No More 'De Minimis'/Duty Free Exemptions For Items Coming Into The U.S.?

[crunchee]

Apparently so, as of August 29th, according to this CNN Business article.  This article is a bit different than past conjecture, as it gives a firm date regarding when it goes into effect.

Japan, Australia and Taiwan suspend some US parcel shipments as tariff exemption ends | CNN Business

Does this affect, for instance, ordering Schaller parts from Germany (parts that you can't find anywhere except Germany), as some HFC members have done in the past; also ordering from Thomann? The focus in the CNN article is mainly on items from Asia, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everything else is untouched.  

[alantig]

We're up to about 25 countries stopping at least some shipments to the US over the tariffs and the end of de minimis.  I got an email from one UK company - apparently things like CDs are exempt, but they're adding an additional shipping charge to items that aren't exempt.

So guess who's paying for this?  As usual...

[cmatthes]

A reminder to keep Politics off of our page, please.

[velorush]

From my vendor of choice for tea (O-Cha.com) who does an incredible job of keeping their website up to date:

Quote

USA Tariffs Start

 

Aug 25, 2025

Beginning August 26th at 04:00 EST (USA), a 15% tariff will be applied to all purchases shipped to the United States. This change is necessary because the $800 de minimis exemption for imports from all countries has expired, meaning all U.S.-bound orders are now subject to tariffs. In addition, since there is currently no reliable method for us to prepay tariffs on postal mail orders, we must temporarily suspend postal mail shipping to the USA. At this time, FedEx is our only available shipping option for U.S. customers. Please note that in addition to the 15% tariff, there is also a ¥400 FedEx extra handling fee applied per order. If the situation improves, we will reinstate postal mail shipping. We greatly appreciate your understanding.

I think I've got about 300g left in my stash, so hopefully this can get worked out in the next couple of months.

But that's tea. Adding 15% to say, a guitar or even a pedal would likely make import infeasible.