Hello All.
It’s been a busy few months here with new product launches and navigating my first school summer holidays (I survived). I am now getting back into updating my blog and website.
Sadly, the latest post is not a positive one. But it’s a very important update that I need to write.
This is a follow-up on my previous blog post on the USA Tariffs.
Overview
Earlier this year, the Tangerine Tyrant imposed tariffs on various products and countries. It caused chaos, confusion and anger among many people. Especially small businesses that wouldn’t know if their products would receive extra charges or not when entering the USA.
At the time, the “De Minimus” was still in place. It allowed products under a certain value from anywhere in the world to enter the USA without extra charges. China was removed from De Minimus a few months later. For a while, customers in the USA were reluctant to make online purchases in case they received extra charges. But thankfully, that picked up again as the year went on.
However—
On the 30th July 2025, the “President” of the United States announced the removal of De Minimus. This was to take effect on August 29th 2025.
Now we all waited to see if he did one of his famous TACO manoeuvres, but sadly, no. It went into effect on the 29th of August as promised. This now means that ALL products entering the USA, despite cost and country of origin, will be charged extra customs fees.
What is De Minimus?
De Minimus is basically legal wording to describe something too trivial to worry about. In this case, cheap products are not worth taxing or worth considering taxing because it would be too much money and time to do.
Most countries have this in place. For the UK, anything under £150 is exempt from customs charges. For the USA, anything under $800 wouldn’t be taxed or have additional customs charges. That is no longer the case.
What Happens Now?
For the Cheeto President to keep his promise that exporters will be charged the tariffs, not the customer, tariff charges must be prepaid before the product can leave the country. If a product arrives in the USA without the tariff being prepaid, it could be rejected and returned at the seller’s expense, destroyed or sold at auction.
As a result, sellers have had to increase their prices to cover these charges. Mostly in the shipping costs, which is what I have done for my cheapest products.
I do have to give Royal Mail credit here; they did a huge amount of work to set up the ability for anyone in the UK to be able to pre-pay the tariffs, and in just under a month, too. Some other postage companies had to stop sending to the USA completely (unless it was a gift), Royal Mail only paused shipping to the USA for 48 hours and then came back up.
There were some teething issues, but I think they have been mostly rectified.
So yes, I am open again to selling my cheapest items to the USA, but with a huge increase in postage costs.
How is it calculated?
I hate maths. It’s bad enough I have to do math for my taxes each year, but this was a whole new level of brain pain.
As I am UK-based, some of my products are only charged at 10%. However, as some of my other products originate in China, I will have to charge 30% on these products.
But why? If you make it in the UK then surely the UK tariff stands? No
According to the rules as set by the current US government, simply placing an image onto a product does not qualify it enough to be “UK Made”. If I imported the sheets of aluminium, cut them myself for my bookmarks and wall art, and then added the sublimation covering, then added my design onto it. Only THEN can I mark it as UK Made. But since I am a single person running a business out of my home and not a factory, that’s not an option.
So, here is my pricing breakdown: Price of item + 30%/10% tariff fees + tracked postage + Etsy fees + Royal Mail processing fees = New cost for USA customers.
Why not just charge the 10% tariff? How would they know?
Sorry. Not risking committing fraud for a few pounds.
And I know some of my products have been opened and checked by customs. I have had a couple of USA customers contact me because their package has been opened, and the item is either missing or damaged (thou why send just an empty envelope is a bit confusing to me). And a few products do say “made in China” on them. I’m just going to risk it.
And I am also not risking marking them as “gift” for the same reasons as above. They are checking items at customs.
How Is it charged?
For the time being, I am charging the tariff fees via shipping costs. Etsy is currently working on creating a country-based pricing system so it’s easier to manage (as well as avoiding paying them more fees), but that will be months away, so for now it’s in the cost of delivery.
Conclusion
I have yet to make a USA sale since the De Minimus ended. And looking at the costs. I am not surprised.
I lost the ability to sell to EU countries last December, and now it seems the USA is almost impossible to sell to. Another nail in the coffin for small independent businesses.
I love seeing how everyone says how great small businesses are to the economy, but then makes it near enough impossible to actually make sales.
If you are based in the UK or outside the USA, or outside the EU. Please consider buying from a small/independent business this Christmas. We are all suffering, and some have already closed shop.
Support small this Christmas.
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Until Next Time…
