Tariffs back on. Anyone else suffering from whiplash?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-appeals-court-allows-tariffs-to-stay-in-effect-after-trade-court-rebuke-191201904.html

Regarding Aliexpress items that "ships from USA"

I am 0 out of 5 for ever receiving any items I have ordered from Aliexpress where they state the item ships from the USA.

Every time I have placed a "ships from USA",  several weeks pass without the item being shipped,  Then, I ask why the item hasn't shipped and the seller states that the item is not available.  Then, I ask for a refund, and a week later, I get the refund.

For me, each of these orders were sale items, with coins and coupons.  I suspect that what I paid for the item is less than what the USA warehouse wants to sell the item for, so they wont ship the item to me.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the product was never in a USA warehouse to begin with. This has happened to be twice on Ebay. I've ordered a part and paid more SPECIFICALLY because it was listed as shipping from the USA, only to wait multiple weeks and get a package shipped from China.

Now that De Minimis is gone, lying about shipping location to attract buyers is no longer a viable strategy.

My last package until tariffs cool off just landed. Good luck to all you crazies still risking it.

Props to the Chinese sellers and shippers. They're sending stuff to the US as fast as possible. I'm receiving last minute items almost every other day. I'm ordering simple stuff like tools and everyday items that will be hard to come by at a 145% tariff mark-up!

I'd love to know if they have MORE or LESS order volume right now. You have all those too scared to risk getting hit, and all those rushing to get their last minute panic buying in.

Can you help explaining the raise?
i do not quite get it..
lets say, you buy a product for 80 USD?

If you bought a product for $80 today and it arrived after May 2nd but before June 1st, you would pay an additional $72 (90%) or $75 (Flat Rate). It is not clear how they will determine between using the 90% or flat $75 rate. If the product arrives after June 1st, you will pay the additional $150 flat rate.

So that $80 product in total would cost:

May 2nd - June 1st:
$152 - $155

After June 1st:
$230

And those figures are probably low end, as it doesn't include any "brokerage fees" that might charged by carriers like UPS for collecting the tariffs for you.

Sorry clarity and transparency are things of past. In the Banana republic, it is whatever they want to charge on the particular day your order lands here.

So the rumor I'm seeing now is that the 30% or flat $25 fee will be up to the delivery company. Apparently they have the option to choose one or the other and will be allowed to change their choice once a month. My head is spinning.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-closes-de-minimis-exemptions-to-combat-chinas-role-in-americas-synthetic-opioid-crisis/

"All relevant postal items containing goods that are sent through the international postal network that are valued at or under $800 and that would otherwise qualify for the de minimis exemption are subject to a duty rate of either 30% of their value or $25 per item (increasing to $50 per item after June 1, 2025). This is in lieu of any other duties, including those imposed by prior Orders."

So is it whatever the higher value of 30% or $25/item is? Doesn't seem to specify.

This is a good read.    Bad actors abuse any system they can, to make a profit.   Too bad this is messing with our niche area of purchasing bike parts from Aliexpress and china. 

https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/buyer-beware-bad-actors-exploit-de-minimis-shipments

*  “On any given day, we could receive and process 750,000 to a million de minimis shipments,” said Andrew Renna, Assistant Port Director for Cargo Operations at JFK Airport. *

So nearly a million de minimis shipments a day, at JUST the JKF airport alone. They would need tens of thousands of additional employees if those packages became "formal imports" with the de minimis expiration. I have not seen any articles that allude to mass hiring for this. Instead, I've seen multiple articles of USPS cutting thousands of jobs. Rumor is that the study on how to deal with import tariffs is supposed to release on April 2nd. I just don't see any possible way they could even attempt to drop the de minimis exception at this point. Getting there will take at least a year (or years), logically.