
Trump Opens New Front in His Battle with China: International Shipping - adrr
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/politics/trump-china-shipping.html
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danimal88
This is a hugely consequential change and one that I welcome. It's cheaper for
me to order a halloween costume, remote control, etc. from Aliexpress or ebay
and have it sent to me via ePacket than the SHIPPING for a domestically
purchased product. In other words, the product + epacket is less than just
getting a product from near by warehouse to my doorstep. This is doesn't make
sense as it's the US subsidizing Chinese sellers to the detriment of US
sellers, inside of the US...

I understand the desire for cheap goods and I find the tariffs questionable
but this change is much needed imho.

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rasz
Good move. It is ridiculous now, you can buy headphone extension cable at $0.2
with Free shipping from china on ebay. This madness has to stop.

On the other hand I have zero doubt Chinese sellers will try to scam the
system by first shipping to another cheap country on the list.

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adrr
Interesting how this affects companies like Etsy, eBay and Alibaba. Is there
an opportunity with 3PL startups to capitalize on this big change.

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mikestew
I knew that if I waited long enough, Trump would accidentally do something I
approve of. China isn't the poor, little developing nation it was in 1969, and
no longer require our subsidies. Along with that, the treaty also subsidizes
the pollution of cargo ships to send us our cheap shit, as well as subsidizing
the export of our manufacturing pollution.

Subsidy abstractions aside, were I an owner of a business that ships domestic,
I'd be asking, "where's _my_ cheap shipping?" In summary, I'm really surprised
the treaty has lasted this long.

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CodeWriter23
> "where's my cheap shipping?"

The answer to your question lies with the repeal of the Postal Accountability
and Enhancement Act of 2006. You may recall, the Post Office’s financial
problems all came to light in about 2007. There is a cause/effect relationship
between this particular law, the USPS’ problems, and higher postal rates.

