For buyers located in the USA, you should be aware that effective from 29th August 2025, the ‘de minimis’ waiver on imported goods valued up to $800 is being removed, and all imports will be subject to payment of tariff duties regardless of value and/or the country of origin.
What does this mean?
At present, US consumers are allowed to import low-value goods up to the value of $800 per day without being required to pay import duties.
The ‘de minimis’ waiver was of course removed in April 2025 for any imported goods that were manufactured in China or Hong Kong.
From Friday 29th August, the ‘de minimis’ waiver is being removed and all imported goods will be subject to duties, regardless of value or where the goods were manufactured.
Who pays the duties?
Ultimately the responsibility of paying customs duties falls on the importer, ie the consumer. However from the same date, USPS will only be accepting inbound packages where duties have been paid in advance of the goods entering the USA, in trade terms this is known as ‘delivered duty paid’ or DDP for short. Sellers outside the USA will have to incorporate these fees into the unit price, or charge them separately to US buyers at checkout.
We understand that DHL and other couriers such as Fedex and UPS will continue to accept non-DDP packages, however buyers/recipients will be requested to make payment of import duties before the package can be delivered.
What if I don’t pay the duties?
In the event that the recipient refuses to pay any import duties owing, the package will either be returned to sender, or be destroyed/disposed of.
Under these circumstances, you would not be eligible to receive a refund from us. For packages that are returned to sender, we end up being charged the return shipping cost, and we are also billed for the outstanding duties owed. Therefore we end up losing money. And so will you!
How much do I have to pay?
It is important to point out that the tariff rate you pay does not depend on where you buy the goods from, but where those goods were originally manufactured.
For example, we are a UK based company, and we ship goods to the USA from the UK. However, the vast majority of the products we sell are manufactured either in China or various countries within the European Union (EU).
Therefore the tariff rate will be either 30% (for China) or 15% (for EU countries), not the 10% rate that applies to goods manufactured in Great Britain.
Can you declare a different value/country of origin so I don’t pay as much tax?
In short, no.
In most countries around the world, it is a criminal offence to make false customs declarations, as it is considered ‘tax evasion’.
Besides our shipments are generated automatically using saved information in our inventory databases and multiple systems, and customs invoices/details are submitted electronically now, so without a whole load of manual intervention, it is simply not possible. So please don’t ask us to do this!
Can I still buy from you?
In the short-term, yes, we will continue to make our products available to buyers in the USA through this website.
Unfortunately the website does not have the capability to calculate and collect duties at the point of checkout, so you would be expected to pay these to our shipping partner DHL when requested to do so.
So if you understand this, and are happy to pay the import duties, please ensure you provide a valid contact telephone number and email address at checkout, so that DHL can make contact with you.
We will be monitoring and reviewing the situation however, and we reserve the right to withdraw shipping to the USA at any point we deem it necessary to do so.
