Canadium
Ian
Thats not panic! Are you kidding! Its smart cool calculated preparation for the obvious!
-
Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
Pre-tariff Purchases?
- Thread starter trlvn
- Start date
SomeGuy
Hobbyist
Why wouldn't you go to Russia? Other than the obvious Ukraine situation, the country itself is a wonderful place....just like the US, and actually most countries these days.
As for pre-tariff purchases, none really planned, I don't buy much directly from the US. Everything else I buy it must be a deal of some sort, I hate paying full price for anything
If the tariffs mean there are no deals to be had, then I won't be buying stuff for a while, probably for the better anyway 
trlvn
Ultra Member
I appreciate the comments so far but I guess I wasn't as clear as I could have been. I'm thinking of situations where you are pretty much settled that you're going to make a purchase and your preferred supplier (maybe only supplier) is going to be hit by tariffs. Like a new vehicle. Even if you want a "non-USA" maker, most mass-market vehicles are assembled (and many parts manufactured) in North America.
The current blathering suggests that tit-for-tat tariffs may be applied such that some parts could be subject to tariff multiple times before the vehicle is assembled. (Second, third or fourth-level tariffs on tariff-inflated-costs!) The auto industry is suddenly an absolute mess and every plant is shut down. Clearly that hurts the USA at least as much as Canada.
I have read that the Great Depression was made much worse because they piled on tariffs to "protect domestic jobs".
Craig
(Dammit, I think I need to take a double dose of blood pressure meds now.)
The current blathering suggests that tit-for-tat tariffs may be applied such that some parts could be subject to tariff multiple times before the vehicle is assembled. (Second, third or fourth-level tariffs on tariff-inflated-costs!) The auto industry is suddenly an absolute mess and every plant is shut down. Clearly that hurts the USA at least as much as Canada.
I have read that the Great Depression was made much worse because they piled on tariffs to "protect domestic jobs".
Craig
(Dammit, I think I need to take a double dose of blood pressure meds now.)
Canadium
Ian
I'm afraid I still have an extensive wish list and many of the items on it would have come from the US. Don't know if they will be hit by retaliatory tariffs but I'm determined not to shop there as long as they remain hostile to Canada. I'd rather spend more in China at this time.
gerritv
Gerrit
According to one statistic, 25% of US read at or below grade 6. If true that might explain why explaing the details of tariffs doesn't work on them.
FatherWes
Wes
It’s worse for math and science:
nypost.com
To be fair, though. According to conferenceboard.ca,
“4 out of 10 adult Canadians have literacy skills too low to be fully competent in most jobs in our modern economy.”
Average parent’s knowledge of science and math taps out at this grade level
The average American parent’s science and math knowledge taps out around the sixth-grade level, according to new research. When asked to estimate the grade they’d be placed into for both math and s…
nypost.com
To be fair, though. According to conferenceboard.ca,
“4 out of 10 adult Canadians have literacy skills too low to be fully competent in most jobs in our modern economy.”
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
You can argue Mean vs Median, etc....but yeah......D
I must admit I'm worried about tariffs. Imagine you have a box on the way to the USA with $100,000 worth of product purchased by a US customer. Under the NFTA and current free trade agreement there is no duty on this and the customer has a tax license so they pay no state sales taxes on it. The items, Made in Canada, are destined to go inside an American manufactured Product.
So if a 25% tax is applied the question is where. What I think many are missing, including the media, is that once the product hits US soil it's held until duties and taxes are paid. For example I waited almost a month for DHL to let me know I owed $36 before they would clear the item and ship it to me.
So the customer should pay this 25% tax? Why? I'm guessing that new American ERS is going to tell the shipper that 25% is due before they will release the package. The US customer says we can't afford the 25% and the PO was for $100K not $125K. So we Canadians tell the ERS and the shipping company to return the goods.
No! Says the ERS. It's now on US soil. It's entered the USA. The 25% import tax must now be paid before the goods leave the customs secure area. Doesn't matter if they are going back to Canada or to the customer in the USA.
This is what I believe Trump is actually going to do with his new ERS. And in that way he makes Canadians and Mexicans pay rather than the end client. Of course that only works for the existing orders in transit. Once we figure out that he's doing that my guess is Canadian customers will first insist on a 25% down payment on their now $125,000 items.
Same with softwood lumber. The lumber ends up in Customs, and is held until the 'supplier' pays the 25%.
So if a 25% tax is applied the question is where. What I think many are missing, including the media, is that once the product hits US soil it's held until duties and taxes are paid. For example I waited almost a month for DHL to let me know I owed $36 before they would clear the item and ship it to me.
So the customer should pay this 25% tax? Why? I'm guessing that new American ERS is going to tell the shipper that 25% is due before they will release the package. The US customer says we can't afford the 25% and the PO was for $100K not $125K. So we Canadians tell the ERS and the shipping company to return the goods.
No! Says the ERS. It's now on US soil. It's entered the USA. The 25% import tax must now be paid before the goods leave the customs secure area. Doesn't matter if they are going back to Canada or to the customer in the USA.
This is what I believe Trump is actually going to do with his new ERS. And in that way he makes Canadians and Mexicans pay rather than the end client. Of course that only works for the existing orders in transit. Once we figure out that he's doing that my guess is Canadian customers will first insist on a 25% down payment on their now $125,000 items.
Same with softwood lumber. The lumber ends up in Customs, and is held until the 'supplier' pays the 25%.
TorontoBuilder
Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas
very plausible scenario for many goods. What's worse is perishable goods... mexican produce, I suspect that trucked in mexican produce transiting US to canada may also be impacted.
mickeyf
Super User
I would love to see the pre-soviet architecture in Russia. I would love to see the fabulous geography in parts of China. However, being a citizen of a western country, even though I am not a "politically exposed person" and have never had any association with any 3-letter agency, I can too easily imagine being charged for some bogus crime and held as a pawn for political pressure. It appears to have happened to people who for all I know are as innocent as me. I changed flights in China years ago on my way to a friendlier country, and the Security women were grim and unsmiling to the point of causing chills.