The trade provision that allows consumers and resellers to avoid duties on shipments worth $800 or less is ending for products made in China.
The Wall Street Journal reports E-Commerce Sellers Brace for End of De Minimis
The so-called de minimis provision that exempts packages of $800 or less from duties is scheduled to end at just after midnight Eastern time on Friday for goods made in China and Hong Kong, after President Trump in early April ordered the end of the policy.
The change will leave most shipments subject to the new 145% base tariff on all Chinese products, as well as additional levies based on the nature of the products. Steep fees on packages shipped via the international postal network—as opposed to carriers such as FedEx or United Parcel Service—kick in at the same time.
Use of the de minimis provision has skyrocketed in recent years with a surge of goods from bargain sites Shein and Temu, both of which already have been raising prices ahead of the exemption’s end. About 1.36 billion shipments using the de minimis provision entered the U.S. in fiscal year 2024, up from 637 million four years earlier, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Other e-commerce sellers say they can’t afford the steep tariffs due to be levied on their merchandise. More than 80% of executives said eliminating de minimis would threaten their company’s survival in a survey earlier this year conducted by retail analysis firm Wakefield Research and logistics company Swap Commerce.
Companies are “thinking about this in existential terms,” said Juan Pellerano-Rendón, chief marketing officer at Swap. “Everyone’s trying to use different tactics, but at the end of the day, I don’t think that any brand can wholly absorb these changes to de minimis.”
A $175 pair of athletic sneakers made in China of synthetic materials shipped directly to a U.S. customer from Kuru’s Canadian warehouse would be liable for more than $300 in tariffs, said Matt Barnes, the company’s chief financial officer.
“The margin is so negative at that point there is absolutely no point in considering fulfillment from Canada” for goods made in China, Barnes said.
China-founded discount retailers Shein and Temu have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the de minimis exemption, which has helped the companies sell goods at prices far below rivals such as Amazon.com.
The two companies started raising prices last week. Some products on the sites are 40% to 100% more expensive than last week, according to Geekbi, an e-commerce pricing and sales tracker.
Hooray!? 40% to 100% Higher Prices
Who wants that? (Exclusions for cultist parrots who cannot think).
The idea we are going to bring shoe or clothes manufacturing back to the US (or that we would like the price result if we did) is of course ludicrous.
But let’s assume for a second we did bring shoe manufacturing to the US.
Q: Will the US ever be able to compete with China or Vietnam on shoes or clothing exports?
A: Of course not.
It’s doubtful the US can even produce as good a shoe. All we will have achieved is making US citizens pay more to get less.
Republicans Against Trump
GOP Senator Rand Paul: “Tariffs don’t punish foreign governments. They punish American families. When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything—from groceries to smartphones to washing machines to prescription drugs.”
Rand Paul for President anyone? Count me in.
Trump’s Plan to Make Manufacturing Great Again
For discussion of the absurdity of this setup, please see Trump’s Plan to Make Manufacturing Great Again in Pictures
Contrary to popular myth, neither NAFTA nor China entering the WTO impacted long-term trends in manufacturing employment in place since 1953.
” The game is not about making shoes in the US. It is much a much bigger game about power and preventing a debt spiral in the US. Trump or Bessent needs to go on Rogan to explain this. I love the ignorant pro China comments. China bad.”
Exactly how does making everyone in the US pay more for clothes, shoes lawn mowers etc., prevent a debt spiral in the US?
The ignorant economic thinking of the cult is a sight to behold.
Guess I’ll be tripping over fewer packages in my building lobby…..
Elimination of de minimus is long overdue. In general I am not a Trump supporter, but this is one of several things I can strongly support. I also Trumps general idea that we needs to take action to reduce the trade imbalances. But I cannot support much of they ways he is trying to do it.
Eliminating the de mininus tariff exemption is great! What a wonderful lesson we are about to learn as people struggle to find items that they need to buy for a reasonable price. Let’s see them find equivalent items that are made in America. What an eye opener!
PapaDave
It seems people don’t adequately appreciate sarcasm.
I try my best.
I think the word for it Is “Sarchasm”.
Defined as:
The gulf that exists between the author of sarcastic whit and the person that doesn’t get it!
Clever!
