I am not sure I understand the implications of these tariff. Basically it means that products are becoming more expensive for people in the US. How is that a good thing for them?
I understand this can help some US company to sell more products in their country, but that seems to benefit only a very small amount of industries.
bux93 4 hours ago [-]
Tariffs are just a tax. Similar to a sales tax, but it needs to be paid on import. To be clear, it's a tax on your own citizens, not foreign exports.
If a product is cheaply produced in another country, and your domestic industry cannot match that price, your domestic industry might disappear. Suppose that other country is subsidizing their industry, then it's quite unfair, and it legitimizes supporting your own industry either by your own subsidies or retaliatory tariffs. As they say, to level the playing field.
If the domestic industry is already dead, tariffs won't magically resurrect it. For example, building a chip industry can take billions of dollars in investments and years of development. All that time, those taxes are basically just costing consumers money. They need to be kept in place up until the new factories come online AND are paid off. This can take decades. Will those tariffs still be there? Will those other countries have ALSO invested? Those uncertainties make it hard to invest in a dead/dying industry, even with tariffs in place.
One feature of tariffs is that it's a tax on consumption, so it's ultimately paid by consumers, and it's a regressive tax; the wealthiest will pay the smallest ratio of their income and/or wealth, while the working Joe will just see stuff getting more expensive - especially in the short term.
Tariffs can work to retaliate against, and discourage, dumping. They can play a role in protecting vital industries. But arbitrarily imposing them for political points is a dangerous gambit.
mikewarot 1 hours ago [-]
> For example, building a chip industry can take billions of dollars in investments and years of development.
Worse than that... you also need all the other things in the "ecosystem" that support them chips, such as discrete components, circuit board fabrication, assembly, etc.
geerlingguy 28 minutes ago [-]
And the most important bit, people who can staff the plants and operate the machinery required.
cudgy 3 hours ago [-]
“One feature of tariffs is that it's a tax on consumption, so it's ultimately paid by consumers, and it's a regressive tax; the wealthiest will pay the smallest ratio of their income and/or wealth, while the working Joe will just see stuff getting more expensive - especially in the short term.”
I don’t think it’s this simple. The wealthy fat cats that are making money producing their stuff overseas or simply operating as middlemen for overseas manufacturers are going to have a reduction of income and profits.
Furthermore, it depends on how the revenue from tariffs were used. If revenue from tariffs is used to lower taxes for lower income citizens, it would be effectively a progressive tax.
svnt 1 hours ago [-]
Middlemen for overseas manufacturers are not typically what comes to mind when I hear “wealthy fat cats.”
If all the middlemen see the same increase in costs, they are not going to be the one to try to keep prices the same. They know everyone is taking the same hit so they can just pass it along together. The consumer decides to buy or not at that level.
The innovation comes in avoiding the tariff. Often companies with sufficient scale of operations can pay additional lawyers and accountants to restructure and avoid tariffs.
Tariffs can dramatically affect specific companies, but squishy middlemen (and multinationals) can often work around them.
GlassOwAter 3 hours ago [-]
They won’t be using tariffs to lower taxes for lower income citizens. Tax cuts for the rich have already been proposed.
exceptione 5 hours ago [-]
> but that seems to benefit only a very small amount of industries.
Entirely logical response from a normal person used to think and act in a normal, decent way.
Criminals break into a museum. There is an artwork there, 4000(!) years old. The thieves wreck the artwork and smelt the gold that is inside it for a €225 profit.
There is a phenomenon of "The Cult of Wealth". Most people here cannot imagine how people with unlimited wealth, unlimited options, almost unlimited power think like.
Have you seen the kids of the president ridicule the dying people in Ukraine? We are inclined to think that if you inherit almost the whole earth, you would be very grateful, kind and compassionate.
Instead, they see the world in terms of just a handful of peers with the rest as resources to be extracted. We live in a world where we are brainwashed to think it is normal for corporate to call human beings "Human Resources".
---------------------------
As soon as people learn to see what hides behind Trump and Doge, the networks that finance and selects people, they will lose the war. The theater is there to distract you, media will pick it up as bait but will not do the investigation of what it is. And so we are paralyzed by the news of the day.
What society needs to do is to not accept abnormal and egregious behavior as normal. We all know what is decent human interaction, and the few can only take power over the mass, if the people consent to it -- be it actively or passively.
analog31 3 hours ago [-]
If "the cult of wealth" is a thing, and wealthy people really think different than the rest of us, then a consequence is that the ultra wealthy absolutely shouldn't be allowed to make the rules for the rest of us, or manage public institutions.
aleph_minus_one 40 minutes ago [-]
>
If "the cult of wealth" is a thing, and wealthy people really think different than the rest of us, then a consequence is that the ultra wealthy absolutely shouldn't be allowed to make the rules for the rest of us, or manage public institutions.
That's why democracy was invented. :-)
analog31 35 minutes ago [-]
You read my mind.
from-nibly 3 hours ago [-]
> We are inclined to think that if you inherit almost the whole earth, you would be very grateful, kind and compassionate.
