Tariff Update for our US Customers

As many of you will already be aware, the US Administration has recently announced that the $800 De Minimis threshold is to be removed for all packages entering the US, starting from Friday August 29th.  As a result, all packages heading to US customers will now need to have tariffs applied.  The amount of the tariff is dependent on the current 'Reciprocal Tariff' rate in the country of origin, so 10% for the UK, 15% for the EU, etc.

As with all of the new tariffs, these will need to be paid by the recipient in the USA, whether that's an individual or an importer. 

The trouble for us as a business, is that there is currently no information available to explain how this new system is going to work.  We have spoken to our contact in the UK Trade Department, but they also don't have any information and are scrambling around to try and find out what UK businesses are supposed to be doing.

As far as we can tell, there are going to be 4 potential outcomes here:

Option 1 - We continue sending as normal and the US customers will be contacted by US Customs to pay the tariffs when the parcel arrives.  But with 10 million+ packages entering the US every day, the logistics of this would be crazy.  And there would likely be extra handling/admin charges added by US Customs, meaning that the costs to the US customer will be even higher.

Option 2 - We charge the customer the relevant tariffs in our Checkout and then send this money to US Customs on their behalf.  This would allow the package to clear US Customs without any problems, but at the moment there doesn't seem to be any facility for us to make the tariff payments.  Any potential payment facility would also have an admin charge applied, which we'd need to pay in order to access the service.

Option 3 - We charge the customer the relevant tariffs in our Checkout and pay the money to Royal Mail, who will then pay it on to US Customs.  We have been told that there will be a Delivered Duties Paid (DDP) service coming soon but we do not know if Royal Mail will be including a tariff payment option alongside it.  As with Option 2, we'd probably have to pay an admin charge to Royal Mail if they decide to add the tariff payment aspect.

Option 4 - Stop selling to the US, which is obviously not ideal.

Our hope is that Option 3 turns out to be viable as it seems to have the least amount of friction and risk to your parcels.  But this is all dependent on what Royal Mail decide to do and whether they're going to act as the 'middle man' in this process.  It also depends on how much they charge for the added service too.  Regardless of what happens, this is going to mean that your packages of Pendraken goodies (or from any other UK business) are going to cost more.  At the very least we'll need to add the 10% tariff fee to all orders, but we may have to add a bit extra to cover the admin fees involved in whatever system gets introduced.

So, the only advice we can give at the moment, is that if you've been planning an order in the near future, get it placed before Friday 22nd August and we'll prioritise all of our US orders and get them posted out before the tariff deadline of August 29th.  We've been told that all packages that are shipped before the deadline date shouldn't have any tariffs applied, as they were already in the postal system before the new legislation comes into force.

You can also order from Dark Horse Hobbies in the US, but be aware that these new tariffs will apply to their imports too, so they may have to put their prices up to cover the increased costs.

We've always had a fantastic customer base in the USA and these new tariffs seem to be adding a lot of unnecessary friction and costs for the US customers, as well as admin time and costs for us as a business.  We certainly don't want to lose any customers, so we're going to do everything we can to make this as simple and efficient as we can for everyone involved.

Judging from this, it appears to me there is absolutely no reason to stop sending packages to the US - the US customs just pick up and apply the fee at the US end. There might be a delay whilst they sift through 10,000,000 daily packages looking to apply the $1 tarriff to your small order......

Nobody, individual or business, should (nor presumably, legally can?) be forced to do the US government's work for them. So options 2-4 shouldn't even exist, that is just giving in to  bullying.

As a curiousity, I looked at de Minimus coming the other way. The UK for example has had a zero de Minimus for some time on VAT, but a £135 limit on customs duties (ie tarriffs applied the other way). As is often the case, the fee for opening the parcel and applying the charge is higher than the actual VAT or tax collected.

Quote...
As a curiousity, I looked at de Minimus coming the other way. The UK for example has had a zero de Minimus for some time on VAT, but a £135 limit on customs duties (ie tarriffs applied the other way). As is often the case, the fee for opening the parcel and applying the charge is higher than the actual VAT or tax collected.

And that unfortunately is the challenge with option 1 above

Quote from: sultanbev on 16 August 2025, 03:16:26 PMJudging from this, it appears to me there is absolutely no reason to stop sending packages to the US - the US customs just pick up and apply the fee at the US end. There might be a delay whilst they sift through 10,000,000 daily packages looking to apply the $1 tarriff to your small order......

As Paul says above, the difficulty is how much the US Customs people decide to start charging to process the packages.  In the EU I think the charges vary from 5 Euros upto 22 Euros (Belgium) so it can be large percentage of the actual package value. 

I don't mind collecting/paying the tariff money as long as there a simple, efficient system in place to do so.  We have to do the same thing for the EU orders and we just submit a monthly spreadsheet of our sales and it's all done.  It takes me about 5 minutes to do. 

The concern with the US is that we've been told that US Customs will be wanting the tariffs paid before packages arrive in the US, which doesn't seem viable at either end.  I can't be submitting/sending the payments over multiple times per week, or even daily, as I just don't have the time.

After a bit more info today, it looks like we'll be going with Option 3, which should keep things relatively simple.  US customers will be charged the tariff in our Checkout, we'll pass that money to Royal Mail, and then they'll pass it to US Customs. 

We're now waiting for Royal Mail to activate the new shipping service, and for our website company to adjust their tariff feature to include shipping charges.  We'll aim to get all US orders sent out this week and then the new tariff charge will be added to our Checkout over the weekend.

well done to all involved

I'd heard talk of much much higher handling fees by US Customs