We need a recession to cut rates and debt. IF (!) Trump headbutts Tehran oil might rise. Exogenouses causes might lift inflation during a recession. The Fed will have to raise rate above Paul Volcker 1979 high, bc there is no oil glut insight. Debt will deflate. It will stop the debt spiral. Foreign entities might build new factories and beef up our defense industry. DX might rise along with inflation. It will plunge only if we lose a war with Iran. SPX [1M] is a Hanging Man at the top. It was never so bad. Buffett invest in short terms T bills, not in 10Y.
Higher payroll tax collection and higher inflation….
Your house and your rent might deflate in real terms. Bond investors will get a heart attack. The zoomers and gen alpha will benefit the most.
I recommend viewing recent podcasts featuring Brent Johnson, the dollar milkshake guy from Santiago Capital, and Michael Every. Michael posts on Linked-In. The game is not about making shoes in the US. It is much a much bigger game about power and preventing a debt spiral in the US. Trump or Bessent needs to go on Rogan to explain this. I love the ignorant pro China comments. China bad.
“preventing a debt spiral in the US”
Lol. Spoiler alert: US in $40 trillion in debt. The debt spiral has already happened and Trump is making it worse with $4+ trillion added to the debt ceiling. That $40 trillion number alone can’t be paid back no matter what happens. Add to it the unfunded liabilities and you’re into the $100+ trillion.
Default is inevitable, only a question of when not if.
it’s been a slow motion default by debauching the currency. we are all old enough to remember when 100USD bill was for ballers. now it’s not enough for a lunch for a family of 4 in many places. it’s only a matter of time when everyone is a millionaire including the maids. the SS will buy a bag of groceries in 10 years.
Bessent helped Soros collapse the Pound. the tech bro billionaires are trying to play the role of the 90s russian oligarchs. i was in russia in 90s. had an oligarch client. wild times back then. wild times ahead.
Bessent is helping trump collapse the dollar right in front of our eyes and no one seems to understand the damage he is doing!
To understand Trump better listen to Michael Every
I’ve watched Mr. Every twice on Adam Taggert’s YouTube channel Thoughtful Money.
His most recent podcast with Every about two months ago as I watched I wrote the following comments in Taggert’s comment section under a different monicker.
The trade war and the Great Game is being played out as I write this. A person that uses reason, has read history, is aware how trade flows affect the importer, exporter, the trade deficit, the financial impact, the budget deficit, etc., will realize that China has the better poker hand at this time. They also have the better leadership. They are amassing soft and hard power. They are a legitimate economic and military competitor of the US in Asia.
Under Trump’s successor and the Donald, the US is stretched too thin around the globe. The US has spent around and continues to spend trillions of dollars in adventure wars and proxy adventure wars while China continues to invest domestically in its people, its businesses, its military and gains influence in around the globe.
A critical thinker has to ask themself if viewing this new Thucydides trap from the 30,000 foot level who has more time on its side, who plans better, who is gaining allies and trade partners, who is losing allies and trade partners, which domestic economy is performing better, who is ascendent and who is declining, who has more domestic and foreign problems.
This is not to say that China doesn’t have internal and external problems of its own making and circumstances, events beyond its control. Nor is to say that Trump doesn’t have cards to play. It is to say that Trump’s aces such as the reserve currency and US military supremacy are being flittered away on wars and investments that are not in the US strategic interests and what is best to augment a middle class.
In short, the US is losing.
Johnson’s Milkshake theory has credence.
I believe it would be a good military strategy to move manufacturing to smaller countries and cut of the money flow to China.
The US Cold war strategy was to move factories inland to make it more difficult for the Soviets to hit them. Building factories in smaller countries is an even easier target for adversaries to attack. Sinking cargo ships is very easy. The supply chain disruption would be catastrophic. Redundant systems are reliable.
Trump will visit the Gulf states between May 13 and 16.
Most if not ALL of you are not aware of What Portugal did for the CHINESE JUNK SHOP business there: they exempt them from TAXES for the first ten years.
As a result, our home town in Southern Portugal, LAGOS (in the Algarve) features THREE CHINESE JUNK STORES, which sell the WORST-MADE ITEMS. The Chinese store clerks are simply arrogant FUKS who do not even greet us when we go in there.
WHY do we shop there? Portugal managed to put MOST of the Portuguese owned stores out of business. There is ONE good Portuguese Home goods store and ALL of those goods are German/SWISS made hardware, of the highest quality AND VERY EXPENSIVE (three times the Chinese Junk shops).
Worse, the Chinese Junk shops are thriving.
It can’t be junk if they are thriving. That makes no sense. The quality can’t be that bad that those businesses thrive. You are contradicting yourself and the free market never lies.
