This is an angle I hadn’t thought of but absolutely this. In the UK the deminimus ceiling is much lower - £35. These companies were still shipping directly from China. Maybe they were just eating loses.
This is actually a rare case of bipartisan agreement. The Biden administration announced the same policy in September 2024 but was temporarily stymied in implementation by some technical details on international postal regulations.
I agree with the key point here -- its clear that consolidating one-off air cargo shipments into container loads will dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of fast (now slow) fashion. Its less clear that tariffs as a whole will reduce carbon output. In many cases foreign production plus shipping has lower carbon intensity than domestic output. Recessions save a lot of carbon output in exchange for an overdose of human misery.
Nope - you have allowed your enthusiasm to get in front of your knowledge.
"more than what four coal power plants spew out in a year.” - well given the world is currently operating 795 (approximately) coal fire power stations is this really very much of a win?
"approximately 88 Boeing 777 freighter" - but how many male African elephants is that?
Timu isn't going away, you fallen into the trap of what psychologist called "last moveitis"!
You haven't thought through how the shippers will adjust their business models to continue making enormous profits and to continue shipping product.
As you actually mentioned, by "trunking packages" you basically can ignore the $100 charge. And their profit margins are in the region of 80% even with shipping charges, which means that the 30% charge will cut it to their profit margin but by no means will it put them out of business.
They can also obviously do redirect via third-party countries which don't have this tariff on them. Perhaps they'll redirect through Canada! After all this is the model that dropshippers have used for years and they're very profitable.
You also have not made mention of the fact that they ship even more stuff to the rest of the world than they do to the United States of America. That alone can easily keep them in business.
So no, they're not going away. They're just going to restructure themselves. It's just another example of a badly thought out change without thinking about how systems will adjust to the change.
"but their economic advantage over Amazon or Walmart has vaporized. It is basically over for them." - no - do the maths, it's not.
One bunch that are likely to benefit from this is the USPS with the tracking resulting in formal packages being handed to them for domestic delivery then they currently receive.
Trump is constantly bellyaching about foreign companies taking potential jobs and money away from the U.S. In this case, he virtually ruined two foreign companies with just the stroke of a pen...
This is an angle I hadn’t thought of but absolutely this. In the UK the deminimus ceiling is much lower - £35. These companies were still shipping directly from China. Maybe they were just eating loses.
This is actually a rare case of bipartisan agreement. The Biden administration announced the same policy in September 2024 but was temporarily stymied in implementation by some technical details on international postal regulations.
I agree with the key point here -- its clear that consolidating one-off air cargo shipments into container loads will dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of fast (now slow) fashion. Its less clear that tariffs as a whole will reduce carbon output. In many cases foreign production plus shipping has lower carbon intensity than domestic output. Recessions save a lot of carbon output in exchange for an overdose of human misery.
Nope - you have allowed your enthusiasm to get in front of your knowledge.
"more than what four coal power plants spew out in a year.” - well given the world is currently operating 795 (approximately) coal fire power stations is this really very much of a win?
"approximately 88 Boeing 777 freighter" - but how many male African elephants is that?
Timu isn't going away, you fallen into the trap of what psychologist called "last moveitis"!
You haven't thought through how the shippers will adjust their business models to continue making enormous profits and to continue shipping product.
As you actually mentioned, by "trunking packages" you basically can ignore the $100 charge. And their profit margins are in the region of 80% even with shipping charges, which means that the 30% charge will cut it to their profit margin but by no means will it put them out of business.
They can also obviously do redirect via third-party countries which don't have this tariff on them. Perhaps they'll redirect through Canada! After all this is the model that dropshippers have used for years and they're very profitable.
You also have not made mention of the fact that they ship even more stuff to the rest of the world than they do to the United States of America. That alone can easily keep them in business.
So no, they're not going away. They're just going to restructure themselves. It's just another example of a badly thought out change without thinking about how systems will adjust to the change.
"but their economic advantage over Amazon or Walmart has vaporized. It is basically over for them." - no - do the maths, it's not.
One bunch that are likely to benefit from this is the USPS with the tracking resulting in formal packages being handed to them for domestic delivery then they currently receive.
USPS is not going to benefit because they are being decimated and will be unable to handle current volume, let alone anything new.
Trump is constantly bellyaching about foreign companies taking potential jobs and money away from the U.S. In this case, he virtually ruined two foreign companies with just the stroke of a pen...