US Tariffs: $80-$200 Surcharge On All Packages Regardless of Price

[The Soloist]

Canada dropped retaliatory tariffs on free trades US imports. Are games included in the current (CUSMA) Canada-US-Mexico free trade agreement?

 

[tetrasodium]

This doesn't address what I quoted. Cergorach said that goods shipped to Mexico from Canada would pay tariffs in the US. He seemed to imply that a tariff was charged on every item that transits through the US. Is this true? E.g. Does the US now intercept all mail at all bonded facilities, regardless of destination? I'd be very surprised if this was true.

He's not wrong in the possibility. You would need to define:

* Where those goods are manufactured and potentially the origin country for any resources/parts used to produce them (ie some of the auto tarrifs make an easy example here).

*Where those finished goods are warehoused
*Where the order is fulfilled by taking it from the warehouse and packaging it up so it can be shipped to Mexico
*Potentially how those goods are shipped after order fulfillment packages them.

It's possible for more than one of those to singlehandedly flip the answer from "no tarrif" to "of course tarrif is charged". It's Also relevant to consider what volume is shipped from the factory since an entire shipping container will have the tariff and flat fees spread more broadly across a higher number of units than if it's just one box in a shared shipping container or a situation like a single foreign manufactured unit being sent to a flgs where it would get shipped to Mexico after the tarrifs and fees are paid for the initial import

 

[Clint_L]

In most of the northern hemisphere there is a system called the TIR convention which allows a shipper to put goods on a sealed truck, have it travel through a number of intermediary countries, and only pay customs/tariffs in the final destination country. As far as I can tell, the USA and Canada are signatories to this convention, but Mexico is not (so I guess for them it's mostly relevant for transit from Alaska to the lower 48 and back).

Well, Alaska and the entire country of Canada.

 

[Staffan]

Well, Alaska and the entire country of Canada.

TIR is for going from nation A through nations B, C, D, and E and deliver the goods to nation F without getting the authorities in B, C, D, and E involved. When you're just going from A to B without crossing any other nations (e.g. Canada to the USA and vice versa), it doesn't come into play.

To be honest, I don't know if it works when the source and destination nation are the same, but I'm assuming it does because otherwise there'd be no point in Canada and the USA being signatories.

 

[Autumnal]

 

[Clint_L]

TIR is for going from nation A through nations B, C, D, and E and deliver the goods to nation F without getting the authorities in B, C, D, and E involved. When you're just going from A to B without crossing any other nations (e.g. Canada to the USA and vice versa), it doesn't come into play.

Yes, and Mexico and Canada do indeed trade with each other, which means goods do indeed cross another nation. So it's relevant to Mexico when they ship to Canada, not just Alaska. It's okay, we're used to Americans forgetting we exist. In fact, we prefer it to the current alternative.

 

[Staffan]

Yes, and Mexico and Canada do indeed trade with each other, which means goods do indeed cross another nation. So it's relevant to Mexico when they ship to Canada, not just Alaska. It's okay, we're used to Americans forgetting we exist. In fact, we prefer it to the current alternative.

But Mexico isn't part of the TIR convention, so it does not apply to goods going from Canada to Mexico. In North America, only Canada and the USA are signatories, which means the only use of it I can see is for goods traveling from Alaska to the lower 48 or vice versa.

 

[Scribe]

Update on Ryoko's.

We're covering 100% of the tariff fees, even at the higher rate of 30%, with no cost passed onto backers in the US - we are NOT holding stock until tariffs come down; we are NOT passing taxes onto you, we are getting everything to everybody, everywhere as soon as possible! We held out on confirming this for as long as possible to assess the situation, but the US and China recently announced a 3 month continuation of the current 30% tariff rate.

Obviously, this represents an enormous inflation of our costs, we 100% understand why other projects and kickstarters are waiting. Believe me, we have absolute sympathy for other projects and their choice to wait - no two Kickstarters are the same, so please don't take this as a guarantee other projects in the space will be able to tank the costs of the tariffs.

We are only able to do this thanks to you. All your belief and support for this project created a situation where we have just enough to cover these taxes without passing them onto the Ryoko's MSRP or adding to shipping costs. Thank you so much for your support.

However, please understand that this is subject to the tariffs not being changed. The US government have said the current level will hold for now, but we also can't be sure they won't change their minds. We're effectively running Ryoko's at net $0 to make this happen. That means if tariffs rise, we won't be able to pay them; we'll be forced to delay. If the content arrives to a US port and we can't pay the tariffs, everything will be destroyed. We're trusting that the US government will keep their promised position on tariffs in order to get everything to you at no additional cost. If situations do change, we will need to reevaluate.

 

[mamba]

“We're trusting that the US government will keep their promised position on tariffs” feels like a pretty risky proposition

 

[Scribe]

“We're trusting that the US government will keep their promised position on tariffs” feels like a pretty risky proposition

I found this a lot more concerning for the group.

We're effectively running Ryoko's at net $0 to make this happen.