Rapid growth of Temu and Shein threatens US businesses and consumers, Biden says.
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20240913222431/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/biden-moves-to-crack-down-on-shein-and-temu-slow-shipments-into-us/
I thought maybe this would be about the cheap disposable products and massive amount of waste these companies produce, but nope - it’s just the wrong pollution.
We need to create massive amounts of cheap disposable American products and send massive amounts of American waste to our landfills.
Why not just subsidize the shit out of the USPS?
I buy a lot of AliExpress stuff, craft and hobby electronics stuff, and have run into situations where a domestic vendor will have what I want, sometimes even at a competitive price, but their shipping will be $5-10- maybe discounted if I spend $50, 100, or more, while the Chinese option is $2 postage, or even “free postage if I spend $10.”
If you could mail a 100 gram padded envelope for under $1, it would cloae the gap substantially.
Free market countries when free markets enter their house:
How braindead do you have to be to call Temu a “free market?” They exploit a loophole in the tax code to undercut competitors, and in so doing use way more packaging materials and expend significantly more energy per item in trans-oceanic transportation than typical bulk trade does
Neither the US nor China are truly free markets. They both play with taxes, tariffs, and subsidies to affect commerce both international and domestic.
I love this libertarian obsession with “true free markets” as if there has ever been or ever will be a market with no nation-states or major conglomerates putting their fingers on the scale for their own self interests. What a world it must be to live in where one is so high on idealism that they somehow miss how incredibly fucking worthless even considering such a thing is when a child could point out that would never occur.
A shipment is eligible for the de minimis exemption if the aggregate fair retail value of the articles imported is $800 or less. De minimis shipments enter the United States with less information than other imports and are not subject to duties and taxes.
The growing volume of de minimis shipments makes it increasingly difficult to target and block illegal or unsafe shipments. Foreign corporate giants who exploit the de minimis exemption do so for a variety of reasons. Some companies exploit the de minimis to conceal shipments of illegal and dangerous products and avoid compliance with U.S. health and safety and consumer protection laws. Other foreign entities use it to circumvent U.S. trade enforcement actions intended to level the playing field for American workers, retailers, and manufacturers.
With today’s announcement, the Administration is using executive authority to stop the abuse of the de minimis exemption.
I have no problem with this. This exemption was designed for individuals and small businesses to avoid import taxes, we clearly shouldn’t let large corporations abuse it.
I’m an employee in the U.S., working for a large international shipping company with a yellow and red logo. We’ve been struggling to maintain profitability stateside since the COVID shipping boom ended. Shein and Temu are basically keeping the U.S. operation afloat making up a significant double digit percentage of our revenue currently.
We can’t compete domestically as our rates are sky high compared to brown and purple and we’ve become overly dependent on these Chinese retailers. I’d say this is a good signal to find a new gig.
And regular mail has been basically carried by spam for decades. It’s a real problem - how do you fix an industry if it’s entirely dependent on the problem you’re trying to solve? Everyone involved will fight you and the consumers will lose no matter what, short of public funding or other options that will be labeled “socialist” and never pass in this political climate.
Cheap football t-shirts will be next
Jerseys and stuff arent usually bought on Temu/Shien but rather DHgate, which is MUCH more niche in terms of Chinese marketplaces known in the U.S. The average person outside of the internet/sporting fandom probably doesn’t know what DHgate is.
I bought 2 nice queen size beds for about $300. There’s no way local furniture store would produce the same prices.
Temu cuts out entire US retail chain including Amazon shop.
I buy local after I fail to find Temu, Shein or my time needs don’t allow waiting.