US Import Duties?

Our "president" is hell-bent on destroying the US and our relationships with allies around the world. Part of his scheme involves starting a trade war with China, and imposing a 25% traffic on goods imported from China. Part of the list is shown in the picture below, but the list includes LEDs, resistors and "tv components." I suspect the detailed list includes most of the stuff we buy on ebay (components, modules, kits, etc.) and circuit boards fabricated and/or assembled in China.

This news only came out yesterday, so I doubt anybody has seen any impact yet. I'd appreciate hearing anybody's experiences with this, including:

Does this delay shipping of goods, duty or not?

Are bare circuit boards subject to this duty? Assembled boards?

What items have you received from China have required duty?

What items have you received from China that didn't require duty?

Is the duty applied consistently?

How is the duty collected by DHL, UPS, FEDEX?

How is the dutt collected by USPS?


This tariff started a few days after I committed to a thousand dollar circuit board azsembly project in China. I'm expecting a big duty bill which my client won't be happy about, and delays in shipments as this gets sorted out.

I is/was also planning on getting some parts from ebay. I really don't want to pay a 25% surcharge on my parts.

Thanks in advance for sharing any experiences you have with this.

We used to have a Marketing & Sales Manager try to do his part in cutting costs when the company ran into some difficult times. He was not in charge of manufacturing or procurement where the big expenses were. He also wasn't allowed to cut salaries or benefits of his staff. Ultimately, the only thing he could do is impose travel restrictions on his staff and stop going to trade shows so the company could conserve cash.

He proudly presented the cost savings at the next divisional staff meeting. There are still arguments about when, exactly when he was fired - before or after he clicked to his second power point page.

In any case, some weak-minded individuals will pull levers that show they are controlling something, no matter how inappropriate those actions are. A US president can only do two things without any oversight - pardon criminals and impose tariffs.

If you don't like it, maybe you can join me in this next election and make sure you vote, you ask your friends and family to vote, you walk up and down your street and get your neighbors to vote and even send a check to a party and help them advertise in other states to convince people to vote - and get this guy fired before he shows his second slide.

I'm sorry that you are so surprised about the tariffs. Perhaps watching some of the 2016 campaign might have prepared you for this series of unfortunate events.

PS: you have likely been ignoring the 3.7% duty in effect for the past 25-years so why are you suddenly concerned with paying the 25% duty now?

PPS: FedEx and other shippers are not in the business of collecting duties and Tarrifs. You, as the Shipper of Record/Importer of Record, are required to pay them or hire an Import Broker to take care of clearing your freight. A shipper of record is the party that initiated goods to cross a boarder (it all falls on you since USC&BP cannot impose fines on your Chinese vendor for not paying the duty.

Actually! This news still affect any duty issues. All customs process just like before and duty still no changed. You can don't worry that.
BTW, I am vendor from china. If you have some projects want to manufacture, Please private chat to me.

I don't know what I have said or done to make you think I'm an ignoramus. I was quite active against this buffoon in 2016, and have already been urging anyone not registered to vote to do so now and to vote in November.

I probably have much more on the line than you do. In fact, I am virtually sure of it. I'm gay. The "president" and his cronies are working to take my EQUAL rights away. The right to marry the person I love. The right to housing and employment. The right to eat in any restaurant I choose. The right to expect any shop to provide me service. So-called "religious freedom" bills that allow others to dictate how *I* live my life.

So you can be sure I know what's on the line, because it impacts me and my friends directly, in a very personal way.

But I didn't ask this question to let you spew forth. I asked for real impacts of the tariffs that will affect people here If you can't add to the topic, please STFU.

JonSea said:

I don't know what I have said or done to make you think I'm an ignoramus. I was quite active against this buffoon in 2016, and have already been urging anyone not registered to vote to do so now and to vote in November.

I probably have much more on the line than you do. In fact, I am virtually sure of it. I'm gay. The "president" and his cronies are working to take my EQUAL rights away. The right to marry the person I love. The right to housing and employment. The right to eat in any restaurant I choose. The right to expect any shop to provide me service. So-called "religious freedom" bills that allow others to dictate how *I* live my life.

So you can be sure I know what's on the line, because it impacts me and my friends directly, in a very personal way.

But I didn't ask this question to let you spew forth. I asked for real impacts of the tariffs that will affect people here If you can't add to the topic, please STFU.

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See my PS and PPS on post above.

Guys, let's keep the politics out of it. Just focus on the main question, which is regarding the practical effects of these tariffs. Otherwise the thread will simply deteriorate to a point beyond saving and it will have to be closed.

JonSea said:

I really don't want to pay a 25% surcharge on my parts.

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Last time I lived under import duty restrictions; I would get a letter from customs "pay $59.95 to get your package". This would add a week or two to getting a delivery.
40 years down the road and there is probably a better way.
If you get parts from a vendor you will only see a price difference. If you go direct, some how you must pay the price direct. When I carried parts across the border I has to take money with me to pay right them.

