US tariffs and customs policies
EBay's announcement notification is too delayed. I need to know how the tariffs on Chinese sales to the United States are calculated? The tariff rate is constantly changing, whether the seller bears or pays the tariff, whether the selling price of my product is affected, and whether it needs to be changed to the inclusive price. I couldn't find a detailed announcement about these issues.😢
19 comments
luckythewinner
·1 year agoI need to know how the tariffs on Chinese sales to the United States are calculated?
eBay needs to know how they are calculated, too. Your issue is with the executive branch of the government, not eBay.
kalyoth
·1 year agoMust not understand how Tarriffs work. May want to read up on that before asking here.
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888
The shipping carrier is responsible to collect the tariff payment. When packages are shipped by the post office, or by most couriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) the import charges including tariffs, plus brokerage or package fees, are collected by the shipping carrier, from the buyer, before the package will be delivered.
However, there are some shipping carriers (for example, eBay SpeedPAK) which collect the import charges/tariffs from the seller, when they purchase the shipping label. SpeedPAK is limited to values less than $800 for USA shipments, so until May 2, there would not be any import charges. However, anything that is shipped now is probably going to have tariffs imposed when it arrives in the USA.
https://export.ebay.com/sea-en/policies/direct-shipping-policy/
https://export.ebay.com/sea-en/speedpak/speedpak-shipping-services/
Some sellers whose items are shipped from China are required to use SpeedPAK, and they are reportedly now being required to pre-pay the tariffs. Since the current tariff rate is more than 100%, and it is charged on the total cost including shipping, that means that the sellers would have to pay more for the tariffs than they will receive for the item(s) they sold. There is no way for the sellers to include the cost of tariffs in the purchase price, or in the shipping cost. Obviously, this is not feasible, and it means that sellers who have to use SpeedPAK can no longer sell items to the USA. (There have been reports in the last few days of sellers shipping from China, who are taking measures to prevent USA sales, or are delaying the shipping.)
You need to ask your shipping carrier. Do they require the seller to pre-pay for the import charges/tariffs, or do they collect them from the buyers? You need to ask them, because they are the only ones who know the answer.
Even if they collect the tariffs from the buyers, you have to expect that many buyers will refuse to pay a tariff that more than doubles the cost of their item, so they just won't accept the packages. eBay says they won't be eligible for refunds under the Money Back Guarantee, but some shipping carriers are refusing to take the risk, and refusing to ship packages to the USA if they will not be eligible for the $800 de minimis exemption.
For the rest of your questions, we can't answer because we don't know. This page is being updated by eBay as new information becomes available, so this is all we know:
https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/
I would recommend that you stop listing items for sale to the USA until this situation changes for the better. You can list items for sale on eBay Canada, www.ebay.ca, or on an eBay website in Europe, and target sales to other parts of the world. When you list on eBay.com, you can't blocks sales to the USA. But if you list on any other eBay website, you can blocks sales to the USA.
dcrtechandelec
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888 Since eBay does not handle the logistics, they should not be what you rely upon for information. Somebody said here that it does not matter because you are the seller. In your situation this information is incorrect, as for those goods to pass through customs, that tariff will need to be paid or it will be sent right back. The business can choose to either absorb the costs, pass them on entirely to the consumer, or try to share the cost at a % that is feasible.
Nobody truly knows what the final tariffs will be, but I am sure eBay will be proactive in making an announcement. Bitter people will doubt this, but it is in eBay's best interest to let sellers know as soon as possible.
The tariffs as of now are different depending on what you are trying to import. I looked at your listings and saw you sell gemstones and jewelry. You will likely have to determine what the raw materials are, where they are sourced, and the mass of both the metals and gems. Good luck if the metals are alloys. Not sure whether or not you ship high volume but I am going to assume you just send out orders as they are placed. Either way, the company that exports your goods, and imports them into the states, should be the one you are reaching out to. They do not know what the final tariffs will be either, but they are likely who are filling out customs declarations with the correct HTS codes.
