The reality of the tariffs hits home

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Today the import tariffs hit me explictly and directly. If you want to see the details of how my case was handled, read on. I ordered a couple things from a company in the UK. The order was shipped by DHL. I didn’t realize one item was made in China. The item cost $82.90 and the tariff was $31.40 (37.5 percent), plus $1.31 for regulatory fee, plus DHL charged $17 for tariff processing. The total is more than half the cost of the item itself. I’m not happy, but I had no choice other than to not pay, have the parcel returned to the seller, and presumably, they wouldn’t refund the $44 freight cost and may make me pay any return shipping.

So… don’t forget that even if you order something from another country, check/ask for the origin of each item you buy because that’s what the tariffs are based on, not the country it’s shipped from. I would especially caution people who back projects on sites like Kickstarter where many, many things are manufactured in China and Hong Kong. (I’ve backed three projects that are somehow going to have to pay tariffs.)

Here’s the invoice if you want to see the details. I could blame the goat for this, but the blame really belongs elsewhere.

invoice for tariffs