Why would you be inclined to think that?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Being greatful is not manufactured by having stuff.
Being kind has nothing to do wtih what you have.
I'm inclined to think that if someone inherit the whole earth you are
1. A person who sought after that, which is bad
2. Even if you were magically a good person before, will be ruined by it at a minimum the way winning the lottery ruins a person.
3. Even if you survive 1-2 you will become famous and will have to cope with that insanity.
exceptione 3 hours ago [-]
Sure, we might know it, but we never act on it. We allow super concentrations of super wealth and power to form. We allow corporate media. We allow corporate clients into politics. We allow fake news. We allow lies. We allow the dismantling of science. We allow the purge of competent people. Competence is a soft power, but the power hungry do not like to share.
We know it. We don't believe it. We cannot grasp. For those few, we are nothing but a resource. Why share power with the powerless? Might makes right!
2 hours ago [-]
XorNot 3 hours ago [-]
> Why would you be inclined to think that?
See the number of people arguing that a billionaire can obviously be trusted with their money because he has a lot of it and clearly wouldn't want more.
4 hours ago [-]
DeepSeaTortoise 3 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
exceptione 2 hours ago [-]
That was some very purposeful misreading to be able to blackpaint Ukraine, while shifting focus away from the topic.
> instead forcing millions into the meat grinder against their will,
How is the weather in St. Petersburg? This is a text book example of projection.
As instructed, you should continue with false balance and whatabboutisms.
---
Oh wait.
I hope you are getting paid for this kind of stuff instead of being someone that died in a ton of psychological mindfucks. If the latter, you do their work.
DeepSeaTortoise 23 minutes ago [-]
> That was some very purposeful misreading
Sure, but I made sure to be VERY obvious about it, both for the first point and my last point.
I find people in general to be quite smart, I doubt anyone was genuinely convinced I didn't know you were referring to the US President's children.
> while shifting focus away from the topic.
I hope not. There's even quite an important point that gets lost when reading it out of context:
> blackpaint Ukraine
Absolutely not.
Whom I'm greatly displeased by are the previous US administration, the European leaders and Zelensky. Trump just going in and immediately making significant progress during the negotiations proves, that any of them could have stopped this slaughter whenever they wanted.
There was always the question whether Russia's constant pleas for negotiations both prior and during the war were nothing but macabre PR. And yet the moment a genuine chance presented itself, they agreed to it immediately.
Compared to our countries' leaders our own insight into politics is nothing but a joke. And even if they're unsure, they can just pick up the phone and just try.
Yet none of them did. These demons happily sacrificed the lifes of millions of people on the altar of their virtue.
Ukraine could have had so much. They were offered back all of theit eastern territories and even negotiations regarding the future of Crimea (although those would have been likely derailed) in exchange for keeping neutrality, downsizing their armed forces to 250k people and not allowing any permanent foreign military bases. Russia tried to sneak in veto rights on foreign military exercises on Ukrainian territory, but I doubt there was no way to negotiate that down.
Now, years later, all of that is gone. The country is destroyed, everywhere just death, death and more death and Russia short-circuited and pulled the probably worst geopolitical decision of the 21st century by annexing Ukraine's eastern territories.
And all of these leaders knew very well how this war would progress. It is happening right next to the Russian heartland, where 80% of its population lives. They knew that Russia cannot back down without negotiating an orderly procedure first, even if they suddenly gave up on all their goals and wanted to.
And yet here we are, accusing the one guy who actually tries to put an end to this senseless killing, of only seeing the world in terms of a handful of peers and lacking any compassion.
.
I'm only aware of Trump Jr. mocking Zelensky, not anyone else, but I've already asked below if I'm mistaken about that.
But it doesn't matter. The President's children do not reflect upon the President. And actions speak louder than words. What matters is saving people's lifes.
These are a lot of words for the same concept I've pushed above much more strongly, IMO.
> How is the weather in St. Petersburg?
7m of snow, no end in sight and a polar bear drank my vodka supply.
XorNot 3 hours ago [-]
The President of Ukraine's children did not mock any dying Ukrainians.
The President of the United States' did.
DeepSeaTortoise 2 hours ago [-]
Mind sharing or telling what to google for?
The search results are swamped with "Jr. mocking Zelensky" and "Trump making fun of the guy who died at his rally."
braiamp 6 hours ago [-]
> I understand this can help some US company to sell more products in their country
If they are even able to satisfy the needs of the customer, either in quality, price or supply.
from-nibly 3 hours ago [-]
They wont be at first for sure. The vain hope is that it will settle out and eventually people will build manufacturing.
dghlsakjg 48 minutes ago [-]
People don’t want to make capital investments whose success is based on a loose plan that seems to change weekly.
Add in that you are then almost certainly limited to a domestic market since your goods are only affordable when the competition has to pay a whacking great penalty.
Gibbon1 5 hours ago [-]
As someone that sells products that are assembled from components that are sold and manufactured globally.
