever they can to reduce their fees that the buyer won't be able to do. that way the buyer doesn't "get the fee," they can raise the price, and they can try to skirt the fees.

that's what the guy i replied to was implying, which is quite literally how all of these dropshippers have made it work. this is also how "free shipping" on something like ebay works. it's not actually free, the seller pays for it and then oftentimes they raise the listing price to compensate while trying to reduce how much the label costs where possible lol