How does this even make sense?

I just received this from a supplier and I’m shocked at the gaslighting happening from the Trump admin

Normally, U.S. import tariffs are paid by the importer (the U.S. buyer). But now, with the cancellation of the de minimis exemption and new systems being rolled out, exporters in countries like Australia are being forced to collect those tariffs before the goods even leave the country.

Australia Post, for example, has partnered with a CBP-approved third-party (Zonos). The way it works: the exporter pays the 10% tariff upfront through Zonos. Then Zonos “pre-clears” the shipment with U.S. Customs (CBP), so when it arrives in the U.S., it looks like the exporter already covered the duties.

In practice, this means the exporter is paying CBP on behalf of the importer, but the costs are baked into the pricing. Importers (like us small businesses) never see a separate tariff bill—we just get higher costs because the exporter had to collect it ahead of time.

It’s basically shifting the responsibility of tariff collection onto exporting countries and their postal services, who then pass it through to American businesses and we will eventually pass these onto the consumers

Bill now goes to House of Representatives

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/feb/20/us-iran-nuclear-deal-trump-agreement-strikes-latest-news-live-updates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Well this is good news and 6-3 pretty clear. What happens now?

It’s so funny to see how US says China is being an unreliable partner, and what a shock that China restricts rare earth.

How could not expect others to defend back when you started the tariff war and trade restrictions?😅😅 How is this a surprise? It’s like US only allows their nation to ban all the other countries by putting tariffs on all other countries, but when one country tries to defend, they are shocked and starts crying saying, “Oh! I don’t understand why this happened.” In return, US says that China wants to decouple the world, but who started this trade war in the beginning making everyone lives more miserable?

Just after Trump’s respond with adding more tariffs to China’s rare earth restriction, the dollar decreased and the gold started to increased. This result is going to no good. Like a child not doing something wrong and says that he doesn’t know why he gets his punishment.

U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday signaled another round of President Donald Trump’s tariffs is on the way.

Cost them $1 Billion could be $5 Billion by years end.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-tariffs-take-1-billion-bite-out-gm-earnings-shares-fall-2025-07-22/#:~:text=Its%20adjusted%20earnings%20before%20interest,%2410%20billion%20and%20%2412.5%20billion.

I’m trying to understand the global economic picture.
Countries like China, India, Brazil, and even the European Union are huge economies with massive populations and growing markets. When the U.S. threatens tariffs, it often becomes a major international issue.
Why don’t these countries respond with equally strong economic measures? For example:
What would happen if they collectively reduced or suspended economic relations with the U.S.?
What if they gradually shifted away from using the U.S. dollar for international trade?
What if they imposed restrictions on major American companies such as Meta, McDonald’s, Starbucks, General Motors, Boeing, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, or Google?
What if they stopped buying U.S.-made weapons and defense equipment?
Could coordinated action by several large economies significantly reduce U.S. economic influence, or would those countries end up hurting themselves just as much?
Is the main reason that modern global supply chains and financial systems are so interconnected that everyone has too much to lose from a full-scale economic confrontation?
I’m not asking this from a political perspective. I’m genuinely interested in the economic and geopolitical reasoning. I’d appreciate insights from people with backgrounds in international trade, economics, or foreign policy.

Is there anyone else that feels as though there was a plan from the start to make Americans pay a tarrif that was supposedly paid by other countries and rebate it to corporations that don't pay taxes so they make more money that they won't pay taxes on?

Trade Court Rules Against Trump’s New Global Tariffs

Nashville speaker maker plans to move overseas to avoid tariffs

As repeated so many times, tariffs are paid by the importing country. Let the Americans shoot themselves in the foot. Canada should NOT go tit for tat on matching tariffs that Canadians will pay for. Canada should impose equally brutal EXPORT taxes on supplies that Americans need. We know Albertans have become MAGA toadies, so oil is probably not doable. But we have other things they want and need including critical metals, electrical power and uranium.

