USA surcharge

What you need to know:

Thanks entirely to Trump’s policies, I now have to pay an extra 16.6% in import tariffs to send mechanical pencils to the USA. As a result, I have decided that from 1st September 2026, all orders shipped to the USA will have a 16.6% surcharge added to cover this cost. The total shipping cost you pay will be £15 plus 16.6% of the total order value.

Example: You buy £200 of items from my website. 16.6% of this is £33.20. The total shipping cost is therefore £15 + £33.20 = £48.20.

What happened?

  • Before August 2025: It was possible to send items up to $800 in value to the USA without paying anything whatsoever (look up “de minimis USA” if you’re interested).

  • August 2025 to February 2026: Trump removed the $800 exemption and imposed a flat-rate 10% tariff to be paid by the sender of the goods (i.e. me). These were the “IEEPA tariffs”. I decided to absorb the additional cost.

  • February 2026 to July 2026: IEEPA tariffs were found to be illegal, so Trump replaced them with “Section 122 tariffs”, again a flat-rate 10%.

  • July 2026 to present: Section 122 tariffs expired in July 2026, so Trump replaced them with yet more - the “Section 301 tariffs”. These are again a flat-rate 10%. However, it gets worse - he also imposed product-specific tariffs. These had never applied to postal shipments before. For mechanical pencils, the product-specific tariff is 6.6%. So, the total tariff I have to pay is 16.6%! I have now decided that the additional cost is too great and will be adding a surcharge.

Why are you singling out the USA? Why not other countries as well?

The USA is the only country that requires the sender to pay the import tariff. Other countries (with a few exceptions in Europe, which aren’t relevant since I don’t sell much there) either leave it up to the recipient to pay the tariff when they receive the item, or give the sender an option to pay instead. Only the USA makes it compulsory.

Keep in mind that customers in other countries will eventually have to pay some sort of fee anyway - it’s not as if they’re being treated any better. The difference is in who they pay the fee to and when. USA customers will now have to pay up-front when they buy from my site.

Conclusion

I understand that this is a significant amount extra to pay. However, I see no alternative and would like to stress that the reason is entirely Trump’s, shall we say, deranged approach to international trade and the world in general. Blame him, not me!