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Comment by bananapub | Hacker News Reader

fascinating how the reporting doesn't clarify that it's not just a bunch of busy work and a tax on Americans, but that the US didn't even bother making the system exist before introducing the rules. from last week:

> “Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be carried out,” DHL, the largest shipping provider in Europe, said in a statement.

https://apnews.com/article/us-tariffs-goods-services-suspens...

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Good find - it is pretty crazy how this impactful change (I can see the logistics/supply chain subreddits abuzz with this news) isn't at all clearly defined. Per your link:

> They cite ambiguity about what kind of goods are covered by the new rules, and the lack of time to process their implications.

Royal mail in the UK had to flat stop accepting parcels to the USA for several days just to have time to put in place a stopgap measure.

I now have to pay an extra £1.50 "administration charge" for every gift I send to a friend in the USA, despite gifts under $100 still being exempt.

Australia Post has stopped on-shipping (I don't know the technical term) parcels from other countries to the US, and also stopped accepting parcels valued over $150 bound for the US.

It’s worse than that. After they realized that they had no system to support their idiotic plan, they tried to make it every other country’s problem by requiring that the vendor making the sale (in the other country) collect the tax and remit it to the US before the package gets here. Previously, tariffs were collected in the US at the port of entry or on delivery for smaller packages, and the sender didn’t have to worry about collecting them. This change is what caused all of the foreign postal services to halt service to the US.

Yeah, I haven't seen enough coverage of this. Just edicts and no process and Customs is still reeling and never found their feet from the first time tariffs were imposed. There isn't even a remit process or guidelines if a foreign postal service tried to send the payments.

Ive implemented a lot of logic for international parcel shipments. In this industry something as small as a label placed a couple inches off can be grounds for very expensive chargeback. It's a very litigious space.

The fact that no one has the slightest clue how to implement this is insanity to the third degree.

Customarily duties are paid by the importer, often through a broker. How will this be handled for small items? Most likely a business will import products in bulk and pay the duties as normal.

How will it work for small, one off purchases? Well, I don't see how the tax payers are under any obligation to streamline that for people. The net effect will be to buy from US suppliers/importers, not directly from overseas.

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