The end of a long-standing U.S. tariff exemption for some package shipments is causing chaos for small online retailers around the world, including Australia.
The sudden added costs have prompted dozens of postal services and many small retailers to suspend shipments to the U.S.
Australian businesswoman Tasha Miller owns a company named Jubly-Umph, selling items including socks, stickers, and pins. For her, sending goods to customers overseas has become increasingly difficult, and recently, more expensive, due to the Trump administration's move last month that ended tariff exemptions for package shipments valued under 800 U.S. dollars.
The administration has said the exemption, which reportedly made up more than 90 percent of all cargo entering the country, was being abused to smuggle illegal goods including drugs into the U.S.
At first, Australia Post was unequipped to collect the new tariffs upfront and chose to suspend that service, leaving Miller and many other small online retailers here without any affordable options.
"I'd actually made the call about a week before that to stop, because it just looked like it was going to be chaos," said Miller.
Australia Post has recently announced plans to lift its suspension after finding a third party provider to handle the new U.S. customs rules.
However, businesses will still have to pay more to ship goods to the U.S. That has forced Miller to abandon plans to expand her business in the United States and search for other markets where she hopes her products will resonate with consumers.
Miller added that navigating U.S. tariffs has been confusing and frustrating.
In addition to the 10 percent baseline tariff the U.S. imposed on Australian imports, all of Jubly-Umph's goods are manufactured in China, which Miller said are subject to an additional 55 percent tariff.
"Every week could be something different and it's just been very hard to sort of figure out which way we should go with it because it's going to be expensive each way - there's no way for us not to raise prices at some point," she said.
The postal ban is not unique to Australia. Nearly 90 postal operators worldwide have suspended some or all of their services to the U.S. As a result, the impact to U.S.-bound shipments has been dramatic, falling by nearly 80 percent after the announcement was made.
"Decisions have been made based on the assumption that you can ship to the United States. Decisions have been made on the assumption that you can access the American market, so all of this is having potentially an impact globally in small retailers all over the world," said Rodrigo Praino, a professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
End of US tariff exemption causes chaos for Australian online retailers
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, said on Monday that the relationship between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) stands at a new historical starting point.
Xi arrived in the DPRK capital of Pyongyang earlier on Monday to begin a two-day state visit at the invitation of Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, marking his first trip to the country in seven years.
Delivering a speech at a welcome banquet hosted by Kim, Xi pointed out that China and the DPRK, linked by mountains and rivers and sharing a common future, have seen their traditional friendship passed down across generations and grow ever stronger over time through the test of the evolving international landscape.
This year marks the 65th anniversary of the China-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, and the China-DPRK relationship stands at a new historical starting point, Xi said, noting that he has reached important consensus with Kim during his visit.
From the strategic perspective of the future and destiny of socialism, both leaders have agreed to seize the general trend of the times, respond to the shared aspirations of the two peoples, strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen strategic communication, expand practical cooperation, enhance people-to-people bonds, promote the high-level development of China-DPRK relations, jointly open up brighter prospects for the socialist cause of both countries, and contribute to the continuous progress of human society, Xi said.
The successful convening of the Ninth Congress of the WPK this year has made strategic plans and major arrangements for the long-term development of the Party and the country's cause, ushering in a new period of comprehensive development of the DPRK's socialist cause, Xi said.
As good neighbors, good friends and good comrades, the Chinese side sincerely wishes that, under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the WPK headed by General Secretary Kim, the DPRK people will successfully accomplish the goals and tasks set by the Ninth Congress of the WPK and make constant new achievements in the socialist cause of the DPRK, Xi said.
On behalf of the WPK, the government and the people of the DPRK, Kim extended the warmest welcome to Xi on his visit. Kim said that Pyongyang was filled with an atmosphere of friendship on this special day as the DPRK's Party, government and people warmly welcomed their most distinguished guest.
Noting that Xi's first overseas trip of the year had brought him to the DPRK, Kim said this fully demonstrated the great importance Xi attached to developing relations between the two parties and the two countries, and constituted the most valuable support for the DPRK's socialist cause.
Noting the meeting with Xi came nine months after their previous meeting, Kim said that during this meeting, they reached important consensus on further advancing DPRK-China relations with new contemporary connotations in light of new changing circumstances, and exchanged views on international and regional issues of mutual concern, which will surely accelerate the development of the DPRK-China friendship with profound historical traditions, and contribute to peace and stability in the region and the world.
The DPRK people take heartfelt joy in the remarkable achievements made by the brotherly Chinese people, Kim said, expressing belief that under the leadership of the CPC with Xi at its core, the great Chinese people will surely create greater achievements in building a great modern socialist country in all respects, realizing the Second Centenary Goal, and completing the new journey toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Xi says China-DPRK ties stand at new historical starting point