My customers pay me for product. Some of that pays employees. The assembly house. And for parts are are imported. The tariffs basically means I have to pay extra to the government so they can give it to bunch of wealthy financial parasites.
Joel_Mckay 5 hours ago [-]
Unless people relocate automated manufacturing lines for export products outside US soil.
Thus, they save the US 25% + 10% tariff off, and whatever symmetric 25% response trading partners inflict on the US exports. i.e. one would save 60% off, avoid an economically hostile customs process, and may shop around for better tax systems. If the US market is isolated from a multi-origin product, than just collect the 35% markup on all products before shipping into the US like the new programs already require.
Best of luck, I don't think people have really thought about this very much... =3
tonetheman 3 hours ago [-]
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mmastrac 56 minutes ago [-]
I find it tragically hilarious how the leader of the most powerful country in the world sees tarriffs and fails to understand the interconnectedness of economies that benefit both. When someone thinks of the world as a zero-sum game it's pretty clear.
And as a Canadian whose country been the target of a certain leader's 51st state jibes, I find it pretty hard to sympathize with the pain that Americans are going through and how bad inflation is going to get.
I suspect we'll end up seeing the Trump era as a good thing for the rest of the world -- a stable America tends to suck up all the oxygen in the room and the current daily whiplash makes the rest of us just prefer to trade with each other.
While the US still holds a fair bit of monetary power worldwide, we're basically seeing them spend soft power at a ridiculous rate.
Meanwhile, we're refocusing our economy to make it less US-centric, finding new markets for our resources and watching America self-immolate.
dsign 16 minutes ago [-]
I was discussing today with a relative how Cuba's Fidel Castro framed the public opinion in the country in such a way the nation is currently... having a very hard time. Even after Fidel Castro's dead. Worse, Hugo Chavez imported the same set of morose ideas, and a decade later, with both idiots dead, the two countries are competing to see which one has longer blackouts. Never underestimate people's capacity to listen to popular figures and embrace damaging cabals.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 17 minutes ago [-]
We're not really spending soft power as much as flushing it down the shitter. I won't be mad at all if Canada wants their own nuclear weapons now. Good fences and all that
OneDeuxTriSeiGo 27 minutes ago [-]
Yeah as much as I'm very much unhappy with the consequences of this to me directly, I imagine this admin is going to be really important abroad, for the EU in particular, for identifying unnecessary vulnerabilities and dependencies on US infrastructure.
mmastrac 12 minutes ago [-]
I previously worked in a five-eyes facing role and it's pretty terrifying when one staunch ally loses its mind. So much procedure and process is based on reliability.
OneDeuxTriSeiGo 7 minutes ago [-]
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34679 2 hours ago [-]
I have a PCBA order from JLCPCB that should ship any day now. Cost at checkout was a bit over $200, with no mention of tariffs. I've been wondering if I'm going to get hit with it by UPS. Has anyone else here had any experience with this yet?
theChaparral 22 minutes ago [-]
I think the de minimis exemption is still in effect temporarily because they don't have a system set up to charge the tariffs yet.
To my understanding, your board is a subassembly and not subject to the tariffs. There’s an existing semiconductor tariff as well as this product tariff, and various categories that make it hard to untangle. Anyone correct me if I’m wrong - trying to figure it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/pickup-...
nixgeek 2 hours ago [-]
Likely yes although I’m not sure if the administration has fully got rid of De Minimis or figured out how to reduce from $800 USD.
With UPS the added kicker is UPS charges a $70 processing fee themselves for processing something through Customs for you, paying the tariff for you so the package isn’t delayed and then enabling you to pay them back in advance of delivery on ups.com or the driver will ask for payment at the door when delivering your goods.
dghlsakjg 55 minutes ago [-]
I don’t know if UPS going into the states is the same as Canada, but you can avoid the clearance fee by not shipping with UPS ground. The higher levels of UPS service do not have the bullshit fee added on, and you just pay the cost of taxes.
mmastrac 54 minutes ago [-]
USPS and Canada Post were the most cost-effective way to deal with customs for the longest time. Unsure if that's the case anymore.
slavik81 37 minutes ago [-]
Canadians can also self clear packages in person at a CBSA office through the Courier Low Value Shipment program [1], if the value of the package is under $3300. It's a bit of a hassle, but has saved me >$100 in brokerage fees on some packages when UPS Ground was by far the cheapest option.
From that link: “The CBSA has placed a moratorium on applications for participation in the Courier Low Value Shipment Program effective June 3, 2019, until further notice. For additional information regarding the moratorium please refer to Customs Notice 19-12.”
2 hours ago [-]
scottbez1 26 minutes ago [-]
Just got a JLCPCB order this week (below $800) via UPS and it arrived no problem with no tariffs since the de minimis exemption is temporarily still active from the latest of the tariffs EOs.
