This post is intended to explain what's happening with US tariffs, and why UK and EU small makers can no longer send our products to US customers.

It is not to kick off any fisticuffs about what we think of the situation. It is here, and this is what's happening.

There are new tariffs on goods entering the US. Previously, there was a "de minimis" limit of $800. If the value of an order was less than that, it was not stopped at customs, unless they suspected something was wrong.

This was due to start in June 2027 to give shipping companies time to prepare, and the de minimis limit was set to go down to $100. Instead there was a sudden announcement that it would start on 28th August 2025 and the de minimis disappeared.

At 4160Tuesdays we told customers that we would ship until 18th August, then stop, thinking that this would give us a time window before it got complicated. (I had to overrule my team here, because one of us thought it would all be fine and we should just keep going. I wish I'd been wrong.) 

Most UK and EU companies had no idea this was about to happen.

On 14th August, we found that some of our US customers had already received invoices for the 10% tariff charge, plus state taxes, plus administration, charged by DHL.

On a £50 ($68.50) order, the charges were $20, an additional 29%.

Our customers emailed to ask if this was real, if it was a scam, if they actually had to pay it, or if we had to pay it for them. The way US tariffs have been presented is that it's the sender that pays, foreign companies lose and the US wins.

This is not the case; a tariff is a government charge that makes imported goods more expensive. Whether the maker adds it on to the price, or if the customer pays on delivery, the customer will pay in the end.

Delivery companies have to add in systems to collect this money and pay it to the right department, so there are also administration fees.

At that point, we took US shipping off our website.

In the meantime, DLH did not respond to our information requests. To be fair they don't know what's happening either. Hundreds of thousands of parcels - which would previously have slid smoothly straight through customs to their recipients - were accumulating in warehouses waiting for additional charges to be paid, and hundreds of thousands of emails had to be sent and answered.

If customers don't pay - and many refuse - then their parcels are sent back, and the sender pays the charges for shipping.

We have retailers in the US, so our plan was to continue to supply them, and wait to see if the situation gets sorted out.

After the UK left the EU, it took two years before there was a tax system in place for small businesses to be able to ship the short distance to mainland Europe again.

Even then, we can't ship anything to Spain because of their cosmetics laws, and if we accidentally put in so much as a free postcard without stating the country of origin, Germany will return the parcel and charge us an £80 administration fee.

We’re waiting to hear from DHL. Until we’re certain, we won’t be shipping to the US from our website.

Multinationals will remain unaffected as they ship using freight forwarders or their own services, and the $800 de minimis rule did not apply to them. Small businesses have been hammered. Again.

Please buy from small businesses.

PS: The reason why this was brought in:

There is a worldwide problem with low quality and counterfeit products being sold on the internet, shipped cheaply, with a stated value of $5/£5 etc in order to avoid import duties. 

You will have seen them. "It is with a heavy heart that I am forced to close my family business..." as well as fairly convincing AI generated shopfront photos of "London", "Paris" and "New York" showing original items, but delivering really nasty copies.

Customers could not return these items, the websites selling them would disappear after a few weeks. People were being ripped off because they thought they were getting a bargain.

Some governments, including the EU in January this year, acted to stop this happening. As well as preventing container loads of counterfeit and low quality rubbish entering those countries, they have also stopped genuine small businesses from shipping to our customers.

If you would like your favourite UK and EU small businesses to still be there for the foreseeable future, please seek them out and support them. Thanks. Because this is difficult for us.

* It’ll probably change again tomorrow