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639 points CTOSian | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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zaptheimpaler ◴[] No.45029926[source]
> importers must declare the exact amount of steel, copper, and aluminum in products, with a 100% tariff applied to these materials. This makes little sense—PCBs, for instance, contain copper traces, but the quantity is nearly impossible to estimate.

Wow this administration is f**ing batshit insane. I thought the tariffs would be on raw metals, not anything at all that happens to contain them.

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duped ◴[] No.45030343[source]
> Wow this administration is f*ing batshit insane

It's reasons why this that I refuse to associate with Republicans in my daily life anymore. They are undeserving of respect or decency for how they continue to make our lives worse.

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seviu ◴[] No.45030704[source]
I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore.

Here is the official link:

https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2025/us...

Pretty crazy if you ask me

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timr ◴[] No.45030864[source]
> I live in Switzerland and Swiss post, which is the state owned postal service, does not ship to the US anymore.

That is not what the link says. It says that goods consignments are not accepted -- which is not at all the same thing as "does not ship to the US anymore". The link explicitly says that they're continuing to ship letters, will continue to ship goods via another service, and (I can only presume) will continue to accept personal packages, since those aren't affected at all by these tariff changes.

The discussion on this topic on HN is far more heat than light.

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pj_mukh ◴[] No.45030978[source]
Wait, ARE “personal packages” exempt? Doesn’t say that in the press release.

If I buy a Swiss watch (<$800) I’ll have to use DHL or UPS (though AFAIK, they also use national post in places) so I’m SOL.

But if my Swiss friend mails me a watch they can use Swiss Post still? Unclear.

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timr ◴[] No.45031151[source]
Nothing has changed wrt the personal exemption. Imports under $800 are exempt (i.e. you always had to pay tariffs on an expensive watch). I don't know how many commenters here actually realize it, but the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import, which is how Temu and others could send a $10 piece of crap from China to your doorstep.

I don't know if the Swiss post office has realized this, but it's true.

Edit: one bit of nuance (see my comment downthread with some of the actual laws and the EO) is that if you buy a watch from Chrono24 or something then it's more like the Temu use-case, and I think the personal exemption probably doesn't apply? But if you go to Switzerland and pick up a $799 watch and post it back or carry it on a plane, then there's no problem.

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lxgr ◴[] No.45032480{3}[source]
> the de minimis exemption changes only apply to commercial import

What exactly distinguishes a commercial import from a personal gift? How on Earth would the USPS adjudicate the difference?

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timr ◴[] No.45032769{4}[source]
Well, I'm not a customs agent, but I'd imagine they do it in the same way they adjudicate anything else: inspection. Some things get through by chance, of course, but not at a rate you'd want to rely on if you're a business.

In particular, if I walk into a random post office and send a one-off shipment internationally, the paperwork, origin, packaging, manifest, etc. is vastly different than what, say, Temu was doing to ship a $10 widget to US consumers at scale.

The rule you're talking about is not new, so presumably they've figured it out.

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lxgr ◴[] No.45032817{5}[source]
The $100 rule might not be new, but given that it was by far exceeded by the $800 de minimis exemption until now, it just didn’t matter.
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timr ◴[] No.45033268{6}[source]
This has nothing to do with the value threshold. US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change.

You asked me what distinguishes a commercial package from a personal gift.

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1. lxgr ◴[] No.45038088{7}[source]
> US customs had to know the difference between personal packages and commercial packages before the change.

Presumably for things like import restrictions (I could imagine somebody sending homemade cookies is treated differently than a large-scale food importer), but not for a decision on whether to charge or not levy duties though, right?