If you want to bash China, just bash China no need to bash products that seem to be thriving.
I thought Amazon didn’t own any physical shops but I guess they do where you live.
The Portuguese are ‘nice’ people but they suffer from that Southern European patronage mentality. They are even more docile as a people than their cousins next door. They have relied on being a vacation home spot for Europeans from wealthier nations to their north for so long that the sense of inferiority permeats the culture. For example, there is a phase ‘For the English to see’ which is used when someone wants to appear wealthier or of higher status than they probably are.
Mfg jobs as % of payroll declined between 1943/44 when WWII was almost over and 2009. It became steeper since 1967, when Nasser closed the Suez canal. After Detroit was saved in 2009 it’s almost flat, despite a 20 millions rise in the US population. It might jump more than 10%, after a spring (as between 1939 and 1943)
How much of “Detroit was saved” was the car company consumer credit divisions blowing up?
Correct! GM Finance was bailed out and became Ally.
Same scam, different name.
Ford on the other hand took no bailout!
Most developed countries have some kind of a de minimis exemption as it simply doesn’t make sense to chase after custom duties for a so many small orders. What’s different about the US was the level of the exemption, which at $800 was unusually high. In the EU for example it’s set at $170. If the value is greater than this amount, reasonable customs duties apply.
So instead of lowering the exemption to some value that makes sense, the Orange Fool just eliminates it altogether and places insane duties on all packages instead.
Incompetence galore.
Reading all the comments here reminds me of that scene in the movie Titanic when they realize the ship is going to sink and the panic sets in. Panic on the deck, the in-fighting, the smart departures and the band playing on.
Well you’re on the Trumptanic alright and she’s gonna sink. A few will get on lifeboats and live to tell another tale, the rest will jump into an icy cold ocean for a few more minutes of life, flail about then succumb to the cold, and the rest will just go down with the ship.
Well, let’s be HONEST (in here, we got it!). HONESTY is not a TrumpCO POLICY. Instead, we get bull-scheisse!
America cannot do anything well without willing GEN-Z-ER workers. Gen-Ex-Ers are already working and doing quite well.
Boomers are no longer available and are traveling to see and take care of Grandkids who cannot make it on nothing and Inflation is worsening Grandparent’s cost of Living.
FOOD is now WAY higher. RENTS ARE ATROCIOUS. Affordable Housing is in short supply. Cars are costly. Commuting is expensive.
SO, kids just stay home, even if they ARE willing to work.
Where will we find the labor? ROBOTS?
The day of the election, Regular gasoline was $2.96. A barrel of oil was $68.
Today, that same gallon of regular gas is $3.35 in my market (upper midwest) due to trumps tariffs on Canada. At the same time, a barrel of crude oil has dropped $10 to $58 per barrel. Hopefully most readers will be paying lower prices.
Russia and Iran are ignoring the sanctions and dumping oil on the market because trump is a blowhard paper tiger. The world is thriving on cheaper oil. Diversion of low cost products to alternative markets is booming while we are all paying higher prices. Starting this week, products will be disappearing from the pipeline to the wholesalers, and quickly, be unavailable to consumers.
Adding insult to injury for our domestic oil producers, OPEC is adding to production next month – into a market awash with oil. U.S. producers will see a market flooded with oil produced under our cost and our exports of petroleum will come to a screeching halt. Thousands in the oil patch will lose their jobs. Hundreds of small producers will go bankrupt.
U.S. sourced LNG exports contracted to China are being rejected at the ports and diverted to other markets. Loadings are down from our LNG export terminals by 15-20%.
Tax revenues will fall precipitously at the Federal, State and Local levels while defense spending is raised to a trillion $’s to build missiles & planes that we can not use because of a shortage of rare earths for critical components.
Who does trump work for?
Who here is DOWN-VOTING a factual posting? WHO ARE THESE ARSEHOLES who down-vote GOOD postings? I do not get it?
MAGA cult. They are mentally ill, they can’t help themselves.
that’s the first time I have up voted one of your comments.
Who? Who doesn’t want to wear the ribbon?
Regular gas is $5.29 per gallon here in Silicon Valley. I’m not sure that the Democrats do a great job with gas prices.
Oh boy! We collected $18 billion in tariffs last month and lost $3.5 trillion in market cap. LMAO
Too bad trump failed 6th grade math!
Apples and oranges.
Sometime later truck drivers and dock workers will have to start picking oranges and apples to try to make ends meet. A bit later they will be in competition with everyone else that used to have a job.