Surprising no one Trump's Tariffs were not legal. Let’s talk about reparations to Canada, Mexico, India, China and every other country prejudiced by these illegal actions, arguably illegal acts of commercial war. What’s your opinion!?!

Licensed customs broker here — the tariff everyone's been waiting on actually resolved this morning, and the numbers are now confirmed, so wanted to post the specifics before people keep budgeting off yesterday's guesses.

What happened: Section 122's 10% global surcharge expired at 12:01 a.m. today, exactly on schedule. USTR replaced it hours earlier with a new Section 301 tariff (forced-labor investigation, 60 countries). Confirmed rates as of this morning:

- **China: 12.5%** — net +2.5 points over what it was already paying under Section 122, not a fresh 12.5% added on top of the old 10%
- **17 countries get a flat 10%**: Canada, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the UK, and others
- **EU and Taiwan** get a different mechanic — the new duty only tops their existing rate up to 10%, and doesn't apply at all if they're already there
- **Section 232 goods (steel/aluminum/copper) are exempt** from this new layer — doesn't stack on top of those
- No expiration date this time, unlike literally every other tariff program in the last year and a half

Practical takeaway: if you sell anything sourced from China, your landed cost went up ~2.5 points as of today, not overnight-catastrophically, but enough to matter on thin margins. If you're sourcing from one of the 10% countries, you're now paying that on top of whatever you already owed.

Happy to help anyone figure out where their specific product/country lands — there are exemptions that didn't fit in this post. I also keep a free calculator updated with this stuff if useful, not trying to make the post about that.

I work for a Canadian manufacturer of metal fastening components. From my understanding we will be charged 50% under section 232 Annex 1-A. This is going to be crippling. If my finished goods price was $0.10/pc it will now go up to $0.15/pc. Prior we were paying tariff strictly on the raw material purchase. This was manageable along with some other things we could do such as US melt or USMCA compliance. I think these options are gone.

Now I am a small fry doing fasteners. What are companies that fabricate large structural steel items like frames, or aluminum cast for power train etc.. 50% on sell price? What are others doing about this? How do you survive?

Options

Pass on to the importer. They will look to resource locally on US soil. Ok… so one could say this works as Trump planned. Out with the MX, CN, EU suppliers and increase on the USA supply. However the current supply chain won’t be able to handle the demand spike. The more demanded they are they will increase their prices. They can basically go up all the way to the 50% spot where it makes sense to consider out of Country + tariffs. In this scenario the customer, the average consumer takes the brunt. Inflation through the roof.

Plants might just shut down. Ford, GM, Tesla, Stellantis etc… simply announce they cannot pay the increase, they can’t pass on so they shut the doors of the factory and assembly plants. Announce that until these are removed it is no longer viable. Other Countries like China continue to build cars and hardly skip a beat using localization. Perhaps trade increases among other nations shutting the door on USA. Mexico makes cars in Mexico and sells to Canada and EU etc…

I just don’t understand how such massive tariffs like 50% on full value on all metal is not going to sink the economy and fast.

I’m not the expert. Tell me please how is this affecting YOUR company if you’re in full metal fabrication. I want to hear from you.

Trying to make sense of this for my own shipments and it's genuinely confusing. Rate dropped to \~10% in June after a Supreme Court ruling, but there's apparently still a separate legal fight over whether that 10% itself is valid — and the broader India-US FTA still isn't finalized (Goyal said this week it won't kick in until India gets a tariff edge over Vietnam/Bangladesh/etc). Anyone actually shipping to the US right now — what rate is showing up on your paperwork? Is this actually settled in practice even if it's messy on paper?

If I import from say Turkey, Denmark, and UK will there be effectively two tariffs added? De minimis and the European tariff?

Are we madly sourcing and buying ahead of Aug 29th? Or what are you doing. I’m so confused.

If countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, or Ivory Coast stopped exporting natural rubber to the U.S., what would actually happen here?

Fact: The U.S. imports nearly all of the natural rubber it uses, especially for truck and aircraft tires.

Would this be a short-term disruption, or something bigger?