Thread: End of cheap shipping from China?

I just saw this article It's Official, No More Cheap Shipping For Chinese Sellers - Selling on Amazon - Amazon Seller Forums

Originally Posted by converterking

I just saw this article It's Official, No More Cheap Shipping For Chinese Sellers - Selling on Amazon - Amazon Seller Forums

The White House announced this a year ago, they just have apparently failed to renegotiate the terms. I don't see the issue with it - doesn't seem very fair to me. We pay a ton of money to subsidize shipping from overseas to here and do not get the same in return.

Interesting if it happens and if other countries will follow the lead.

I think this is a good thing

there will be other consequences however, as this will not be the only effect. sending things to and from other countries may change, perhaps dramatically

This is the email I got from ebay this morning

"Help Protect American Small Businesses

Right now, Washington is on a collision course that could seriously disrupt international sales for American small businesses, just before the holiday season. This October, the US government is threatening to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which does everything from setting rates for international mail delivery to standardizing customs forms. If the US moves forward with withdrawal from the UPU, small business sellers on eBay who use the US Postal Service to send items overseas could be faced with increased costs and service disruptions, and global mail delivery could even come to a halt.


Tell Congress to REJECT US withdrawal from the UPU and protect small businesses and consumers!"

They've got a lot of gall using that title, the present UPU agreement is killing American small business and letting the chinese dump on the market place.

I guess I thought the amounts were come up with in some sort of agreement, and why we cannot negotiate a rational number.

I too send a smallish amount overseas via priority mail, so it would have an effect. I somewhat doubt it will be huge,as the percentage of business is small, the items are expensive and the shipping is already expensive

it would have much larger effects for most. The subsidized rates are substantially lower. Like, way, way lower.

The USPS ePacket Program and How It Affects E-Commerce | Skubana

Originally Posted by gustafson

I guess I thought the amounts were come up with in some sort of agreement, and why we cannot negotiate a rational number.

I too send a smallish amount overseas via priority mail, so it would have an effect. I somewhat doubt it will be huge,as the percentage of business is small, the items are expensive and the shipping is already expensive

If you think USPS is expensive take a look at UPS. The last time I sent something small UPS was over 4 times the price and almost twice as long to get there.

If the USPO charged First Class rates for JUNK Mail, packages could be shipped free.

If a $1 fee per Robo call were charged and collected, the military would no longer need tax money to operate.

Originally Posted by converterking

I just saw this article It's Official, No More Cheap Shipping For Chinese Sellers - Selling on Amazon - Amazon Seller Forums

If China, or any other country, send something (not an ordinary letter) to the USA doesn't it have to go through customs?

When I send my products to a country outside the EU there's always paperwork to be filled out. Fedex costs me more than sending by our national postal service (still paperwork involved) but worth the extra.

Technically yes, all packages go thru customs, but that does not mean every package is inspected, only those that throw up flags to x-ray scanners and sniffer dogs. At this point the glut of packages coming in from china has overwhelmed the system, that is why crap like fentanyl can be ordered from china.

Hurry, order your chinese christmas crap now! (sarcasm)

Yes, even letters, go through customs. They're pre-declared and go through a customs point with paperwork. However, the overwhelming majority are never checked. On top of that, large shippers that ship over and over have check rates that can be near zero (for context, the US already inspects only 4% of goods anyway). Korean customs does this with an "Authorized Economic Operator" program, Australia has a "trusted trader" program, and other countries do, as well. Likewise, not everybody who ships from China to the US gets ePacket shipping, which is the subsidized rates/system they're talking about.

Originally Posted by dalmatiangirl61

Technically yes, all packages go thru customs, but that does not mean every package is inspected, only those that throw up flags to x-ray scanners and sniffer dogs. At this point the glut of packages coming in from china has overwhelmed the system, that is why crap like fentanyl can be ordered from china.

So MaSA (Make america Safe Again) by employing more customs folk. The money being generated from tarif tolls would be put to good use.

If you're right then just have the extra employees at customs do a 100% inspection on everything from China. Hmmm I doubt if anything gets sent from China to the USA unless someone has ordered. Are you saying that there are as many stupid customers in the US as your post indicates?