Don’t forget the out-of-work coders. They can pick oranges too.
NO! They will become “influencers.”
Bingo!
Also “counselors.”
..who just happen to be picking oranges.
OLD fat zion don only cares about being in the headlines. everything else he cares nothing about. no such thing as bad news for him. even his trials and mugshots were great publicity. the nit wittery still doesn’t get this simple fact. he’s a nihilist. a great amerikan. democracy works.
!
TrumpCO is a borrowing entity, bankrupted by his own actions in his Building Businesses. Trump’s DADDY gave him millions and he is STILL A LOSER when it comes to THINK-ERY.
S&P April 1st open is 5598
May 1st open is 5625
In Europe there is the same exemptions and it has been causing local manufactures for quite some time. They complained in the past to the government who put it on the schedule to be discussed with thee other countries in Brussels in 2028 but Trump’s move to eliminate the exception has the Europeans moving up to removing this exception now. They look carefully at what Trump is doing and some things he is doing impresses them them enough to imitate them. DOGE is another one that European governments are attempting to imitate. Don’t listen to what they say. Look at what they do. It is often the complete opposite.
A couple crucial differences:
It hasn’t changed yet.If and when it does change, reasonable customs duties will apply, not ridiculously high duties and fees.
The risk of a war with Iran is growing. The Ayatollah will not bent to Trump ultimatums and Trump will not bend to Tehran. Iran has 6/7 nukes. Iran annual GDP is $400B. Iran produces 4mb/day, 4% of the global oil production. Five of the largest national oil co are clustered together in the ME. A clash between a superpower and a few mini nuke superpowers might lead to a major disaster. The end results are unknown. Trump will blame Carter. Xi and Putin will watch from the sideline, waiting until a very divided US exhaust itself, before they act.
I would consider it an honor and privilege to witness the end of the world!
Nuns banging on my knuckles making me ready 60 freaking years ago like it was TOMORROW!!
SLEEP WELL moron….
The UAE is close to having nukes, don’t ask me how they got there, and SA can get them from Pakistan in a weekend. Iran’s nukes are of limited utility when your neighbors also have them. Iran’s quest to get nukes paradoxically has made them less secure and not more secure.
Bomb-BOMB-bomb…..
bomb iran…
McCain was one badd ass
kept in a bamboo cage
crazed warmonger
R.I.P.
grandpa mccain and obama got us into the ukraine by getting CIA to help instigate a coup. he was an asshole. if not for his admiral father and grandfather he would have been in prison and the brig as a youth. he crashed 5 planes. he was always an asshole. i met him many times. to know him was to hate him. unless you are a flaming queen like miss lindsay from the great state of SC.
biden convinced mcc to stab trump in the back. for that act he became a presidential candidate. obama ordered him to hide in his basement. the regime change king used george floyd assassination to oust trump.
And massive cheat by mail
Pretty influential in the banking shadows, too.
McCain was a jackass.
Steve Witkoff soften Putin and the Ayatollah. It’s Trump ego vs death to America and death to the zionist state. It’s all about power. Nukes to destroy nukes. Iran will end worse than Jasa. Oil will spike like in the 70’s. No twenty years of glut insight. A lesson to proliferation. Take your bets.
Peace and tranquility are over. Xi raided HK. Putin invaded Ukraine. Hamas raided Israel. Trump and Iran, India and Pakistan might exchange nukes blows. If a nuke country A proxies blow a nuke device in country B ==> B will nuke A. B might nuke A to preempt A proxies threats.
amerika has become a bitch to the sunni saudis, and of course zion. the sunnis are scared of the shia who tossed the amerikan bitch, the shah. the rest is eyewash.
carter, the woke president, stabbed the shah in his back. globalization, which started with carter to fight inflation, hollowed up america.
Clue
Winston Churchill
in
The Middle East
with
A surveyor wheel
RAIZE A HAND IF YOU THINK TRUMPKIN WONT FIND Hong Kong OR Taiwan ON MAP!
Wouldn’t he pull out his magic marker and put(in) wherever he liked?!
Raise your hand if you think Alx one day will learn how to spell.
well it is not A SECRET I am not American, so I am not English lang native person.
I bet 100$ YOU DONT KNOW any 2d LANGUAGE in any form at all !
=====
I used to live in USA, West coast, and my English was good enough to get job at Microsoft.!
what are you good for? what is you university degree? know diff between quick sorting and merge sorting?
alx
I think everyone caught on that you are not American long ago. What’s the difference between a codon and an anticodon?