In the past with a DHL order over $800 they just sent me an invoice to pay before they'd deliver the package. Make sure you check the invoice though - DHL screwed up the HTS codes and tariff calculations and substantially overcharged, so I had to talk to DHL support to get it fixed (which ended up being really straightforward).
ericwood 1 hours ago [-]
I had a $300 order (ordered late January, arrived last week) and was hit with the tariffs via UPS along with their bogus processing fee as another commenter mentioned. They wait for it to reach the US before holding it hostage. Would recommend using DHL if at all possible, as they make dealing with it a lot less painful.
magicalhippo 50 minutes ago [-]
> their bogus processing fee
At least here in Norway, though similar in many other countries that I know, it's not entirely bogus.
Typically there are real costs involved with submitting a customs declaration, especially if it requires actual people looking at the invoice and filling out the customs declaration based on it. An order from JCLPCB or similar would typically fall in that category.
Then there's the duties. Either they hold the goods until you've paid, in which case they need storage space and bookkeeping, along with inspections from customs every so often. Or they just pay up front and bill you after the fact. In either case there are real costs involved.
That said they're certainly not a charity, and I do think they exploit a bit the fact that often the importer doesn't have much of a say or knowledge in picking the shipping company. Perhaps the seller only deals with UPS for example.
cwillu 9 minutes ago [-]
Bullshit. It's an entirely predictable cost at the time of shipping, and should be built into _the cost of shipping_ as paid for by the party _paying for the service_. This is simply a means to double dip, knowing that the receiver doesn't know better in advance and can't do anything about it once they find out.
magicalhippo 2 hours ago [-]
Unless JLCPCB explicitly sold you under DDP terms[1], you'll have to pay applicable tariffs. I'm 99% certain they did not do that, it's usually explicitly mentioned. DigiKey for example has this as an explicit choice when I order to Norway.
Here in Norway that also involves a service fee by express companies like UPS as paying tariffs means they can't use a simplified customs declaration, and they typically front the payment to get you your goods ASAP. YMMV.
edit: Seems I missed that Trump postponded[2] the low-value exemption, De Minimis, so your shipment is probably in the clear. But next one might not be.
I wonder if this also applies to Mouser. I've been buying pretty much all of my components from there, but if it becomes much more expensive I might have to just source from China and learn to read their datasheets. Mouser has much better customer experience and Texas Instruments, Analog Devices etc. have much better chips and docs, but at some point the 10x less expensive Chinese clones (and these days even new Chinese made chips) will just become the rational choice.
(With the assumption that this will be just the start of a trade war around chips)
eqvinox 2 hours ago [-]
> I wonder if this also applies to Mouser.
Yes.
> I might have to just source from China
It also applies to anything you source from China yourself. It's an import tax. Any applicable goods or services introduced to the US market incur it.
The one place it doesn't apply is when Digi-Key (or Mouser) ship to outside the US, their warehouses are apparently transit areas. (Source: I ordered to Switzerland a few days ago. No tariffs. You can probably check yourself by creating an order.)
hnthrowaway0315 3 hours ago [-]
I think tariff targets Chinese goods in general. Maybe you can source from ShenZhen in person but I'm not sure how the Custom office deals with this. I guess it's OK as long as you don't bring in quantity.
Another solution is to just live in ShenZhen when it's applicable. The city is nice and vibrant, and you are treated pretty well as long as you don't get into politics.
FreebasingLLMs 3 hours ago [-]
> Another solution is to just live in ShenZhen when it's applicable. The city is nice and vibrant, and you are treated pretty well as long as you don't get into politics.
That's an extremely subtle way of saying "keep your mouth shut".
hnthrowaway0315 40 minutes ago [-]
It's not. You can freely talk about other topics. In fact, talking politics is probably safe as long as you are not too loud. I think it is the same for all countries I have lived in. Talking about politics is always taboo.
FreebasingLLMs 13 minutes ago [-]
What the fuck are you smoking? You must be a non-Western person.
sowbug 2 hours ago [-]
If you're buying from China, you'll be paying the Trump Sales Tax. And if you try to ship directly from China yourself, you'll pay administrative fees to whoever handles the actual tax payment for you. For a few moments in early February before the administration began backtracking, DHL was charging a $32 fee for each shipment, even for a $1 trinket, and the other shippers (Cainao etc) were rapidly gearing up to do the same. The de minimis exemption for low-value goods was also briefly suspended, which is why the fees were so out of whack, and also why USPS momentarily stopped accepting shipments from China and Hong Kong: they didn't have the infrastructure to suddenly deal with fees on huge volumes of packages.
Buying your Chinese stuff through Mouser or Digikey or Arrow will spread that administrative fee across a whole shipping container of components. You'll still be paying the tax, but the administrative costs will be amortized.
pwg 3 hours ago [-]
There are also tariffs being applied to goods from China, so "just source from China" may not allow you to avoid the tariffs.
4 hours ago [-]
sieabahlpark 4 hours ago [-]
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gfkclzhzo 2 hours ago [-]
I miss the 'no new taxes' generation of conservatives
Gormo 7 minutes ago [-]
I miss conservatives.
fragmede 10 hours ago [-]
Says semiconductors have a 50% extra tarriff. That includes LEDs, presumably.
