My Stance with the Upcoming Tariff War with the USA.

[john_koenig99]

Well, this does it then. It's time to stand firm against Trump's actions. 

From my part, I am considering these two options:

1) To modify my listings and add a 25% increase to the shipping service to USA based buyers. 

Or

2) To remove the shipping services to USA buyers altogether, effectively offering my listings to Canadian and Non-US international customers only. 

Thoughts? 

[brle_5065]

What's bothering me is that I haven't sold anything to the US since December- but I've sold 4 items all going to the US in the last 18 hrs- I know there is going to be kick back- because eBay won't want to explain to American buyers/sellers why they have to pay additional fees- that tariffs is a duty- eBay should have dealt with this weeks ago.

[marnotom!]

My understanding is that eBay has no legal ability to charge and collect duties on sales.  When we do see instances of duties being charged and collected, say, for sales from the US made through the eBay International Shipping system, it's actually the carrier who's advancing these charges and then collecting them from the importer, not eBay.

It's the same deal when we Canadians buy items through eBay from outside of Canada and are charged taxes.  Those charges are coming from the carrier contracted by eIS (or GSP for UK shipments), not eBay.

Even in countries where eBay does collect and remit taxes for direct-shipped international sales (such as sales to buyers from the EU, US, or Australia), they still have no legal ability to do the same for duties.  I'm wondering how people are expecting eBay to "deal with this" potential issue of duties when eBay has been given no legal guidance or authority and it has no idea what it's going to look like anyway.

[reallynicestamps]

EBay gave sellers this bit of boilerplate many years ago and I have had it as part of my Description templates ever since.

Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying

I guess I will add "tariffs" to that boomf.

[mrdutch1001]

unless sellers consider themselves as sellers of commodies/suppliers/industry/manufacturing>>> as being involved in oil,gas,energy,pork,beef,dairy,lumber,produce,aluminum,steel,fisheries,automotive and the like, there will be little if any impact on eBay sellers...

[euclid777]

Meh, it all depends on how the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service treats whatever items cross the 49th.  Maybe the posters I sell get dinged, maybe they don't.  It's entirely out of my hands and without recourse. 

Moreover, I've heard nothing to suggest that the tariffs are restricted to "commodities, suppliers, industry and manufacturing".  

[redline-recreation]

Here's the deal ... it's not Trumps fault, Canada under Trudeau has fallen. We have not paid our share for years. We are becoming another France, Germany country overrun with migrants with little or no vetting. Our boarders are open, our speech and thoughts are censored. WEF controls many MPs who are he'll bent on continuing the destruction of Canada. I believe he wants to force a regime change to help us get back on track.

[john_koenig99]

Well, I just decided to go with option number two.

As of last night, all my listings exclude buyers located in the USA. 

[euclid777]

Yes, until things are clarified, I think it's too risky to sell to the US.  The last thing I want is to ship a bunch of things south only to have purchasers demanding to return them on account of the trariff.   Ebay.ca has been singularly unhelpful in this difficult time.

[flipistics]

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@euclid777 wrote:

Yes, until things are clarified, I think it's too risky to sell to the US.  The last thing I want is to ship a bunch of things south only to have purchasers demanding to return them on account of the trariff.   Ebay.ca has been singularly unhelpful in this difficult time.

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To be fair, eBay has no more of an idea of what's going on than we do right now.

There's certainly some things they could do.

• Redirecting Canadian traffic to dot ca (with an option for people to manually switch to dot com) would be a very helpful start.
• Requiring country of origin on all items is something that should have happened a long time ago.
• Requiring an HS code to be entered for any item with international shipping enabled could allow a fairly accurate estimate of what buyers could expect to pay.
• A special popup / confirmation or unmissable notice when buyers have items in the cart likely subject to tariffs would be a huge help.
• For Canadians with dot com stores / listings they could offer to port them over to dot ca (people may still have to fix shipping options, but at least they wouldn't have to redo all the listings and photos).
• Bringing in an international shipping program for Canada would be a huge one. Many people are scared of trying to figure out all the various regulations that are starting to pop up around the world.

[mrdutch1001]

I'll let y'all know the outcome of 2 pkgs that will be put into the mail tomorrow, destined for USA.

[dhslk]

It could also be possible that these were INFORMED buyers trying to beat the tariff imposition deadline. Or even Americans trying to fight back against Trump's 'war' on Canada by supporting a Canadian business.

[dhslk]

That's why I will not stop selling to the US---I am going to assume that these customers want to help Canada. However, I am also going to start offering sales by way of shipping discounts to Canadians, rather than off of the items themselves.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If it is bothering you a lot, you could message the buyer up front and say "Hello, I am reaching out to make sure you're fine with the possibility that you might be charged a tariff on your order pending the changes that the US government made this weekend. If you no longer wish to proceed with the order, please let me know before (your latest ship date) and I will process a cancellation. Otherwise, if I do not hear back from you, I am required to ship the order by (your latest ship date)."