The Seattle Chop Shop?
I speak two others.
I bet you say KRASSANT down at the Boulangerie. Does Madame Doug have to translate for you.
No. I have your wife deliver them to us by hand.
You’d have trouble doing that!!!!!
I asked AI, and it said this is the kind of question someone fresh out of CS classes would ask. Soon forget about it like old jeans.
AI is smart, huh.
If not on my block then IDGAF
what a mo11ron. TRUMPKIN is !
they will route through Taiwan, or Vietnam! or any east Asia country
pretty much everything goes through Singapore too!
RAIZE A HAND IF YOU THINK TRUMPKIN WONT FIND Hong Kong OR Taiwan ON MAP!
Mish tests Jojo and bmc^2 IQ.
Most things I buy are American made. It is not that hard if you buy quality items. I always go quality over quantity.
bs. you are not even american! i guess
name 10 things you bought last month made 100pct in USA?
do you even know mor11on 40% of modern Boeing made in japan, shipped into USA, and assembled
same sh11it for various car brands!!
Cars? You sound like an expert on cracked blocks.
What car is 100% American made?
This will be good for labor, but pinch the non productive middleman. Oh well
180 countries can produce shoes, underwear. electric fans…Shoes and other minis are not exclusively made in China. China can easily be replaced. When Trump and Xi settled their differences buyers will tell Chinese salesmen: somebody else is making it for us. The US dollar flow to Temu Shein or other Chinese entities ==> will slow. China is running out of time. So is the EU..
= China can easily be replaced.
mo1ron. if it was so easy to do (relocate out of china), it would have been done already
have you ever run a lemon stand?
=====
do you even have basic knowledge of businesses? like cost of labor?
do you even mo1ron know that you won’t find hard working USA ppl who is willing to work for 5000$ per month?
or that in china people work for 500$ per month
jesus!
What would they each be making if converted to Celsius?
=180 countries can produce shoes, underwear. electric fans
what countries moron? have you ever travelled outside local county , or opened
geo. map?
south/ central America? really?
Africa? really?
central / east Europe ?
middle east countries which being bombed or being at war all the time?
=========
do you even hear who stupid you are??????
Look at a map with the Pacific Ocean in the middle.
Q. Where is Europe?
A. Who cares.
There are four areas where China is critical and only four. They are rare earths, pharmaceutical products and precursors, semiconductor components and assembly for critical systems, and lithium-ion batteries. All other products China makes can be replaced rather easily and by many other countries. Of the four areas the US and other countries have crash programs to replace China’s dominance. Rare earths will take five years at least. Pharmaceutics are being re-shored and friend-shored but it will take time as the supply chains are very complex. The US has a leading edge now because of low-priced energy. Semiconductor fabs and factories are being built in the US at a high rate now but it will take till at the best 2030 to be free of China in this. Japan and Korea are following our example. Batteries are a big choke point because China does have a hold on that market but nothing lasts forever but this one will take time.
Things like solar panels are not really considered critical anymore except maybe by Carney and the Germans. We could do without with no problems. Europe makes lots of shoes and clothes domestically so the idea that we can’t compete in that area is a fallacy in my opinion. Advances in industrial machine technology has done wonders lately and is eliminating the cheap labor advantage.
the hubris of central planners like you and trump is jaw dropping. it’s also hysterically idiotic. i’ll take a hard pass to chairman doug78 and zion don and mao zedong.
Don’t want to try your hand at debunking what I said? I dare you to try. Give it a try.
They are rare earths, pharmaceutical products and precursors, semiconductor components and assembly for critical systems, and lithium-ion batteries. All other products China makes can be replaced rather easily and by many other countries. Of the four areas the US and other countries have crash programs to replace China’s dominance
====
it is funny when avg Joe w/ at most hi school diploma sitting in moms basement blathers IN SIMPLE TERMS ABOUT LINKS between 2 biggest economies in world, combined more than half of world GDP!
buddy, if you want that anybody takes you talking junk seriously I would at least put out some facts about yourself.
= education
= wealth
= businesses
= etc
otherwise it seems you are JUST SOME KIND AI BOT!
and moro11nic too .
alx
I see you can’t do it.
Where does Uncle Buffy make his Fruit Of The Looms?