I'm trying to do some things with LEDs, and ouch.
JKCalhoun 2 hours ago [-]
I guess there's always Goodwill, landfill. You can pull PCBs, desolder components.
fecal_henge 9 hours ago [-]
Similarly my hobby involving ship to shore cranes is going to be painful.
Seriously though they have a lot of stock in their warehouse. If this is already imported and paid for then it should be exempt right?
The page doesnt state what happens to foreign customers. Does the duty only apply for domestic buyers?
braiamp 6 hours ago [-]
> Seriously though they have a lot of stock in their warehouse
Companies do not price things as they are now, or how much it cost in the inventory, but about how much they must charge to keep the business afloat. That means that prices will go up only because there's a risk that prices would go up, so that in any event, they can cover whatever they need to keep operations on-going. While prices go up in both a high risk or no competitive markets, prices would only go down if there's a competitive market.
alibarber 8 hours ago [-]
I’d also like some insight on the foreign buyer bit as DigiKey is by far the best and most reliable supplier to my part of the world despite being the other side of an ocean.
I pay local VAT and any local tariffs, all collected by DigiKey, and don’t think I pay any US taxes on the shipment.
By intuition I’d think whatever US tariff wouldn’t apply, but these things don’t exactly make sense a lot of the time.
Edit: Upon reading about the tariff drawback process, and these latest ones not being applicable to it - it does seem that I’ll be paying US tariffs for something [from China] that is then exported to me in another country.
helsinkiandrew 6 hours ago [-]
> it does seem that I’ll be paying US tariffs for something [from China] that is then exported to me in another country.
I'm sure that isn't right - Digikey imports and exports from across the world - including existing items with tariffs and duty - effectively their warehouses act like Bonded warehouses - they claim back 99% of Duty and Tariff paid on exported items using Drawback. I don't know the details of the new tariffs but it wouldn't make sense for the US to stop this for reexports.
One way DigiKey helps provide high-quality products at competitive prices is through our Duty Drawback Program, which allows us to recover a portion of the tariffs paid on imported products. However, under this Executive Order, the new 10% duty on all products imported from China and Hong Kong is not eligible for duty drawback programs.
foft 8 hours ago [-]
Ouch, if that is the case this is only going to boost the non US suppliers. Has anyone tried lcsc.com? Digikey and mouser are great but if all semiconductors go up 50% that is a problem.
alibarber 7 hours ago [-]
Yes it does seem a bit strange - I guess the goal here is to encourage them to source and sell me a quality American SMD diode at less than $(0.006 + 10%) per unit.
That said I'm struggling to fully understand it all, the site kind of implies that the 50% Semiconductor tariff _is_ drawbackable - and if we look some of those were in effect since 2024. It does say that the 10% 'China tax' is not.
My reading here then is that the 10% extra is for everyone, and the rest of that table in addition is for goods consumed in the US. (And, some of those tariffs don't look very different from some of them in my non-US locale, which I would have to pay anyway)
Still a daft situation, will for sure be looking around for other suppliers.
guax 7 hours ago [-]
Duties are paid only if the products are being moved from outside into the US. And the other way around it matching tarrifs were enacted (they're almost always are). Digikey Europe might be affected because of global economic consequences but not directly by tarrifs. So short term the price should not change if you're not buying from the US (both ways)
leoedin 7 hours ago [-]
Digikey (and Mouser) don’t have warehouses in Europe - they express ship everything from the US.
As far as I’m aware Farnell are the only major electronics retailer to have European warehouses. They don’t have nearly the same level of stock as the big players. But this will certainly be a big boost for them.
eqvinox 2 hours ago [-]
Digi-Key's US warehouse seems to be a customs transit area. At least I didn't get charged any tariff when ordering to Switzerland a few days ago.
Not doing it that way would be an immense disadvantage for Digi-Key against non-US distributors.
guax 5 hours ago [-]
I missed that, I guess I got them confused. I bought once from them and from Farnell a few more times and in my head it came from around.
Maybe its a good time for they to create one then.
Kubuxu 5 hours ago [-]
TME is European as well, and I think Arrow has warehouses in Europe.
supahfly_remix 6 hours ago [-]
Out of curiosity, can you tell me more about your hobby that involves ship to shore cranes? Or, is this an indirect way of saying that your hobby involves transoceanic shipping? This is Hackernews, so it could plausibly be either.
hobs 2 hours ago [-]
A third interpretation is this is a joke and they are talking about a business they want to make work without the tariffs, but yeah might have flown over my head too.
magicalhippo 5 hours ago [-]
> Seriously though they have a lot of stock in their warehouse.
Given they didn't have to pay tariffs before, I would assume they've declared all the goods and in that case yes.
> Does the duty only apply for domestic buyers?
If you re-export goods that was previously imported without using it, like DigiKey, then at least here in EU you can apply to get the duties paid back. However it's quite annoying if you import large quantities and sell small fractions. It works better if you do it on a 1-1 basis.
