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It Was So Cool When We Could Still Get Packages From Overseas

It Was So Cool When We Could Still Get Packages From Overseas

By the time you’re reading this, it’s already too late. While President Donald Trump’s erratic tariffs are wrecking the economy writ large, they’re now going to wreck your personal economy writ small if you happen to like buying things from overseas.

The de minimis rule, which had allowed overseas goods worth less than $800 to enter the country duty-free, ended on Friday. Now, no matter how low the value, import costs apply.

Much of the focus on Trump’s tariffs has been on the increased costs of the goods themselves, noting that the things Americans routinely buy at low costs from overseas will become much more expensive. However, there’s also the issue of increased friction and chaos for overseas sellers, shippers, and foreign postal offices.

The de minimis rule smoothed the way for that low-cost commerce. Goods under that $800 threshold could be shipped directly to consumers, meaning no complicated determinations of tariff costs for sellers and shippers, and buyers didn’t have to go to the post office to pay duty fees to get a $9 Labubu accessory out of hock after it has undergone a full customs inspection.

If Trump’s tariffs were at least stable, sellers and shippers might decide they could deal with the tariff problem. Indeed, big shippers like UPS and FedEx are already equipped to figure out and pay country-specific duty costs. However, many smaller shippers ship through their country’s post office.

In killing the de minimis exemption, Trump also ordered that Customs and Border Protection wouldn’t assess the tariff duties stateside from packages sent via the international postal network. Therefore, post offices overseas must now calculate the duty and pay it to U.S. Customs. That involves the post office first setting up a way to collect tariff duties—yep, the ones that keep changing—from package senders. Then the post office has to pay the duties to CBP. Then the shipment can be handed over to the USPS for delivery within the United States.

While postal services get that sorted, the only real solution in some instances is just to not ship any packages here. Note that “any packages” part. It’s not just that some overseas postal services aren’t going to send you that Labubu accessory purchased from an overseas website tapping into the Labubu frenzy. They’re not going to send any packages at all until there is more certainty about what sending things to the United States looks like.

So, if you were expecting a nice letter with some photographs from a relative in Mexico? That’s a package, and you can’t have it if your relative tried to send it via the country’s postal service.

If your theoretical relative lives in Japan and wants to use Japan Post, they could send you that letter and those photos, and could even throw in trinkets worth up to $100 in value. But if you tried to buy those same trinkets, a Japanese seller can’t send them to you through the country’s postal service. Similar to Australia, where your relative can send those trinkets but must comply with new mandatory declaration requirements regarding the value of the trinkets and their country of origin. If it looks like this is just a purchase in disguise, it can’t be sent.

India, Thailand, South Korea, New Zealand—all of those postal services are now suspending package services, as are Switzerland and Taiwan. See also Austria, Belgium, and portions of Scandinavia.

For an example of how untenable this is, let’s pretend your relative moved to Finland and wants to send you a letter via post. No photos, no trinkets. Just a two-page handwritten letter about how well the little ones are doing at school and how nice summer vacation was. As of Aug. 22, you couldn’t even get that letter, because Finland’s postal service, the adorably named Posti, was dealing with the issue that airlines were refusing to accept anything bound for America, including letters. Then airlines began accepting some items again, so Posti announced it would again be accepting letters to be sent here. But as of Friday? Airlines are now again refusing to send postal items here, so Posti is back to sending nothing, not even cards or letters, to the United States. And you can’t blame them, really.

And it’s not just countries that are suspending package shipments here. DHL, the German shipping group that handles tons of shipments for European sellers, announced it will not ship any business parcels here. Even major companies, like Lego, can’t hang with this chaos and are restricting what they will send here. And good luck if you’re trying to buy from a small Etsy seller or the like.

There is a credible and logical argument to be made that the de minimis exemption was too high, that it had become an import loophole for big companies rather than a way for you to get a sweet vintage fountain pen from a French seller on eBay without both of you having to be import-export specialists. There’s even a credible and logical argument to be made that the exemption allowed for unsafe or knockoff goods to enter the country in large quantities without ever being inspected.

But those aren’t the arguments the administration is making.