The import tariffs are all just a mechanism to bankrupt small and medium-sized business so the large corporations can consolidate their power. It’s the same way with the exports. All because of Trump, China is refusing to buy soybeans, pork, beef, and other agricultural goods from the USA which will wreck family farms which Big Ag will take over. Trump insulting everyone and threatening wars against Denmark and others is successfully crashing the USA’s tourism market, killing the mom & pop bed & breakfasts and restaurants while the corporate hotel chains and restaurant chains make it to the other side still alive. European tourists coming to the USA are down anywhere from 20-35% year-over-year.
We saw the same thing during Trump’s first term. Small businesses had to close down while large corporate stores were allowed to stay open because they were “essential”.
“…The idea we are going to bring shoe or clothes manufacturing back to the US (or that we would like the price result if we did) is of course ludicrous…”
In addition, to the above, even if we could bring manufacturing jobs back who is going work in those jobs? Americans? LMAO….nope. Blue collar workers like my father always told me…”son, get an education, you don’t want to do what I do for the rest of your life”. My grandfather worked in a coal mine, he told me the same thing. So I did, and I”m grateful everyday for their sage advice. Working manual labor, whether it is in factory or laying brick, sucks ass. It’s hard often back breaking work, and the pay is often mediocre assuming your body holds up. Many of these jobs are being phased out anyway. For example, UPS just laid off something like 20,000 workers. It wasn’t because of the tariffs either. It was due to automated sorting that was already in the pipe line. I guess some jobs would be needed to fix the automated sorting machines, but realistically how many?
I’ll just make my own underwear.
make like produced or make like soiled?
Temu just changed their slogan. It’s no longer “shop like a billionaire”, it’s “shop like a millionaire”.
“Da millionaires,da billionaires, da trillionaires..,”
Send Bernie Sanders to China in an empty cargo container.
And why isn’t anyone discussing the environmental impact that factories will bring with them?
Chip making, for example, requires huge amounts of water and produces significant waste pollution.
Why is everyone so worried over tariffs? Most/all of these tariffs are being challenged in court and will almost certainly will be ruled illegal. I would then assume that any imposed tariffs collected would have to be rebated.
shutting down gov entities will be reversed, if they were based on fed. gov budget.
tariffs is sole discretion of president
Sigh. SMH. https://shoemakersacademy.com/cost-to-make-a-sneaker/?srsltid=AfmBOoqOU7grhE8yAbOw3rWAOpM1ooE5qsgWrGdoMdvvafRJ6Z9n2DZd
Starting with a basic sneaker: US retail price $70.00. Cost of shoe is $10. Of that $10, 27% goes to labor, overhead, and profit.
Conclusion: With that $70 pair of shoes, $2.70 of it is labor. So of course, the USA can compete.
When manufacturers used de minimis shipping, they low balled the cost of goods so as to pay no tariffs. Trump is changing that.
Chinese manufacturers were using de minimis shipping and paying ZERO in taxes. That was ridiculous.
The problem I have with the anti-tariff crowd is they do not have the balls to say to end the tariffs on cars. If there were no tariffs on Chinese cars, you could kiss GM and Ford goodbye, but nobody seems to have a problem with those tariffs. People get what eliminating said tariffs would do to the country if the automotive industry went belly up.
And you are wrong about the labor costs. That is not the issue. All the manufacturing has been shifted overseas to save a paltry amount of money. Businesses who have wanted to do all made in the USA products cannot get the supplies they need here to open. Everything is made abroad, and that needs to stop.
We saw with Covid that all the gloves, masks, and many medicines were made in China, and they had us over a barrel. It still is amazing how China screwed the world over in the pandemic and they are not held accountable.
I’m with you. The de minimis loophole is a giant invitation to fraud and abuse.
Mish needs to get outside his mental shoebox.
P.S. I own multiple pairs of US-made footwear. Yes, you can find them. Especially boots. Some companies understand that you can make up for higher cost with higher quality.
You are wrong from the beginning, so everything you write that follows is also wrong.
That$2.70 in labor (if correct) is the price in China. In the USA, that labor would likely be $30-40, possibly higher.
And most people don’t buy “basic: sneaks, like RBX, Reebok or FILA. They buy name brands like NIKE, PUMA, HOKA, DG, Brooks, etc. Even cheap Sketchers are $50+ these days.
shoes? oh ya? let me know when ISC gets back up and running https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/sldc/project-connect/nga/history/st-louis-shoe-industry.cfm
=e USA, that labor would likely be $30-40, possibly higher.
exactly!
that dude above is mo1ron. never run lemon stand
Bring back Bowerman with his kitchen waffle iron. See if the joggers take a liking to it, especially on the 100% off specials.
