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What are the reasons behind the US, UK & EU ceasing de-minimis? (retrofed.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Currently, Australia holds the record on having the highest duty free threshold: A$1000 ($703 / £525 / 626€) since both US & EU rescinded theirs recently (the UK is planning on removing de minimis, at the moment it stands at £135 or below duty free). I mean, do travelers (bringing in stuff they purchased elsewhere) and importers (who bought stuff online from overseas retailers) now have to pay extra taxes in the US & EU?

Has it actually been enforced already? You only notice it when you either travel and bought stuff (unopened and brand new) whilst on vacation upon returning back to US & EU they hit you with those charges or buying stuff across borders as the package is being held at customs waiting for tariffs to be paid. Is this just an excuse for their governments wanting to extort money from citizens trying to deter them from buying stuff abroad?

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[–] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (2 children)

The reason is sites like Temu and AliExpress. Those sites flood the market with cheap and sometimes dangerous products. Customs can barely keep up. So the increased fees are both to disincentivize people from buying there and fund the increased workload of customs workers.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    The point of de-minimus (at least in Aus) is to ease the load on customs, so they don't have to waste time and effort processing tax a few cents worth of tax on thousands of packages.

    Getting rid of it will probably make the less reputable sellers (eBay) go back to marking everything as a gift.

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    • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    and don't mind paying tax on aliexpress stuff, as i shop there for the range of goods, not just on the price.

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    [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Are you referring to abolished duty-free imports into the EU for up to 150€? That's because we need to stop importing crap.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Annoyingly, in Aus, if you try to shop locally, youll find the stuff in Kmart et al. is all imported crap from aliexpress anyway. So you basically are paying a huge markup for the same garbage.

    https://www.kmart.com.au/product/450ml-oil-spray-and-pour-bottle-43513765/

    https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPwySZt

    These are at least somewhat closely priced now, but the Kmart sprayer was double that price a few months back when I needed one. And its not just Kmart, every shop is the same, its all poor quality crap. So why not get the poor quality crap direct from the source at half the price, even with shipping. Its pretty fucked up.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    But in AUS the distributor is also responsible for the safety and warranty of the product?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago

    Yes, but:

    Safety: for small stuff, really no safety concerns, and with the amount of recalls, not really any better.

    Warrenty: when the price is half or less, easier to just buy 2.

    So for larger more expensive items, local makes sense somewhat, but for small crap, better to just get from aliexpress.

    Which is really annoying, because individually shipping every little trinket is crazy wasteful.

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