US Import Duties?

JonSea said:

Gophert's comments were that the 25% tariff was an insignificant issue. Obviously, it's not. Anything purchased from large supply houses will have 25%+ tacked on to the price of many items originating in China (which appears to to be a significant number).
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My original question was and still is how will this affect small orders, like printed circuit boards from China and smalls lots of parts purchased from ebay. Small amounts of duty may well be ignored, but this cannot be said with any certainty at this point in time. The man who is in our White House has proven to be very vindictive, and won't let harm to US citizens interfere with his goal to "punish" China. This has proven to be the case with farmers impacted by the trade war - their suffering is deemed "for the greater good".

Whether or not the duty is collected, these tariffs may impact shipping times as each parcel is inspected for tariff applicability. Will packages shipped by DHL still arrive in a few days, or will they be stuck in customers for days or even weeks?

My original questions still stand and as yet, I have seen no real-world answers. Some suppositions and some unfounded comments about my panties being in a knot for no reason have been made but clearly the tariffs will have impacts on hobbyists and small businesses while affecting large-scale offshore manufacturing not at all. I look forward...fear actually...hearing some real-world experiences about the impacts of these tariffs.

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I would like to know those "real-world" answers as well. I believe that they are not forthcoming for the reason that *they* do not yet know how they are going to handle the situation. Here is my thinking and I may very well be wrong and am throwing it out there for consideration and clarification.

If I buy something from Digikey, for example, and I and they are in the US, then I am NOT responsible for paying a tariff (or a duty, which seems like the same thing for what we are discussing). Digikey is responsible for paying the tariff because they are the ones importing the goods from China. So, THEY are the ones that will figure out how the real world example will be handled. As per their statement, they have not yet decided how to do this. Obviously, they can simply raise the price on items for which they have already paid a tariff. But, if you order from Digikey and are outside the US, this, it seems to me, could be problematic. Given your address, you may simply see a duty added to a variety of items in your US order - presuming they can manage that programming - that is one way I could see it being handled.

If I buy something directly from Seeed, for example, I am the one who is importing from China and I have to pay the tariff. According to their blurb on the subject (which has been modified since I first read it) https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/20...chimp&utm_medium=edm&utm_campaign=bazaar_0706

"an additional 25% tariff will be charged for certain products shipped to the USA starting July 6th, 2018" This *suggests* that you and I, getting the items shipped to the US, will pay Seeed 25% more on those items and will otherwise, get them the same way (i.e., they are paying the tariff by raising the price to you).

But, if you look at DHL's blurb https://www.dhl.com/en/express/customs_support/duties_taxes/duties_taxes_receivers.html

They sound like they are saying that *they* pay the tariff and then you pay them...

• To ensure the DHL courier can deliver your goods in shortest possible time after entering your country or customs union, DHL pays the customs authority on your behalf for any duties and taxes that are due on the goods.
• Once the duties and taxes are fully repaid to DHL the goods will be delivered to you

This would mean that we have to reimburse DHL (or some other shipper) for the tariff that they already paid.

Seems to me that the same issue exists for China Post that ends up being delivered by the USPS - that is, you come down and pay the tariff before you get your stuff.

So, what about something on EBAY that is sent China Post and you are not directly charged a tariff at all. I don't know, but look at it realistically - if my "free shipping" for a $3 LCD is held at the US Post Office until I come down and pay 75 cents in tariff, it is going to have a BIG impact on ordering, I would think. So, there too, if they are able to do so, I would expect that the EBay sellers are going to figure out how to raise the price so that YOU don't have to go pay the tariff to get your stuff.

Finally, this can all change in November with the mid-terms and maybe before then as issues of whether congressional approval for these tariffs (which some may not consider as national security issues) is required.

*phew*


edited for typos and grammar and clarity

It looks like a mess to me wonder what there really covering up here

Thanks, DrG for your analysis.

My corporate sourcing department attended a seminary yesterday. The situation is still evolving and there is still significant confusion.
One thing is certain:
The tariffs will definitively impact the end customer's price.