“That$2.70 in labor (if correct) is the price in China. In the USA, that labor would likely be $30-40, possibly higher.”
Actually, there are places with lower labor costs than China but if you go with $30 or so labor costs, and the shoes are $90 or so, why is that the end of the world?
And if you actually followed the link, you would see that there is this huge markup at shoe stores. If shoe factories went to the consumer with a factory direct model, in theory, the shoes produced in the USA would be cheaper.
Because where do you get your $90 figure from? Was in that 2025 plan?
With a [supposed] labor rate for sneaks in China/Vietnam of let’s accept $2.70, name brand sneaks currently sell for $80-$160. So at $30-$40 labor, those prices will not increase by only $30-$40 but because they are higher priced, middlemen will add more to the price also. So those sneaks are now $140 – $250.
Take off the blinders!
The higher the retail price, the higher the profit margin and the easier to replace with domestic production albeit at lower margins.
Starting with a basic sneaker: US retail price $70.00. Cost of shoe is $10. Of that $10, 27% goes to labor, overhead, and profit.
Conclusion: With that $70 pair of shoes, $2.70 of it is labor. So of course, the USA can compete.
======
mor1on! IN US some bl11ack dude working in shoe factory w/ white manager can sue whole operation because he listened ‘N; word.
you have no idea what you are talking about
=========
and dont get me started about coal mine, or -and heavy stuff production where deaths happen
do you even realize what would happen if some black dude died in unfortunate accident???
Sigh. SMH again. https://www.workclout.com/blog/how-alcoa-quintupled-their-revenue-by-focusing-on-worker-safety
Look around the internet regarding China.
They don’t have to play by “human life is sacred” rules.
Construction workers injured; NEXT MAN UP!
TOTALLY EXPENDABLE.
All patriotic for the cause.
Human life is not sacred in China.
China is SACRED!!!
ALL ARE committed to this mission.
Americans, gawd bless them, chose clean water over fast trains.
FOR NOW.
We don’t care about human life either. Look at how many American soldiers that served Corporate America’s interests are walking on prosthetic limbs, and those aren’t even the ones that got killed trying to take rubber plantations and oil fields for their corporate slave masters. And most Americans clap like seals and cheered them to their demise and the deaths of millions of local men, women, and children, with cult leaders like Rev. Billy Graham cheering the loudest.
Clearly you don’t know many actual Chinese in China…
“The problem I have with the anti-tariff crowd is they do not have the balls to say to end the tariffs on cars. If there were no tariffs on Chinese cars, you could kiss GM and Ford goodbye, but nobody seems to have a problem with those tariffs.”
strategic tariffs are fine. We don’t want chinese cars because cars are basically computers on wheels now and Chinese cars pose a security and privacy risk. forget tariffs. we should just have a flat out ban on chinese cars.
I’m old enough — alas, or perhaps thankfully — to remember when Levis were made in the USA and cost $20, and Converse All Stars sneakers were about the same. Mind you, this was back around 1980 or so.
The USA made all these “essential” items back then. Honestly, what happened?
Dumb post! Inflation happened while wages did not keep up, thus making it financially impossible to continue to manufacture products in the US.
I just checked and the average new car price in 1980 was $7600. The average in 2025 is $47k.
Because of overseas manufacturing you can still buy that pair of Levi’s for $30-40 and cheaper name brands such as Lee or Wrangler for $25 or so.
Are you willing/able to pay $200+ for that pair of Levi’s???
exactly!
Who competes with slaves and no environmental regulations? How else would it still be cheaper shipping things clear across the Pacific?
thanks grandpa!
was it before or after last =Nword= was hanged on lamp post?
Was it a gaslight?
The USA made all these “essential” items back then. Honestly, what happened?
I think the biggest myth is that business went to China for cheaper labor. In reality, their main motivation was to sell to a billion new customers.
China made the price of payment that you had to build in China with a Chinese partner and the Chinese party could steal all your secrets. Eventually, if the company was big enough, they would go out on their own and produce your product under their own name, and often for a lower price. Because all Chinese companies are really owned by the CCCP, if you were big enough, the CCCP with its near limitless credit card would float you until you could put your competitor out of business.
So much of the Chinese “economic miracle” was based on little more than theft.
What happened? The US became too expensive a place for manufacturing of sneakers.
Here are some numbers for a typical pair of name brand sneakers that retail for $200 in the US.