HTS codes are used to determine the correct import duties and tariffs that apply to a product. They also help identify any specific import restrictions or regulations for a particular product. The U.S. International Trade Commission publishes the HTS, but Customs & Border Patrol is ultimately responsible for interpreting and enforcing it. Despite this, the importer is still responsible for using it correctly.
Unfortunately for you this means that if you choose to continue to export products and have them imported into the states, there is a non-zero chance you get hit with them as they are approaching the sea port or airport. Whether or not this is worth any potential costs will be up to you.
mam98031
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888
Why are you blaming Ebay? Ebay doesn't what the tariffs are going to be until your country and ours actually negotiate it. Ebay is NOT involved in that. So far there isn't any negotiations going on with the leaders of your country and my country. Until that happens we are all left to swing in the wind.
chapeau-noir
·1 year ago..........................
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoIf you are the seller , the tariff is unimportant.
You do not pay it.
No country can charge another country taxes. Nor can they collect them
These tariffs will be paid by your Buyer.
They are not the seller's problem.
Further useful news, should the buyer Refuse the shipment, eBay will not require you to refund anything at all to the buyer.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210#specialcoverage-inr
And eventually you will get the shipment back to resell.
EBay some years ago gave us a bit of boilerplate we could add to our Descriptions.
Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.
Should the customer Refuse the shipment, and try for a chargeback, eBay will probably support your refusal to refund.
In any case, you do not have to refund until you have the shipment back. Which can take weeks or months since Refused shipments are not a high priority for shippers.
All that being said, most sellers are honourable enough to refund the purchase price, but not any fees or shipping costs, when they get the Refused shipment back.
TL/DR -- tariffs are a sales tax by the USA on US residents for purchasing imported goods.
go-bad-chicken
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888
Here is eBay's official tariffs news/update page. It's being updated on a regular basis.
https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/
1786davycrockett
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888
You are in China.
Try asking your local Party leader.
1786davycrockett
·1 year ago@tianzuanjewelry888
If Target and Walmart still don't know, why do you think eBay has the answer?
The tariff policy seems to change daily.
To paraphrase my old buddy Robert Zimmerman, "The answer is blowin' in the whim."
caldreamer
·1 year agoThe customer is the person who pays for the tariffs.
meme6253
·1 year agoThat is how it will be if the customers decide to actually pay these ridiculous prices that will be passed on to them, & my guess is no they will not, unless it's an absolute necessity, No frills & thrills!
inhawaii
·1 year agoFirst Trump said there will be "no negotiations" on the tariffs.
Then he claims to be negotiating with several countries.
Other countries are "kissing his..." to negotiate.
Then he says they are currently negotiating with China.
China says no, they are not.
Crazy.
mam98031
·1 year agoI think today it was that he said he has negotiated tariffs with 200 countries, but won't tell any details. It would be interesting to hear the details since he didn't impose tariffs on 200 countries, in fact there is only about 195 countries in the world. Not sure if that counts the penguins or not.
animal-house-8
·1 year ago"I couldn't find a detailed announcement about these issues." And you probably will not since the issues change every 5 mins. Nobody knows what the H is going on. Ships full of cargo is being refused planes are turning around in the skys. No Christmas here this year. Large business CEOs including ebays have not a clue on how to plan anything.
annadryl
·1 year agoThe tariffs are threatened, adjusted or rescinded every day or two. It's all up in the air. It may devastate the economy, slightly upset things or it may never happen at all. How is ebay supposed to know? The rhetoric will be different tomorrow and next week and next year.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoIt's not just you and your eBay store, millions of people are affected.
Right now (at least until May 2) there is a de minimis on shipments under $800. On May 2 the de minimis is supposed to be removed for China/Hong Kong (and Macau?) My understanding was in a couple of days you can't ship anything through Hong Kong to the US (and Hong Kong won't accept any US parcels).
This information changes all the time and I wouldn't expect many US sales with the threatened $100 package fee to import from China. Maybe try selling your items elsewhere (like EU or Canada, where there aren't 145% tariffs).
C.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoAs the wind blows, man...as the wind blows.
inhawaii
·1 year agoGee, I wonder why?
Please apologize to the people of China for me, all 1.5 billion of them.