JonSea said:

Gophert's comments were that the 25% tariff was an insignificant issue. Obviously, it's not. Anything purchased from large supply houses will have 25%+ tacked on to the price of many items originating in China (which appears to to be a significant number).

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Jon, i hope you read notes from your customers more carefully than you've read this thread. Please go back to post 25
, read it carefully, then you'll understand what I meant by "non-collected" tariff.

Nigel read my post and clearly understood it...

Nigel Goodwin said:

That's rather a different matter - the 'non-collected' suggestion refers to small personal imports, under some assumed threshold (as in the UK with VAT) - obviously a large importer like Digikey won't be under any such threshold so will have to pay the import duty.

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I received my shipment of assembled boards from China via DHL. No tariffic collected even on this rather high-value (for me at least) shipment. I don't know if this is the norm and where any cutoff point might be, so it's not time to conclude it won't have any impact yet.

JonSea said:

I received my shipment of assembled boards from China via DHL. No tariffic collected even on this rather high-value (for me at least) shipment. I don't know if this is the norm and where any cutoff point might be, so it's not time to conclude it won't have any impact yet.

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As I said, non-collected tariff. There is no infrastructure in place to stop less than a container sized shipment at this point. They may eventually set up a system where they put you in a fenced room (a.k.a. "Cage") because you didn't pay the duty but for now, you'll be ok unless you taunt them by posting about your unpaid duties on the internet.

To follow up: I place an order with Digi-Key today and noticed several items listed as tariif added and tariff eligible.

The text for tariff-eligible is:
This part number has been identified to be impacted by tariff.
At this time a tariff fee has not been included due to either:
Our inventory position allows us to currently delay passing through the tariff fee
or
The supplier has elected at this time to absorb the cost of the tariff.
Tariff is applicable only to US shipment destinations.

and for tarrif applied:
Digi-Key pricing includes tariff fee.

Tariff is applicable only to US shipment destinations.

We are starting to get some answers on how things will shake out.

There is another blog which states that some products Made in China, are now currently labeled Made in Hong Kong.

Have not personally seen it

schmitt trigger said:

There is another blog which states that some products Made in China, are now currently labeled Made in Hong Kong.

Have not personally seen it

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And isn't Hong Kong part of China now?.

I remember a LONG time ago they renamed a Chinese town 'Sheffield' so they could stamp 'Made In Sheffield' on cutlery.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region, WTF that means.

From the South China Morning Post:
Technically, Hong Kong is to be shielded by a US deal, called the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act, which means the country has treated the city separately from China in terms of trade export and economics since the return of its sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997. So the tariffs the US slapped on China do not apply to Hong Kong.

schmitt trigger said:

There is another blog which states that some products Made in China, are now currently labeled Made in Hong Kong.

Have not personally seen it

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There is another blog which states that some Purina Unicorn Chow was relabeled as Dragon Chow.

Have not personally seen it.

Like all other such reports, likely a BS rumor that has NO BASIS IN FACT.

You are correct, not everything that one reads on the web, and specifically a blog, can be assumed to be true.

But what is true, is that Hong Kong does have a different tariff arrangement than mainland China. Whether they are taking advantage of that fact or not, is something I don't know.

A client recently had to pay about 25% of the declared value ($800 declared value) on boards we had assembled in China. That's a big hit for a small startup.

Six weeks ago, I had an ebay order recalled by customs from my local post office. The package made a 2 week journey from Seattle to the customs office in San Francisco, where the package was untouched (original plastic envelop never opened). The "logic analyzer" with a declared value of $3 may have been a flag for them. They were probably disappointed that this was a 2" × 2" PCB

schmitt trigger said:

You are correct, not everything that one reads on the web, and specifically a blog, can be assumed to be true.

But what is true, is that Hong Kong does have a different tariff arrangement than mainland China. Whether they are taking advantage of that fact or not, is something I don't know.

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Hong Kong does have different duty rates. However, there are age-old rules agreed to by most countries of what constitutes "Made in ..." vs " Shipped from...".

Country of origin is a big deal. I can't just do the last step of manufacturing in the US "made in America". That does not meet the criteria. I can say "final assembly in America" but the rules for duties and Made In... are much more complicated than final assembly.