Trump is a fool and has no idea what the exemption is, but he tries to cover it up with hyperbole: “It's very important, de minimis. It's a big deal. It's a big scam going on against our country, against really small businesses, and we've ended it. We put an end to it.” He’s also sure this will make it harder for fentanyl to enter the country, presumably under the theory that your relative can no longer tuck a couple of grams in with the family photos.

In the meantime, please enjoy America’s retreat from the global economy. Maybe we’ll just start making Legos and Labubu stateside and fix the economy that way?

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos.


Louis DeJoy

Biden Takes A Big Step Toward Replacing DeJoy At Postal Service

Ever since Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a major Republican donor — was selected to head the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 2020, he's been enacting massively unpopular policies criticized by postal workers and Democrats alike. Now, President Joe Biden may soon be able to replace him.

On Thursday, Politico congressional correspondent Anthony Adragna reported that Biden was nominating former Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) to fill the last remaining vacancy on the USPS Board of Governors. She, along with former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, are now awaiting confirmation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

Should both Demings and Walsh be confirmed, that would give Biden seven appointees on the nine-member board overseeing USPS. And because the Postmaster General's hiring and firing is up to the board and not Biden, that could mean that DeJoy could be removed from his post by the time Biden leaves office in January of 2025.

Biden appointees have held a majority on the USPS board since 2022, when three of his appointees were confirmed by Peters' committee. However, his appointees have been slow to fire DeJoy given his close partnership with the Biden administration on clean energy policy. Politico reported last year that DeJoy is rolling out a plan to add roughly 106,000 new electric vehicles to the USPS' fleet of mail delivery trucks, with 66,000 of those trucks on the road by 2028. Biden's landmark Inflation Reduction Act allocated $3 billion to the initiative, and DeJoy has partnered with veteran Democratic strategist John Podesta to implement his plan.

However, DeJoy is still reviled for his efforts to consolidate USPS sorting facilities, which has severely impacted the speed of mail delivery — particularly in populated metropolitan areas in battleground states like Atlanta, Georgia and Richmond, Virginia. In one heated exchange earlier this year, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) confronted Ossoff about complaints from his constituents that they weren't getting important mail until after weeks of delays.

“You don't have months to fix 36 percent of the mail being delivered on time," Ossoff said. "I've got constituents with prescriptions that aren't being delivered. I've got constituents who can't pay their rent and their mortgages. I've got businesses who aren't able to ship products or receive supplies.”

During that committee hearing, Ossoff gave DeJoy a two-week deadline to address his concerns. When that deadline came and went with no action, Ossoff again pressed him for solutions. The two finally met earlier this month to talk about how to streamline mail delivery in Atlanta, and the Georgia Democrat asserted that he was still not confident in DeJoy's leadership after their conversation.

"For months I have sustained relentless pressure on USPS management to fully resolve disastrous performance failures impacting my constituents in Georgia. I’m still hearing from Georgia families and businesses about the difficulty they continue to face sending and receiving their mail, which is why I met today with Postmaster General DeJoy to again reiterate the need for further improvements and greater transparency," Ossoff stated. "I will not rest until my constituents are well and fully served by the U.S. Postal Service."

After pressure from numerous senators urging DeJoy to reconsider his consolidation plans that would harm the speed of mail service in rural communities, DeJoy finally relented and announced he would be postponing the initiative. However, questions still remain about whether voters relying on voting by mail in the November election will be able to receive their ballots in time to vote, and whether the USPS will deliver their ballots to be counted on time.

“We’re approaching a major November election,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), who represents parts of Houston, said in March. “We need to make sure that we iron out any difficulties, any obstacles, any barriers, any issues now, so that we don’t end up in a situation much like we were in with the November ballots.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy

DeJoy Hangs On At Post Office As His Company Reaps Huge Bonanza

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

U.S. lawmakers and ethics advocates on Friday reiterated calls for firing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after The Washington Post revealed that the United States Postal Service awarded a $120 million contract to XPO Logistics, a company he helped run and "with which his family maintains financial ties."

"Louis DeJoy is a walking conflict of interest," declared Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). "He had no business being named postmaster general, and he has no business continuing to serve."