Not 100% sure how it works in US, but in EU you can have a bonded warehouse, where you store goods before you perform the import declaration to free them for general use.
This allows you to postpone the import declaration, and hence tariffs to be paid, to when you've sold the goods, or even avoid paying tariffs if you export the goods directly from the bonded warehouse.
The latter part is very attractive to companies like DigiKey which sell a lot of their goods abroad.
There are typically strict rules regarding getting a bonded warehouse license, with requirements for bookkeeping and physical separation with access control to avoid mistaking the bonded goods for normal non-bonded and hence technically smuggle goods into the country.
This also affects who's performing the import declaration. Pre-tariffs there's usually not much incentive to do anything more fancy than letting someone else handle the import declarations. However the added bookkeeping and usually means the one responsible for the bonded warehouse is best suited to perform the declarations. At least here in EU there are companies that offer this as a service.
Anyway the point was, if they didn't already have a bonded warehouse and decide to go with one, it's not just sending an email and get some approval. It might affect how DigiKey has to handle this goods deeply.
XorNot 7 hours ago [-]
You don't pay for how much the item in the store costs, you pay how much it will cost to restock it (see also: petrol/gasoline prices changing throughout the week - it's because there's a fixed charge to refill the tanks, regardless of how much goes in).
If a product is cheaply produced in another country, and your domestic industry cannot match that price, your domestic industry might disappear. Suppose that other country is subsidizing their industry, then it's quite unfair, and it legitimizes supporting your own industry either by your own subsidies or retaliatory tariffs. As they say, to level the playing field.
If the domestic industry is already dead, tariffs won't magically resurrect it. For example, building a chip industry can take billions of dollars in investments and years of development. All that time, those taxes are basically just costing consumers money. They need to be kept in place up until the new factories come online AND are paid off. This can take decades. Will those tariffs still be there? Will those other countries have ALSO invested? Those uncertainties make it hard to invest in a dead/dying industry, even with tariffs in place.
One feature of tariffs is that it's a tax on consumption, so it's ultimately paid by consumers, and it's a regressive tax; the wealthiest will pay the smallest ratio of their income and/or wealth, while the working Joe will just see stuff getting more expensive - especially in the short term.
Tariffs can work to retaliate against, and discourage, dumping. They can play a role in protecting vital industries. But arbitrarily imposing them for political points is a dangerous gambit.
Worse than that... you also need all the other things in the "ecosystem" that support them chips, such as discrete components, circuit board fabrication, assembly, etc.
I don’t think it’s this simple. The wealthy fat cats that are making money producing their stuff overseas or simply operating as middlemen for overseas manufacturers are going to have a reduction of income and profits.
Furthermore, it depends on how the revenue from tariffs were used. If revenue from tariffs is used to lower taxes for lower income citizens, it would be effectively a progressive tax.
If all the middlemen see the same increase in costs, they are not going to be the one to try to keep prices the same. They know everyone is taking the same hit so they can just pass it along together. The consumer decides to buy or not at that level.
The innovation comes in avoiding the tariff. Often companies with sufficient scale of operations can pay additional lawyers and accountants to restructure and avoid tariffs.
Tariffs can dramatically affect specific companies, but squishy middlemen (and multinationals) can often work around them.
Entirely logical response from a normal person used to think and act in a normal, decent way.
There is a phenomenon of "The Cult of Wealth". Most people here cannot imagine how people with unlimited wealth, unlimited options, almost unlimited power think like.Have you seen the kids of the president ridicule the dying people in Ukraine? We are inclined to think that if you inherit almost the whole earth, you would be very grateful, kind and compassionate.
Instead, they see the world in terms of just a handful of peers with the rest as resources to be extracted. We live in a world where we are brainwashed to think it is normal for corporate to call human beings "Human Resources".
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As soon as people learn to see what hides behind Trump and Doge, the networks that finance and selects people, they will lose the war. The theater is there to distract you, media will pick it up as bait but will not do the investigation of what it is. And so we are paralyzed by the news of the day.
What society needs to do is to not accept abnormal and egregious behavior as normal. We all know what is decent human interaction, and the few can only take power over the mass, if the people consent to it -- be it actively or passively.
That's why democracy was invented. :-)
Why would you be inclined to think that?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Being greatful is not manufactured by having stuff.
Being kind has nothing to do wtih what you have.
I'm inclined to think that if someone inherit the whole earth you are
1. A person who sought after that, which is bad
2. Even if you were magically a good person before, will be ruined by it at a minimum the way winning the lottery ruins a person.
3. Even if you survive 1-2 you will become famous and will have to cope with that insanity.
We know it. We don't believe it. We cannot grasp. For those few, we are nothing but a resource. Why share power with the powerless? Might makes right!
See the number of people arguing that a billionaire can obviously be trusted with their money because he has a lot of it and clearly wouldn't want more.
> instead forcing millions into the meat grinder against their will,
How is the weather in St. Petersburg? This is a text book example of projection. As instructed, you should continue with false balance and whatabboutisms.
