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Shipping to the U.S. well forget it !

G

Gspragge

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
They are only hurting themselves. I will no longer even bother to try to ship to the U.S. now.
The US has announced that the de minimis exemption for imports (the threshold below which imported goods won’t need to be charged duties and fees) from all countries will be eliminated as of August 29th 2025. It’s crucial to understand how this change may impact your shipments.

Duties and customs clearance: Starting August 29th, all shipments to the US—regardless of value—will be subject to applicable duties and customs clearance. As of this date, Canada Post has advised that its current Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) shipping services to the US (Tracked PacketTM USA, Expedited ParcelTM USA, or XpresspostTM USA) are not compliant with these changes.

There is a significant risk that non-compliant shipments arriving to the US beyond August 29th will be returned to the sender. Therefore, effective August 25th these Canada Post services will be disabled on eBay Labels.
 
Dutch post also stops shipping packages to the US due to unclarity per direct. Apparantly most EU postal services are working together to get it resolved.
 
Some of that makes sense but it hurts the collector not engaging in Chinese commerce. And anything I send will
have to go by courrier costing much more. Now it states gifts between indidviduals are exempt - but I think country of origin will
play a part.
 
One would think our government would give a break to individuals selling antiques. Even companies. It's not like there is a U.S. company selling genuine, inert bomb fuses or time pencils that is being hurt by foreign imports. It might be difficult to carve out exemptions from the new rules.

In any case, one effect will be price increases for the buyer. It might or might not be significant to him or her. The other effect will be how the duty is charged. How shippers, Ebay, and other middlemen adapt to it, or they lose business.
 
Hello everyone!Deutsche Post (DHL) is also no longer shipping packages to the USA!
 
This could be extremely bad news for me. I have several thousand dollars worth of SOE sabotage items on hold in France that still need to be sent to me in the USA. I do have my parcels marked as being a "gift", so hopefully that will help to avoid any challenges.
 
WWIIBuff said:
This could be extremely bad news for me. I have several thousand dollars worth of SOE sabotage items on hold in France that still need to be sent to me in the USA. I do have my parcels marked as being a "gift", so hopefully that will help to avoid any challenges.
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I think you should simply transfer those orders to me. Wash your hands of the problem. Sleep better at night. I will give you visitation rights at one of the shows.:p
 
Please do not make this forum about Trump as well (TDS = Trump Derangement Syndrome). Whether you like it or not, not much is clear on how this whole tariff stuff works out for the postal services and many other companies. Let alone, when things will change (again).

Postal services need to make a profit for their services. Unclarity = risk. Business = reduce risk. I can only hope this gets resolved soon as many people will be hurt by this.
 
I think it started as an anti Chinese thing (from what I read here) and any get around they had by shipping via secound country. But a sleg hammer has been used
and things like antiques and small gifts are caught up in this. If enough of the U.S. public complain things may sort out. But this has essenually cut the U.S.
off from the world of things the U.S. cannot supply and things people want, like SOE ww2 items ! It won't help many and will annoy many many more. It will raise costs for the U.S. buyer via courier as the new tarrif will be added to thier cost of course prior to shipping, not to mention just plain higher shipping - The couriers will love this, now they get it all and I bet no price break~ So it's wait and see ~
Personally I had no idea there was an $800 duty free ceiling in the first place ~ :rolleyes:
It remains to be seen how to claim a gift now and country of origin/manufacture will be important.
 
Our government says foreign businesses have used the $800 no-duty loophole to evade tariffs, plus it has helped criminals to bring drugs and counterfeit products into the U.S. I have heard EU countries have a similar exemption but at a lower threshold -150 euros, and the UK will allow parcels up to 135 GBP with no tariffs. Here, the exemption started in 1938 for imports valued $1 or less, to save on the paperwork. This went to $5 in 1990, $200 in 1993, and to $800 in 2015. A huge increase in the number of sub-$800 packages has occurred. In 2015 it was 134 million packages. Last year it was 1.36 billion packages entering the U.S. with a value of $64.6 billion. These numbers are from the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Agency. About 60% of the 2024 shipments came from China and Hong Kong. Generally the higher tariffs have been to level the playing field. The U.S. has paid much higher tariffs sending products into many countries while our tariffs on their goods coming here have been lower. Some increased tariffs were a threat to get countries to correct what they have been doing, then the tariffs were reduced. It is complicated.

Unfortunately the elimination of the loophole has been enacted earlier than I think was the original plan. So companies and shippers are scrambling. Unfortunately it will affect people like me in the short term because many of the things I want to buy are in the UK and EU. Maybe in the long term too. Hard to know.
 
It works the other way round buying from the US. Postage being the killer, more expensive for postage than the item. If i pay the shipping to the UK the item then goes to customs and then sent to a post office centre where i am not only charged for tax but a handling fee and if i wanted it posted from there another postal charge or spend money on fuel to collect it. Shame really as America has some excellent goods to buy not just ordnance etc. If your country wants to encourage trade then the postage has to be on par or similar to the Chinese system. If they can subsidise their postage then i am sure the UK and US can do it, its only the greedy postal services and tax man killing off trade.
 
Just read an article regarding an 80% drop in international postal traffic since the implementation of the tariff exemption for low cost imports.
 
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