←back to thread

Six months into tariffs, businesses have no idea how to price anything

(www.wsj.com)
462 points JumpCrisscross | 8 comments | 30 Aug 25 20:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
Show context
johnnienaked ◴[31 Aug 25 02:18 UTC] No.45079760[source]▶
Haven't tariffs been paused since they've been announced?
replies(4): >>45079846 #>>45080850 #>>45081639 #>>45083383 #
1. estearum ◴[31 Aug 25 02:35 UTC] No.45079846[source]▶
Some of them yes, some of them no. There are now several thousand different "tax brackets" for imported items and the apparent rates on them fluctuate by the day.
replies(1): >>45079957 #
2. Gigachad ◴[31 Aug 25 02:58 UTC] No.45079957[source]▶
Most global post offices are just suspending packages to the US because they don’t know what the price is or how to pay it.
replies(2): >>45080412 #>>45080552 #
3. johnnienaked ◴[31 Aug 25 04:37 UTC] No.45080412[source]▶
Makes it hard to believe the administration's claims of hundreds of billions in revenue
replies(1): >>45080892 #
4. songqin ◴[31 Aug 25 05:17 UTC] No.45080552[source]▶
this isn't true, tariffs are assessed within the US by the receiving firm, not on the sender's side. We run a business with a foreign supply chain and our suppliers have changed nothing, we just get an extra bill to pay to the government when our inventory arrives.
replies(3): >>45080916 #>>45081035 #>>45081064 #
5. georgeecollins ◴[31 Aug 25 06:38 UTC] No.45080892{3}[source]▶
The best data I could find* was that tariffs Jan - Jun raised 93b in revenue (or 180b / year if it were constant- unlikely but who knows). For comparison, the 2025 deficit is $1865b, so tariffs could take a bite out of the deficit, but never come close to balancing the budget.

The most positive argument I have heard is that it would be a small consumption tax that is regressive. Small because the US doesn't really import that much compared to most global economies. It's just things we fixate on like cars or steel, which actually aren't that economically important anymore. Maybe strategically? I feel like people are trying to make economic sense of an emotional / populist policy.

* https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/2025/trumps-tariff...

6. mallets ◴[31 Aug 25 06:43 UTC] No.45080916{3}[source]▶
It's more the public postal services with very cheap international shipping, they typically can't or won't handle import customs/tariffs and operate under the assumption that the packages aren't valuable enough. Many of them don't even have tracking.
7. Gigachad ◴[31 Aug 25 07:09 UTC] No.45081035{3}[source]▶
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-26/australia-post-commer...

>"Specifically, the requirement for duties and taxes to be prepaid on all shipments prior to their arrival in the US,"

8. cbcoutinho ◴[31 Aug 25 07:13 UTC] No.45081064{3}[source]▶
This is related to the removal of 'de minimis' rule that exempts parcels under $800 to ship duty free. This has caused some European postal services to stop/delay shipping some packages to the US [0]. The Dutch postal service for instance has stopped shipping to the US [1]

[0]: https://apnews.com/article/us-tariffs-goods-services-suspens...

[1]: https://www.postnl.nl/campagnes/online-frankeren-vs/