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Oh wait.
I hope you are getting paid for this kind of stuff instead of being someone that died in a ton of psychological mindfucks. If the latter, you do their work.
Sure, but I made sure to be VERY obvious about it, both for the first point and my last point.
I find people in general to be quite smart, I doubt anyone was genuinely convinced I didn't know you were referring to the US President's children.
> while shifting focus away from the topic.
I hope not. There's even quite an important point that gets lost when reading it out of context:
> blackpaint Ukraine
Absolutely not.
Whom I'm greatly displeased by are the previous US administration, the European leaders and Zelensky. Trump just going in and immediately making significant progress during the negotiations proves, that any of them could have stopped this slaughter whenever they wanted.
There was always the question whether Russia's constant pleas for negotiations both prior and during the war were nothing but macabre PR. And yet the moment a genuine chance presented itself, they agreed to it immediately.
Compared to our countries' leaders our own insight into politics is nothing but a joke. And even if they're unsure, they can just pick up the phone and just try.
Yet none of them did. These demons happily sacrificed the lifes of millions of people on the altar of their virtue.
Ukraine could have had so much. They were offered back all of theit eastern territories and even negotiations regarding the future of Crimea (although those would have been likely derailed) in exchange for keeping neutrality, downsizing their armed forces to 250k people and not allowing any permanent foreign military bases. Russia tried to sneak in veto rights on foreign military exercises on Ukrainian territory, but I doubt there was no way to negotiate that down.
Now, years later, all of that is gone. The country is destroyed, everywhere just death, death and more death and Russia short-circuited and pulled the probably worst geopolitical decision of the 21st century by annexing Ukraine's eastern territories.
And all of these leaders knew very well how this war would progress. It is happening right next to the Russian heartland, where 80% of its population lives. They knew that Russia cannot back down without negotiating an orderly procedure first, even if they suddenly gave up on all their goals and wanted to.
And yet here we are, accusing the one guy who actually tries to put an end to this senseless killing, of only seeing the world in terms of a handful of peers and lacking any compassion.
.
I'm only aware of Trump Jr. mocking Zelensky, not anyone else, but I've already asked below if I'm mistaken about that.
But it doesn't matter. The President's children do not reflect upon the President. And actions speak louder than words. What matters is saving people's lifes.
These are a lot of words for the same concept I've pushed above much more strongly, IMO.
> How is the weather in St. Petersburg?
7m of snow, no end in sight and a polar bear drank my vodka supply.
The President of the United States' did.
The search results are swamped with "Jr. mocking Zelensky" and "Trump making fun of the guy who died at his rally."
If they are even able to satisfy the needs of the customer, either in quality, price or supply.
Add in that you are then almost certainly limited to a domestic market since your goods are only affordable when the competition has to pay a whacking great penalty.
My customers pay me for product. Some of that pays employees. The assembly house. And for parts are are imported. The tariffs basically means I have to pay extra to the government so they can give it to bunch of wealthy financial parasites.
Thus, they save the US 25% + 10% tariff off, and whatever symmetric 25% response trading partners inflict on the US exports. i.e. one would save 60% off, avoid an economically hostile customs process, and may shop around for better tax systems. If the US market is isolated from a multi-origin product, than just collect the 35% markup on all products before shipping into the US like the new programs already require.
Best of luck, I don't think people have really thought about this very much... =3
And as a Canadian whose country been the target of a certain leader's 51st state jibes, I find it pretty hard to sympathize with the pain that Americans are going through and how bad inflation is going to get.
I suspect we'll end up seeing the Trump era as a good thing for the rest of the world -- a stable America tends to suck up all the oxygen in the room and the current daily whiplash makes the rest of us just prefer to trade with each other.
While the US still holds a fair bit of monetary power worldwide, we're basically seeing them spend soft power at a ridiculous rate.
Meanwhile, we're refocusing our economy to make it less US-centric, finding new markets for our resources and watching America self-immolate.
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2025/02/07/tru...
With UPS the added kicker is UPS charges a $70 processing fee themselves for processing something through Customs for you, paying the tariff for you so the package isn’t delayed and then enabling you to pay them back in advance of delivery on ups.com or the driver will ask for payment at the door when delivering your goods.
[1]: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/courier/lvs-efv/menu-eng....
In the past with a DHL order over $800 they just sent me an invoice to pay before they'd deliver the package. Make sure you check the invoice though - DHL screwed up the HTS codes and tariff calculations and substantially overcharged, so I had to talk to DHL support to get it fixed (which ended up being really straightforward).
At least here in Norway, though similar in many other countries that I know, it's not entirely bogus.
Typically there are real costs involved with submitting a customs declaration, especially if it requires actual people looking at the invoice and filling out the customs declaration based on it. An order from JCLPCB or similar would typically fall in that category.
Then there's the duties. Either they hold the goods until you've paid, in which case they need storage space and bookkeeping, along with inspections from customs every so often. Or they just pay up front and bill you after the fact. In either case there are real costs involved.
