Let's keep an eye on tariffs

[keilau]

When the American consumer pays more for the same item and the Government pockets the extra, seems like another tax to me.

The tarriffs are tax on the average American consumer. The government need to do that to pay for their tax cut for the rich.

There is no mechanism for the US government to tax any foreign country or their citizen. So the US citizen pay for the tarriffs.

[SoCalBobS]

The news reports that the de minimis exemption for items less than $800 will take effect May 2, per executive order signed Wednesday. Buy your stuff this month if you can!

[RichJohnson]

A couple of us have a few kits coming from DKlM next week so we will see.
i also have a model coming from New Zealand so will see what happens there.

[tdriver113]

With yesterdays tariff announcements looks like duty free "de minimus" shipping is being eliminated from ALL countries just as soon as the systems are ready. Not just China.

[SoCalBobS]

I received a RC vehicle kit today from China. It was shipped on 26 Feb and made it through the shipping system with no extra charges.

Cool! Good info.

[tdriver113]

I received a RC vehicle kit today from China. It was shipped on 26 Feb and made it through the shipping system with no extra charges.

[SoCalBobS]

When the American consumer pays more for the same item and the Government pockets the extra, seems like another tax to me.

[RichJohnson]

My package from Hong Kong arrived yesterday without tarrifs.
Personally I think Trump is trying to end a tariffs because our products entering Mexico Canada and the Orient are tariffed heavily.
It's about time we get some reciprocity or force them to end it.
The problem is the tariff likely gets tacked on to the end buyer, us and for our hobby products most of it is made in the Orient.
But hey, my products are made here in the US of A so no tariffs. Just taxes inside CA.

[keilau]

I am a retired engineer who lives on the IRA saving and social security check. With all the talks about pre-1930 history and what may happen in the next 4 years, the tariff on my RC toy purchase may only be a fraction of 1% of my saving asset losses. If you are a small business owner, you may be hurted more by the tariffs. A trade war is a loss-loss situation due to the loss of trade and business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTpmjFCpaw

[RRHandy]

I have one that as of Thursday cleared US Customs but has not moved sense, I will post when moving again and delivered.

Ron.

[SoCalBobS]

Consequence or Coincidence?

I have a small part mailed from Toucan in Hong Kong last week. Today I received the following notice: “Delivery attempt unsuccessful. Unable to deliver due to force majeure, Carrier note: Unforeseen circumstances.”

It remains to be seen why it wasn’t delivered. I’m sharing this as a caution for anyone making large purchases from China, just in case the current volatility and confusion affects shipping. If others have experiences, please don’t hesitate to share.

[RichJohnson]

I have a large order coming from hongkong. Still waiting on it as its in transit. Will see if I have to pay a tarrif on it.

[SoCalBobS]

Has anyone here in the US ordered anything from China or Hong Kong in the last week or so? If so, did you encounter a tariff, say through US Customs duty or other?

[SoCalBobS]

My head is spinning! The de minimis cancellation has been postponed as of Friday. Customs apparently stated they did not have the resources to implement the duty requirements. I'm guessing it will happen eventually, but it would behoove anyone planning to buy stuff from China to do so soon.

On a related issue, DKLM RC is accepting pre-orders for the Tongde Leclerc MBT, with an anticipated release of April.

Ready, Fire, Aim.

[tank_me]

Man it's not even the exchange rate for me, it's dealing with the couriers delivering the items. The 3 laps around the usa, the week at the border, then having to call in and pay a duty so they even give it a 50/50 of coming to my door.

We in the US don't pay a duty on Canadian goods so that duty sounds like it's imposed by the Canadian side. I will agree that sometimes packages take weird routes to make it places. I just sent my electronic dead Maxxpro to a guy in Washington State from Texas. It went the complete opposite way to New Jersey before heading to Washington State.

[Rubicon99]

In the end the manufacturers feel the tariffs in the form of fewer sales which mean lower production rates and higher cost to them. That is way countries having tariffs placed on them are willing to talk. It's their manufacturing base that is screaming at their leaders to avoid the tariffs.

China is no friend to the west and have some of the highest tariffs in the world against western made products making western products far more expensive for the average Chinese citizen to afford. Hence the Chinese citizens has no choice but to buy the made in China product. This is most evident in the auto and high fashion industries but many other industries are effect too.

[Delta_19]

Here in Canada buying from the US has been a non starter for me since about 2022. USD is too high and so are the shipping rates and the packages very rarely escape the taxes and broker charges and take forever to get here for some reason. Some of the tracking routes doing circuits around the whole US before they finally get to the hub to ship to Canada are unbelievable. The Euro has pretty well stayed the same vs the CAD and as high as say the shipping rates from Germany can be (but not always) the packages most of the time escape duty and also have the 19% VAT removed by the German dealers.

Man it's not even the exchange rate for me, it's dealing with the couriers delivering the items. The 3 laps around the usa, the week at the border, then having to call in and pay a duty so they even give it a 50/50 of coming to my door.