I wouldn't do that, I would just ship them - it's the buyer's responsibility. But it's a suggestion if you are very anxious about the possibility of dealing with upset customers. It sounds like you don't rely on shipping to the USA very much, and you don't like the idea of customers having a bad experience over the tariffs. In your shoes, I think it makes sense to block US buyers. It sounds like whatever you might make from a few US orders a month may not be worth the headache.

Don't mistake this as me saying that you're wrong to feel that way or anything. I think everybody has to choose what is right for them in this situation. If I only had a few US orders a month, I would likely block US buyers until we have more clarity because with that little skin in the game, it's not worth the time dealing with potential problems. On the flipside, I wouldn't advocate for someone who does a high volume of orders to the USA to block them.

[carlmarxx]

  Well Trumptard  is  at war with  us Californians    also  .  His  Tariff's will  hit the red states the hardest  ,before the blue states .    the Red state  republican  Congress and senators  will force him  to back down  .  The Mid terms  are comming up   with   a lot of republican  seats  that will hopefully  flip  blue  . 

[musicyouneed]

Some really interesting and valuable points, thanks. 

Rather than using chit chats, I used Canada Post, I have one going to the US tomorrow and I did message him that there may be a delay at the border due to the tariffs.  I don't think it will be ebay who will be adding the tariff charge, it probably will be the US customs and border services with USPS and I think that they will handle it like when we purchase something out of the country and it is over $20.  The buyer will have to pay the 25% fee when it gets delivered.  I can just see it now what a mess.

I have put my store on time away for a week and then maybe we will have more of an idea of how it is going to be handled. 

[needsmorerobots]

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@flipistics wrote:

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Some sort of global shipping program would be helpful. There's so many countries with regulations popping up.

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Oh God, please don't.

If you mean anything like the Ebay USA Global Shipping Program, it is so much more expensive than it needs to be.

[needsmorerobots]

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@redline-recreation wrote:
Here's the deal ... it's not Trumps fault, Canada under Trudeau has fallen. We have not paid our share for years. We are becoming another France, Germany country overrun with migrants with little or no vetting. Our boarders are open, our speech and thoughts are censored. WEF controls many MPs who are he'll bent on continuing the destruction of Canada. I believe he wants to force a regime change to help us get back on track.

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Here's my unpopular view.

Trump started this tariff talk with Trudeau, who I believe isn't held in high regard as either a politician or a businessman by him.

The 51st state comment was just a joke.

Now Trump gets to watch Trudeau play right into his hands once Trudeau responded with tariffs of our own.

Trump's tariffs will damage our ability to make money in the US and will hurt US citizens and businesses who rely on our goods.

Trudeau's tariffs will make shopping for goods, especially food, more expensive (as if it wasn't expensive enough).

Trump has an out, but Canada doesn't.

Trump tried to walk away from the Paris environmental accord during his first term. People called him names like climate denier, etc, but no one I saw asked, why he was doing what he was doing.

In his inauguration speech for his second term, Trump mentioned tariffs and he said he would lower taxes for manufacturing businesses from other countries if they relocate to the USA.

Just 5 days ago the US Government said they are leaving the Paris climate accord by 2026

This now sets the stage for returning manufacturing jobs to the American people under Trump, that was whittled away further to China under Regan.

China plan to put tariffs on the US and so will Mexico. Perhaps China's unofficial reason for the tariffs is they don't want manufacturing jobs returning to the US, hurting their economy over the long term.

For Trudeau, this is a knee jerk reaction. I don't think he has any plan other then responding in kind and showing he has a backbone like his father before him.

There are other ways to go about it, this wasn't it.

[needsmorerobots]

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@john_koenig99 wrote:

Well, this does it then. It's time to stand firm against Trump's actions. 

From my part, I am considering these two options:

1) To modify my listings and add a 25% increase to the shipping service to USA based buyers. 

Or

2) To remove the shipping services to USA buyers altogether, effectively offering my listings to Canadian and Non-US international customers only. 

Thoughts? 

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I'm doing nothing.

My US customers are just as important to me as my customers from other countries.

And with all this tariff slapping, our Canadian dollar to the Americans has dropped to a low I can't recall since the early 1990s.

If anything, goods I sell will still beat the American dealers' prices even if a 25% tariff is attached.

[recped]

All time lowest value for CAD vs USD was on 21 January 2002 at $0.6179

Overnight it dipped to $0.6761, crawled back to over $0.68 in the last hour but ii heading back down. When the US markets open I expect it will fall again, possibly below 67 cents.

Add a falling Dollar to 25% tariffs and the products affected by our countervailing duties are going to be very inflationary.

[mrdutch1001]

I will not be intimidated, I will not be bullied and I will not bow down to "him"...I stand against giving in to such tyranny. I believe we must endure and be strong for our county.

My USA bound packages will ship out same as usual.