That said they're certainly not a charity, and I do think they exploit a bit the fact that often the importer doesn't have much of a say or knowledge in picking the shipping company. Perhaps the seller only deals with UPS for example.
Here in Norway that also involves a service fee by express companies like UPS as paying tariffs means they can't use a simplified customs declaration, and they typically front the payment to get you your goods ASAP. YMMV.
edit: Seems I missed that Trump postponded[2] the low-value exemption, De Minimis, so your shipment is probably in the clear. But next one might not be.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms#Allocations_of_costs...
[2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/02/07/trump-reins...
(With the assumption that this will be just the start of a trade war around chips)
Yes.
> I might have to just source from China
It also applies to anything you source from China yourself. It's an import tax. Any applicable goods or services introduced to the US market incur it.
The one place it doesn't apply is when Digi-Key (or Mouser) ship to outside the US, their warehouses are apparently transit areas. (Source: I ordered to Switzerland a few days ago. No tariffs. You can probably check yourself by creating an order.)
Another solution is to just live in ShenZhen when it's applicable. The city is nice and vibrant, and you are treated pretty well as long as you don't get into politics.
That's an extremely subtle way of saying "keep your mouth shut".
Buying your Chinese stuff through Mouser or Digikey or Arrow will spread that administrative fee across a whole shipping container of components. You'll still be paying the tax, but the administrative costs will be amortized.
I'm trying to do some things with LEDs, and ouch.
Seriously though they have a lot of stock in their warehouse. If this is already imported and paid for then it should be exempt right?
The page doesnt state what happens to foreign customers. Does the duty only apply for domestic buyers?
Companies do not price things as they are now, or how much it cost in the inventory, but about how much they must charge to keep the business afloat. That means that prices will go up only because there's a risk that prices would go up, so that in any event, they can cover whatever they need to keep operations on-going. While prices go up in both a high risk or no competitive markets, prices would only go down if there's a competitive market.
I pay local VAT and any local tariffs, all collected by DigiKey, and don’t think I pay any US taxes on the shipment.
By intuition I’d think whatever US tariff wouldn’t apply, but these things don’t exactly make sense a lot of the time.
Edit: Upon reading about the tariff drawback process, and these latest ones not being applicable to it - it does seem that I’ll be paying US tariffs for something [from China] that is then exported to me in another country.
I'm sure that isn't right - Digikey imports and exports from across the world - including existing items with tariffs and duty - effectively their warehouses act like Bonded warehouses - they claim back 99% of Duty and Tariff paid on exported items using Drawback. I don't know the details of the new tariffs but it wouldn't make sense for the US to stop this for reexports.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_drawback
One way DigiKey helps provide high-quality products at competitive prices is through our Duty Drawback Program, which allows us to recover a portion of the tariffs paid on imported products. However, under this Executive Order, the new 10% duty on all products imported from China and Hong Kong is not eligible for duty drawback programs.
That said I'm struggling to fully understand it all, the site kind of implies that the 50% Semiconductor tariff _is_ drawbackable - and if we look some of those were in effect since 2024. It does say that the 10% 'China tax' is not.
My reading here then is that the 10% extra is for everyone, and the rest of that table in addition is for goods consumed in the US. (And, some of those tariffs don't look very different from some of them in my non-US locale, which I would have to pay anyway)
Still a daft situation, will for sure be looking around for other suppliers.
As far as I’m aware Farnell are the only major electronics retailer to have European warehouses. They don’t have nearly the same level of stock as the big players. But this will certainly be a big boost for them.
Not doing it that way would be an immense disadvantage for Digi-Key against non-US distributors.
Maybe its a good time for they to create one then.
Given they didn't have to pay tariffs before, I would assume they've declared all the goods and in that case yes.
> Does the duty only apply for domestic buyers?
If you re-export goods that was previously imported without using it, like DigiKey, then at least here in EU you can apply to get the duties paid back. However it's quite annoying if you import large quantities and sell small fractions. It works better if you do it on a 1-1 basis.
Not 100% sure how it works in US, but in EU you can have a bonded warehouse, where you store goods before you perform the import declaration to free them for general use.
This allows you to postpone the import declaration, and hence tariffs to be paid, to when you've sold the goods, or even avoid paying tariffs if you export the goods directly from the bonded warehouse.
The latter part is very attractive to companies like DigiKey which sell a lot of their goods abroad.
There are typically strict rules regarding getting a bonded warehouse license, with requirements for bookkeeping and physical separation with access control to avoid mistaking the bonded goods for normal non-bonded and hence technically smuggle goods into the country.
This also affects who's performing the import declaration. Pre-tariffs there's usually not much incentive to do anything more fancy than letting someone else handle the import declarations. However the added bookkeeping and usually means the one responsible for the bonded warehouse is best suited to perform the declarations. At least here in EU there are companies that offer this as a service.
Anyway the point was, if they didn't already have a bonded warehouse and decide to go with one, it's not just sending an email and get some approval. It might affect how DigiKey has to handle this goods deeply.