Originally Posted by Gordon B. Clarke

So MaSA (Make america Safe Again) by employing more customs folk. The money being generated from tarif tolls would be put to good use.

I could be wrong but in US there is tax/duty exemption for shipments under 800 usd. So probably 99.9% of shipments from china are under the "duty-free" limit.
Here in EU the tax exemption limit is only 22 euros (and the Brussel smartasses are planning to somehow collect taxes from all purchases after 2 years)

Originally Posted by MattiJ

I could be wrong but in US there is tax/duty exemption for shipments under 800 usd. So probably 99.9% of shipments from china are under the "duty-free" limit.
Here in EU the tax exemption limit is only 22 euros (and the Brussel smartasses are planning to somehow collect taxes from all purchases after 2 years)

I doubt it's 99.9%. Plenty of people like Wal-Mart, for example, who buy from China. The 800 dollar limit you're talking about is called de minimis value. For the EU, it's only 22 for VAT, but 150 EUR for customs duties. The US has nearly the highest duty-free de minimis in the world. Another thing the US could do trade-wise is lower it to 400, or even less.

Originally Posted by nyc123

I doubt it's 99.9%. Plenty of people like Wal-Mart, for example, who buy from China. The 800 dollar limit you're talking about is called de minimis value. For the EU, it's only 22 for VAT, but 150 EUR for customs duties. The US has nearly the highest duty-free de minimis in the world. Another thing the US could do trade-wise is lower it to 400, or even less.

I was thinking of the cheap shipments that load up USPS. Wal-Mart is not using USPS when they order 5000 sea containers of chinese junk to be sold.

oh, whoops

Originally Posted by nyc123

I doubt it's 99.9%. Plenty of people like Wal-Mart, for example, who buy from China. The 800 dollar limit you're talking about is called de minimis value. For the EU, it's only 22 for VAT, but 150 EUR for customs duties. The US has nearly the highest duty-free de minimis in the world. Another thing the US could do trade-wise is lower it to 400, or even less.

Here is a perfect example. Put the US in line with other nations, bet that would pass no problem

but no, trade wars are easy to win

Originally Posted by gustafson

Here is a perfect example. Put the US in line with other nations, bet that would pass no problem

That would mean revising our tariff schedules up - raising tariffs. Especially when it comes to some countries like India that have 100% tariffs for some lines. That wouldn't really be possible because of something called "most-favored nation". You can't say "ok, India gets 100% tariffs, nations that have the lower rates will face the same tariffs they impose on us", etc. The reality is that it isn't a two-way street and the way the WTO is structured in many different ways doesn't allow for us to even make it a two-way street on just tariffs, not to mention countless non-tariff barriers, blatant violations by other countries of WTO agreements that don't see a day in court, or the dispute settlement system. The US administration's stance is that it would be better to go back to being on a bilateral basis with each country. In reality, the problems with the WTO/trade predate Trump, they just didn't receive a lot of media attention.

Nothing with this "passes no problem". I think you need to stop reading news and start actually watching Congressional hearings and what happens in terms of votes, etc. Democrats don't even want to pass the USMCA even though it goes above and beyond NAFTA (which they voted against back in the 90s as a majority in both House and Senate - they wanted to keep our tariffs higher), and even includes a whole chapter on the environment, which wasn't there before. The way the media is covering the whole issue is way off from reality. You'll do better to watch C-Span or the govt's website videos and transcripts, read the IELP blog, and read Inside Trade. What's in the media, whether that be Fox or CNN or others, leaves out a ton of context so much so to the point that it's really more like propaganda than coverage. The journalists don't understand much about it, and their goal is just to sell headlines.

The Australian Govt managed to get amazon and ebay to cough up 10% GST on everything from o/s............funny thing is they still have the $1000 gst threshhold on purchase other than the mentioned.......and thats gst on goods,transport,and markup........China have been rorting mail world wide for years......Chinese traders in a special export zone get free/heavily subsidised postage on container loads to export. .Of course the zones are ports.....Latest twist is China is exploiting developing country status of neighbouring states for cheap post if China is excluded from the UPU.