For anyone with cheap stuff in their cart waiting for a break, I read this in the NYT this morning:
“ The Trump administration said it would cut tariffs on low-value parcels from China to 54% from 120%, hours after Washington and Beijing agreed to a [90-day trade truce]
According to a White House executive order late Monday, the U.S. will slash the “de minimis” tariff on shipments from China, including Hong Kong, marking a further de-escalation in the simmering trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Under U.S. tax law, the de minimis exemption allows companies to avoid import taxes and customs inspections on international shipments with a retail value of less than $800.”
NYT also said China dropped their Tariffs to 10%. Will be interested to see if prices drop and the tariff line gets eliminated or reduced. (Not going to hold my breath).
I thought the de minimis only applied to consumers not business. not much you can do as a business with $800 so I guess doesn’t make much difference since it’s “retail” value.
Done (a couple weeks ago)… Fear of tariffs was a small factor, the desire for more tire clearance was bigger. First race on the new Seigla tomorrow, proper test of every type of terrain at Rule of 3.
One thing that I encountered that is a periphery issue to the whole tariff and worldwide economic chaos was running into some possible anti-American sentiment while in Scandinavia over the past 2 weeks. First in Amsterdam, and others in Oslo, Skagen, Tallinn, and Finland.
Not at all that I blame them. Under GW Bush II I was confronted in the UK over ‘what kind of American are you’. (The good kind, I hope)
The fallout of the chaos and machinations of the occupant will carry effects both anticipated, and encouraged, and some not. I didn’t even have a chance to defend myself, if it’s even possible in this current age.
But honestly I found the majority of the Scandinavian countries very refreshing in their outlook (Except Tallinn where many near openly fear Russia trying to take them over again) and their progressive environmental efforts. So many cities had cyclists swarming all over the place with massive public transportation infrastructures and some surprising finer touches ( like the caps on plastic bottles are attached to the bottle to keep them intact/together rather than seeing them all over the place. NICE!!).
Things are changing, and it’ll be interesting to see where we end up in six months, a year, two years…
Sorry if I’ve gotten political, but it’s hard to discuss something like tariffs (an unforced error IMO) without getting a little political.
And they are apparently going back up on June 1st (again), so he’s just playing with us and the rest of the world apparently. Awaiting the stock market opening, and wish I had an account to buy and sell some stock to profit on the swings the way politicians and others seem to be doing
As a very small point, I have found the plastic cap staying attached to the bottle a major frustration.
I appreciate that its aim is to keep the plastic parts together to aid in recycling, but it makes for an inconvenience when trying to drink that the cap ends up in my eye or nose.
I love France and go there often. In fact I’m going this summer, but the people in the transit stations are rarely helpful in any way. I’ve learned to ask all of my travel questions to the hotel staff.
It wasn’t exactly ‘hostility’, but a question, I saw it of what they might expect. Having traveled a lot over the decades before Covid, I’ve seen some truly horrific and beyond cringe actions by ‘American travelers’. Usually alcohol is involved, and/or ego.
One ‘American’ stuck their finger in a collection of pastries to see which one she wanted, and then walked out. The proprietor was left dumbstruck and out the pastries. I apologized and gave them a $50. It helped defuse the incident.
I generally had positive experiences from most ‘French’ people. Except for Montreal. We LOVE the city, but have had ‘issues’ on many instances, but I get it. Generally people that have a bad impression of Canada seem to have encountered someone in Quebec that enforced that opinion. Some are laughable, cliche actually, but people are people.
If I try to say a location, or local tourist spot and muff it, many seem pleased that someone at least tried, yet some do scoff and act offended. To each their own… But I find the reactions to be funny too. Hey, at least I try. Cheers…
I was frustrated too, but found if I bent it back just past 90 degrees, the cap tended to stay put in that position. Problem solved. Worked on most bottles. It was a certain brand of bottled water that it failed. shrug Probably shouldn’t have been drinking bottled water to begin with…
Hotel staff often expect a tip of some kind, and it’s part of making people want to come back at some level. We will prefer to stay in the hotel where the concierge got us 2nd row tickets to a ‘sold out show’ and directed us to a fantastic restaurant over any other.
Too bad someone couldn’t have tariffed all the garish gold garbage he’s plastered in ‘The People’s House’. His penthouse looked like a Liberace love nest.
All he had to do was not get crazy, just let it play out. The economy was going along pretty well, aside from some actions to sabotage it. All he had to do was just be sane and not all ‘trump’. But he’s a pro at bankruptcies and destroying investor value. Proof you can fail and succeed? My accountant was paranoid that my company was losing to much money towards the end and would draw attention, but apparently I just needed to lose more money?
a missed shot or lost point (as in tennis) that is entirely a result of the player’s own blunder and not because of the opponent’s skill or effort
other non-bike industry big names raising prices. Nike recently increased prices on shoes by $5 or $10 depending on the model. This really looks like another pandemic, this is coming at the worst time possible for the bike industry
If it was just like another pandemic, the bike companies would be happy since it turned out to be a demand spike for them. But yeah, I get what you are saying. While it’s far from being the worst time for the bike industry, the tariffs aren’t going to help with the headwinds they were already fighting (which are largely a result of being overly optimistic after the pandemic demand spike).
As touched upon several times in this thread, the tariff stuff is a risky game of chicken and most of the statements being thrown around by government officials shouldn’t be taken at face value. It’s all about trying to create urgency and forcing countries to the table who would otherwise be happy to drag along with the status quo. I’m not saying the approach is right or wrong, just that I’m personally not going to freak out until we see how it plays out over the next year or so. Might turn out OK and might tank the entire world economy and put a bunch of people out of work. Bike stuff is the last thing I’m concerned about as it applies to tariffs.
His penthouse looked like a Liberace love nest.