"It's long past time to #FireDeJoy," added Connolly, chair of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, which has legislative jurisdiction over the Postal Service.

Connolly was far from alone in responding to the report by calling for DeJoy's removal.

"How in the world is Louis DeJoy still the postmaster general?" asked Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO). "It is long past time to #FireDeJoy."

DeJoy's personal spokesperson referred most of the newspaper's questions to USPS—whose spokesperson "said that DeJoy did not participate in the procurement process for the XPO contract, which was competitively bid." The company's spokesperson noted that XPO was not awarded some other contracts it sought.

Under the contract that XPO got, it will take over two centers that organize and load mail. Dena Briscoe, president of the American Postal Workers Union branch for Washington and Southern Maryland, told the Post that the move felt like a "slap in the face" to workers.

"This is the work that they've been doing for years and years and years," Briscoe said, "and you're going to segregate it away from them, put in another building, give it to a company that previously had a [top executive] that is now our postmaster general. A lot of our members are taking offense to that."

As the Post detailed:

The new contract will deepen the Postal Service's relationship with XPO Logistics, where DeJoy served as supply chain chief executive from 2014 to 2015 after the company purchased New Breed Logistics, the trucking firm he owned for more than 30 years. Since he became postmaster general, DeJoy, DeJoy-controlled companies, and his family foundation have divested between $65.4 million and $155.3 million worth of XPO shares, according to financial disclosures, foundation tax documents, and securities filings.

But DeJoy's family businesses continue to lease four North Carolina office buildings to XPO, according to his financial disclosures and state property records.

The leases could generate up to $23.7 million in rent payments for the DeJoy businesses over the next decade.

Although the leases to XPO were cleared by government ethics officials before DeJoy took office last year, some experts are still critical—such as Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

"There's no question he's continuing to profit from a Postal Service contractor," Canter said. "He can comply with these technical legal requirements… but it does create an appearance issue about whether it's in his financial interest to continue to make policy that would benefit contractors like XPO."

Friday's calls for the USPS Board of Governors to fire DeJoy are just the latest from the past year. He has been accused of slowing down mail service before the 2020 election and now faces a criminal probe over GOP political donations; DeJoy has denied any wrongdoing on both fronts.

DeJoy's "14-month run as postmaster general has been a masterclass in cronyism and deception," Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said in response to the Post reporting. "The amount of suspicion I had about him and his efforts to intentionally undermine delivery times at [USPS] could have filled the Grand Canyon. The Board of Governors should #FireDeJoy."

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), who led previous calls for the board to oust the postmaster general, said Friday that "Louis DeJoy should've been fired long ago for his sabotage of USPS. He is under federal criminal investigation and now may be using your post office to wet his beak. The postal governors protecting him need to be fired first. This is an outrage."

DeJoy is spearheading a controversial 10-year reform plan for USPS that would involve cutting hours, slowing first-class delivery, and raising prices—an approach that has also provoked demands for his immediate ouster.

The 10-year plan was a key focus of a Board of Governors meeting Friday—the first that included all three members appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate.

"Ronald Stroman, the former deputy postmaster general and one of Biden's nominees, took the most aggressive approach in criticizing DeJoy's plan, saying the delivery slowdowns would hinder the agency's ability to provide prompt and reliable service without federal funding," reported Government Executive.

According to the outlet:

He said the plan is "strategically-ill conceived, creates dangerous risks that are not justified by the relatively low financial return, and doesn't meet our responsibility as an essential part of America's critical infrastructure." USPS expects to save about $170 million annually from the changes, a small fraction of its operating budget.
"There is no compelling financial reason to make this change," Stroman said. "The relatively minor savings associated with changing service standards, even if achieved, will have no significant impact on the Postal Service's financial future."

Stroman accused DeJoy and the existing board members of abandoning the customers most loyal to and dependent on the Postal Service and said the plan would accelerate people and businesses turning away from the mailing system. He added that "rarely, if ever," has a USPS policy change received such widespread pushback.

DeJoy, for his part, acknowledged to the board that the plan involves some "uncomfortable changes," while doubling down on it: "We are confident we are headed in the right direction."

