Japan Post Suspends All Shipments to the US Due to Uncertainty in Ongoing Tariff Situation

Let's hope that the things sent from Canada won't be fuk'd.

ScottyP wrote:I don't understand why HLJ doesn't just turn FedEx and DHL shipping back on. I just finished out an order on Japan Rabbit using DHL. Yeah, I'll have to pay duty on it, that is the unfortunate reality of the policies put in place by the idiocracy running the US government.

From what I'm reading, and I may be completely wrong, the Trump administration expects the shipping companies to pay the tariffs up front and charge the receiver on arrival which they simply aren't set up to do at either end.

On August 15, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced new guidelines regarding the elimination of de minimis rules, which require that transport operators pay customs deposits to CBP and prepare customs declarations. The procedures that transport operators and postal operators in each country must follow to comply with these guidelines are not clear, however, making implementation difficult.

So in typical Trump fashion he's made an order and set a date without even an ounce of thought put into it so neither the shipping services nor the CBP have a clue what they're supposed to be doing, effectively putting the entire system in limbo. It's the exact same line of thought that demands American made products and food without actually building the factories and farms to do it first. He is not an intelligent man, he's reactionary, he doesn't think things through and why should he, he's a billionaire.

Emerje

Not just Japan. A number of countries have made this move until they can get their systems updated and make sense of the ever changing policies.

Who knew that the man in charge right now would be the reason I would stop collecting Transformers because of his stupid policies?

This is beyond annoying in so many ways, not just for our concerns here on our hobbies, but just in general. Costs should not be skyrocketing like this and availability should not be this hard.

Fed Appeals Court rules many of the "reciprocal" tariffs are illegal.

What does this mean, from a practical sense?

How do you all in other countries handle your duties? Is it a lump sum or a percentage? Because for individuals like most of us the percentage is actually a guide line for a lump sum payment that will almost always be more than the percentage under $800 in place of di minimis. Japan is at a 15% which means an automatic $80 payment regardless of if the contents equal $5 or $500.

("Item" refers to pages, not individual contents of the package.)

• Countries with an effective IEEPA tariff rate of less than 16 percent: $80 per item;
• Countries with an effective IEEPA tariff rate between 16 and 25 percent (inclusive): $160 per item; and
• Countries with an effective IEEPA rate above 25 percent: $200 per item.

China is currently at 10%, but was 34% for a time which would have meant a Transformer declared as being from China on a custom form from Amazon Japan would automatically add $200 to the price.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

megatran wrote:Fed Appeals Court rules many of the "reciprocal" tariffs are illegal.

Unfortunately after being found illegal by both the Court of International Trade and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which handles international trade) it's off to the corrupt SCOTUS which will certainly overrule those prior cases like they seem to do with every obvious illegal thing Trump dose.

Emerje

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

We have a 10% GST (goods & service tax) on goods & services in Oz. The same applies to imports.

Some overseas retailers try to pull a shifty & add the 10% GST to shipping cost too!

That sure sounds nice. I'd much rather pay and extra $2.50 on a $25 figure from Japan than $80. It isn't really fair that companies pay 15% while individuals (in this instance) pay 300%.

Emerje

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:

megatran wrote:

Emerje wrote:How do you all in other countries handle your duties?

Emerje

How does Australia handle things currently? Australia Post has (temporarily) stopped shipments above US$100 to the US. Haha.

No, I mean when you import something from outside the country, do you pay a lump sum or percentage duty?

Emerje

We have a 10% GST (goods & service tax) on goods & services in Oz. The same applies to imports.

Some overseas retailers try to pull a shifty & add the 10% GST to shipping cost too!

That sure sounds nice. I'd much rather pay and extra $2.50 on a $25 figure from Japan than $80. It isn't really fair that companies pay 15% while individuals (in this instance) pay 300%.

Emerje

Well, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense charging fixed $80 no matter the value of the import goods.

It's a deterrent to force us to buy from US stores instead of overseas. And if US stores don't sell something that's not their problem, it's ours. And it's not just Transformers fans or anime figure fans that are taking it hard, there's a whole set of model builders and precision crafters that get their tools and materials from Japan that are taking a hit here.

And yet, for some things it's still cheaper to pay the extra $80 than to pay the domestic price, like ML Ultra Magnus who I'll be shipping with other stuff. Buying in bulk is going to be more important than ever, no more buying from Amazon Japan and their refusal to bundle pre-orders.

Emerje