[Panzermechaniker]

Here in Canada buying from the US has been a non starter for me since about 2022. USD is too high and so are the shipping rates and the packages very rarely escape the taxes and broker charges and take forever to get here for some reason. Some of the tracking routes doing circuits around the whole US before they finally get to the hub to ship to Canada are unbelievable. The Euro has pretty well stayed the same vs the CAD and as high as say the shipping rates from Germany can be (but not always) the packages most of the time escape duty and also have the 19% VAT removed by the German dealers.

[Tang - RC.Senshado]

Some people here who know me in person know I work in imports. The tariff would be most certainly be paid by you as the consumer, whether it's obvious or not is another story. If you buy directly from China on a China made good you're paying a tariff because you're importing it.

If you're a US company bringing it in, such as mine, we pay the tarriff and we adjust our pricing to market conditions and in the end you the consumer pay for it in the form of a more expensive commodity.

Nobody is in business to lose money and you as an individual don't want to work for nothing either so don't get it twisted that companies are entirely built off greed and profits.. The price companies sell to consumers in the US would have to reflect those tariffs in order to be feasible otherwise who is gonna do it for free? Imagine you do some work for nothing and now you have a problem with your customer and you lose a couple bucks every time. Changing prices is just a market adjustment, same as in any other sector where a component goes up in price, the overall price on something is supposed to go up. If the market is jacked up, the pricing will be too. Remember COVID? Remember if you're buying in the US, you're still paying for a living breathing American to do the legwork of sustaining what we do here as opposed to having to be talking to a Chinese agent and getting no warranty or service because language barrier and they won't be able to help you from another continent. So market prices have to reflect realistic conditions and isn't just an artificial markup on a whim by a retailer much of the time. Some companies/brands who have such heavy leverage on the importing and connections to manufacturing can keep their prices lower or play the game and drive the price down and kill off their competitors. It's not new. It's not some conspiracy where 3 business hold out and 2 should follow in price. Companies with no skin in the game in the US (aka some Chinese company selling directly to you like an Ali or Temu) would do well to drive prices unrealistically low because they don't have the same overhead. Remember that people need to get paid. Things get shipped and require fuel and a boot on the ground to move it. Things need to be warehoused, items advertised and customer service to be administered. Those factors are a constant with or without tariffs so consider that as well. If this hobby were strictly a buy from China/Amazon kind of deal for the cheapest with no support otherwise, I can guarantee we'd actually be more fragmented as a community. If you think things would sustain just buying from a faceless company from China directly for cheapest wham bam thank you ma'am, hobbies like ours would never take off. Ask some of the fellas here who have run hobby businesses who are helping you out on this board for free. In fact some industries are dying because it's a race to the bottom. Keeping the prices around the same is not to keep profit margins high or simply doing what the other guys are doing, it's to keep some form of integrity in the market and when a newcomer disrupts it, the market has to adjust.

Now on the flip side you might think this is bs and why would companies engage in some sort of price manipulation and shouldn't they try to sell more by being the cheapest. Well that might help in a very short window to the consumer, and then that business would go under and you'd actually see less and less competition and consolidation of the market. You don't want that. There is no reasonable way for some types of goods like ours here to be made here and not cost a small fortune. We'd almost certainly look to be closer to the price of Tamiyas if Heng Long was produced in the USA. Globally we do enjoy cheaper labor and if you're ignorant of that fact, I would like to pose to you the question of how much $ per hour do you expect to make assembling something like an RC tank here in the US. The leverage China has enjoyed has been abused and used to bypass and undercut and drive down prices to the point where it is unsustainable for anybody to do business in America unless you are subsidized or a giant who moves volume so it is a double edged sword because consumers might see the lowest price and think that's where it should be the whole time. Then you have flooded markets and then other problems arise too. Anyway I don't want to get into politics but those are some cause/effects to consider.

The wack part is some of these goods simply won't ever be made here in the US without tremendous cost in western money to someone to develop and market up front. We all need a cooperative world market for many things we no longer can/should produce ourselves but without unfair practices and leverage entering our market and creating these big picture issues.

You as a consumer are entitled to spend the money the way you like. If you want to apply a personal ethical concern to how you spend money, consider that it might not always be the most comfortable position to take but it does improve things in the long run if enough people do it in theory. However you can't tell people how to spend their money either.

[keilau]

When you have multiple retailers and some up the price to "pass the tariff to the consumer" and others don't, who is going to make the sale?

I think we are entering a shift in spending in the US. We have had it good for a long time and the reality Europe, Australia, and others have been dealing with will be what we get. Motion just released a new twin 70mm EDF that is 20+% more than another, equally complex twin 70mm they recently released.

Some politician will want you to believe that the tariffs will be picked up by the export country. It is a lie. The tariff is an import duty paid by an US company. Will the US importer compress their profit to charge the retailer less? Very unlikely. It is possible, but difficult to buy it cheaper by searching for old stock.