Cost to to produce in China and ship to the US is $60 (including a $4 profit).
The name brand company in the US spends money to warehouse, distribute and promote the sneakers and sells them to retail stores for $100 (including a $5 profit).
The retailer lists the sneakers for $200 and then discounts them to an average selling price of $130 (including a profit of $10).
To make these same sneakers in the US would cost triple the amount, or $180. They would have to retail for $350.
zion don, our narcissist comedian act, will do much more damage for the next 3 and 3/4 years. remember kids, democracy works. idiots elect idiots. hat tip the trump and biden boomer morons………and their spawns……..
Nothing Biden did remotely resembled this. There is little doubt America would be in better shape this morning if Biden was still in office. Senility is better than criminal incompetence. The whataboutism is tiresome. It’s OK to single out Trump for particular criticism.
Manufacturing helped America win WW2. As our manufacturing base declined, US military failures grew (VietNam, Afghanistan). The state of US manufacturing is a national security issue. We need to train people to make things, even though things can be imported at lower prices. All an adversary has to do is stop exporting to the US. Society has no problem paying for fire departments that spend far more time waiting for fires to happen than putting fires out. Free trade and tariffs need to be examined not under a microscope, but with a telescope.
Manufacturing creates large environmental problems and the work is grunt work suitable only for robots, those who can work for very low wages and those with IQ’s low on the left side of the bell curve.
I look forward to an AI Overlord bringing sense to this mess by abolishing national borders, imposing one world government and thereby also eliminating any need for future “defense” spending and the MIC in every country across the world.
I call B.S. Jojo has clearly never been in a modern factory.
what modern factory!
mor1on google shoe factory in china/
it is still done by hand, w/ help of some machine activities.
In China maybe, but not everywhere
Jojo is enlightend…
Get on board or be LEFT BEHIND!
OR
RIGHT BEHIND?
Holy crap Jojo!
Let’s get together it’ll be alright?
Nothing to kill or die for?
And no religion too.
No he’ll below us?
Above us only sky?
Imagine the world living as one?
Cool, but, and it’s a big BUTT, we are spinning around a star with a shelf life of who knows how long…
In an ever expanding void of some kind of never ending SPACE…
SO, the present problems of this insignificant blue orb on an endless void is once and always put into perspective.
Sleep well fellow dream believer
Yes I received a $590 shipment of parts last week from Wenzhou that fell under the de minimus exemption
I also received a $1050 shipment 2 days ago from Shenzhen which the US seller actually paid some tariff on presumably the amount over $800
Now I am waiting to see what happens as I need another set of parts for $1800 from another company in Shenzhen.
The companies there are now quoting prices on a pallet in their factory. Buyer responsible for shipping
Starting a small business. If I am unable to get these parts the business is dead in the water as prices here are anywhere from 5 to 20 times as much for the same or similar items and so the product would then be non-viable
Which is funny because I am also writing a book that argues we should end PNTR
Then you know first hand how exposed you are. Is it a retail business or do you make things?
There are over 33 million small businesses in the US. Many of them are dependent on imports for the same reason as you. What you need cannot be made in the US for a reasonable price. You mention 5x to 20x the price for a local equivalent.
Even large companies like Apple are simply shifting “some” production from China to India. Because they cannot afford to produce phones in the US.
It is a fantasy to think that these policies will bring much manufacturing back to the US.
Hopefully these policies will stay in place long enough for Americans to learn something about economics.
Wait, Trump extended by a day already? It was ending yesterday not Friday. I guess it’ll be canceled again on Monday LOL
Toy dolls on Temu used to cost 10 cents. Now they’ll go up $2 like Trump said.
What’s the problem? $2.10 not cheap enough for you? So what if you can only afford to buy 10 dolls instead of 30?
Like Trump said, do you really need 30 dolls?
The big issue was US post office international rates was being subsidized, well below actual cost. Shippers were charged less to ship small stuff 8000 miles from China and deliver it 2000 miles cross-country, than to mail it 20 miles across town. That was an abuse of the environment as well as unfair to domestic producers.
Rand Paul is the only politician talking common sense these days. Tariffs, funding the Ukraine war with proceeds of mineral rights, all crazy stuff.
I will go with Thomas Massie and Rand Paul ! These are the 2 politicians talking common sense these days!
LOL when Rand Paul is left of center in Washington you know something is rotten in America
Sneakers? Did The Beaver wear PF Flyers?
i think those were keds
Red Ball Jets.