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) disagrees. In a March letter urging DeJoy's firing, she wrote that his "pathetic 10-year plan to weaken USPS demonstrates that he is a clear and present threat to the future of the Postal Service and the well-being of millions of Americans, particularly small business owners, seniors, and veterans, who depend on an effective and reliable USPS to conduct daily business, safely participate in democracy, and receive vital medication."

USPS vehicles

Don’t Let The Republicans ‘Fix’ The Postal Service

It was surprising when Donald Trump declared he would make fixing the U.S. Postal Service one of the top personal priorities of his four-year White House adventure. It quickly became obvious, though, that he was using the word "fix" in the same way your veterinarian uses it when you bring in your dog.

Yes, Trump was saying, "Let's fix this puppy," and he wasted an inordinate amount of his presidential power and prestige in a failed attempt to neuter an agency that literally delivers for the people. Think about it: For a 55 cent stamp, America's extraordinary postal workers and letter carriers will take your piece of mail and deliver it by truck, car, airplane, boat, motorbike, mule — and, of course, by foot — to any address across town or across the country. The post office is a public system that works; it is both essential and effective. Indeed, the U.S. Postal Service ranks at the top of federal agencies in popularity, with 91 percent of the public approving its work. Thus, an uproar of protests (including by Republicans) spread across the country, killing Trump's attempt to gut the agency.

When it comes to bad public policy, however, failure is just a way of saying, "Let's try the back door." Trump was defeated, but he left behind an undistinguished Postmaster General named Louis DeJoy, who had only two qualifications for the job: He was a Trump megadonor, and he was a peer of corporate powers that've long wanted to privatize the Postal Service. In March, before the new Joe Biden presidency had taken charge of the postal system, DeJoy popped through the back door with his own "10-year Plan" to fix the agency.

Rhetorically, his plan promised to "achieve service excellence" by making mail delivery more "consistent" and "reliable." How? By consistently cutting service and reliably gouging customers. Specifically, DeJoy's plan was to close numerous mail processing facilities, eliminate jobs, reduce post office hours of service, and cut the standard of delivering first-class mail from three days to five. Oh, and to potentially raise stamp prices.

Delivering lousy service at higher prices is intended to destroy public support for the agency, opening up the mail service to takeover by private profiteers. That's the real DeJoy plan. And who gets joy from that?

Corporate ideologues never cease blathering that government programs should be run like a business.

Really? What businesses would they choose as the ethical model for governing our democracy? Pharmaceutical profiteers? Big Oil? Wall Street money manipulators? High-tech billionaires? Airline price gougers?

The good news is that the great majority of people aren't buying this corporatist blather but instead valuing institutions that prioritize the Common Good. Thus, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have stunned smug right-wing privatizers like DeJoy by specifically declaring in a recent poll that our U.S. Postal Service should not be "run like a business." Indeed, an overwhelming majority, including 49% of Republicans, say mail delivery should be run as a "public service," even if that costs more tax money.

In fact, having proven that this 246-year-old federal agency can consistently and efficiently deliver to 161 million homes and businesses — day after day, year after year — it's time to let the agency's trusted, decentralized, well-trained workforce provide even more services for our communities. One service it is uniquely capable of delivering is so-called postal banking. Yes, the existing network of some 31,000 post offices in metro neighborhoods and small towns across America are perfectly situated and able to provide basic banking services to the one out of four of us who don't have or can't afford bank accounts. The giant banking chains ignore these millions, leaving them at the mercy of check-cashing exploiters and payday-loan sharks that extract exorbitant profits for their Wall Street backers.

The post office can offer simple, honest banking, including small-dollar checking and savings accounts, very low-interest consumer loans, low-fee debit cards, etc. The goal of postal banking is not to maximize corporate profits but to serve the public. Moreover, there's nothing new about this: Our post offices served as banks for millions of us until 1967, when Wall Street profiteers got their enablers in Congress to kill the competition.

We the People own this phenomenal public asset. To enable it to work even better for us , rather than for the forces of corporate greed, go to AGrandAlliance.org.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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