I see the biggest problem is not knowing. Paying 25% is not good but we can plan for that. I see the biggest problem for US manufacturing is not knowing that will happen next week. Right now the US tries to make big changes in days with out having a plan. The old book gets thrown out and new laws are in place that are not tested. We have new people enforcing the law that have no training. I too am fighting big changes and changes to changes that caused me to crash a project.

I wish you good luck.

Talking from this side of the pond, I try to send parts to a distributor in California... Heavy duties are placed on parts that are readily available in the US... Eg.. If I send a limit switch for one of my systems, the US customs will try and slow down the process as the same thing is widely available in the US... To get around this we have to specify a speciality whereas it would be inconceivable to obtain state side..

I fully understand why these measures are taken, but the fall from grace further down the line will be worse.. Another "quick fix"...

Like most of what this administration has done, these tariffs have been hastily concocted without any thought about either the real effects of them nor how to implement them. Collecting duties on every $10 ebay purchase is going to be an enormous task that nobody is prepared for. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Hopefully, this is going to go away when public and business outcries become loud enough. The original tariff on electronics and stuff was 25% applied to $60 billion of goods. China responded in kind. So our "leader" imposed an addition 10% tariff on $200 billion of goods. This can't go on for long.

I didn't intend this as a political discussion, only a discussion about the impacts of the tariffs. Volumes could be said about the political system in place today, but I will refrain

Ronsimpson has nailed it.....Not knowing what will happen next, how to do things legally and with the least financial pain.

• Tariffs may cause some difficulty to large corporations, but they have scores of tax and trade experts to find the correct and least expensive approach. For every tax, there is a loophole. They may already have assembly facilities in countries not affected by tariffs and could move some production out.
  
• Medium sized companies may not posses the expertise in-house, but can hire the services of outside experts. Expensive, but most likely they can afford it. They also may not posses overseas facilities but their volume may still be attractive to foreign assembly contractors.
  
• On the other hand the small companies will suffer mightily. Outside experts may prove too expensive for their limited budgets. On the other hand......Not knowing how to proceed correctly with the risk of being severely fined for paying too little, or to pay in excess for tariffs which could be offset from other taxes, may mean that their economic viability is at risk.

schmitt trigger said:

• Tariffs may cause some difficulty to large corporations, but they have scores of tax and trade experts to find the correct and least expensive approach. For every tax, there is a loophole. They may already have assembly facilities in countries not affected by tariffs and could move some production out.

• Medium sized companies may not posses the expertise in-house, but can hire the services of outside experts. Expensive, but most likely they can afford it. They also may not posses overseas facilities but their volume may still be attractive to foreign assembly contractors.

• On the other hand the small companies will suffer mightily. Outside experts may prove too expensive for their limited budgets. On the other hand......Not knowing how to proceed correctly with the risk of being severely fined for paying too little, or to pay in excess for tariffs which could be offset from other taxes, may mean that their economic viability is at risk.

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Not really! When was the last time a company big, medium, or small take the hit? The ones that will pay are the final consumer.

I never said that the end customer won't see a price increase.

What I am saying is that larger corporations have better tools to offset some of the added cost, which brings two important outcomes:

• The better prepared corporation may offer the product at a lower price than the competition, increasing market share.
• If the better prepared corporation decides instead to offer the product at the same price than the competition, then it will have larger profit margins.

In both instances, the least prepared companies, I.e. the small companies, will feel the financial pain.
And of course, the consumer.

Here is a pretty good analysis of the impact of trump's tariffs:

Bunnie's Blog: New US Tariffs are Anti-Maker and Will Encourage Offshoring

Small makers cannot pay for Washington lobbyists.
And certainly don’t figure in Trump’s radar.

JonSea said:

"Think about it – big companies with the resources to organize thousands of overseas workers making TVs and cell phones will have their outsourced supply chains protected,

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Think that had anything to do with his(the supreme leader's) ZTE stance???

I been going over this for a months now nothing adds up Hope you get your boards ok Jon.

Thanks Burt. I'll probably have to hand over $250 to get them.

I just read a link you posted in 13 That is how i see it too next problem is why Us small people carry the world but we are beat down from all sides
25 for every dollar but samsung is still free to ship. While Jon and the rest of us who buys parts which i do and lot's I think seeing this is my hobby.

I'm wondering if it's going to be collected on small purchases on ebay. The ten or twenty bucks you might typicall6 spend on stuff.

JonSea said:

I'm wondering if it's going to be collected on small purchases on ebay. The ten or twenty bucks you might typicall6 spend on stuff.

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In the UK there's always been some kind of import duty, plus VAT (Value Added Tax - currently 20%) on imports from outside the EU. However, there's a threshold level below which it doesn't apply, and a small quantity of electronic parts usually falls below the threshold.

For example, the JLC PCB's I've been ordering, the 10 100x100 boards for $2 offer, even including the DHL shipping, falls below the threshold. When I ordered 100 boards, this was above the threshold, so we were charged VAT, plus a charge for collecting the money, and 'perhaps' some kind of import duty as well. I'm not even sure what the threshold is

I presume something similar will apply in the USA, where small amounts aren't worth collecting?.