Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[double00]

Former tariff payer here. I made sneakers in Portugal for about 3 years.

When the sneakers came in, I had to fill out a detailed form for customs and reference an insanely detailed and dense "schedule" of tariffs. Leather sneakers with a synthetic sole, made in the European Union, had its own category. I believe that it was an 11% tariff.

The Portuguese factory didn't pay this. They shipped my product with ex-factory payment terms, meaning all of the customs and logistics were on me.

The sneakers landed and went to a customs broker. Which is a weird little office run by an insider who brings your pieces through the process. The US government billed me 11% and I paid an additional few points to the broker for doing this.

I went on to factor that 11% tariff and additional broker fee into the retail price... which was ultimately paid by my customers, many of whom were members of this forum.

This tariff didn't hurt Portugal. It certainly didn't prop up our wholly non-existent domestic leather sneaker / rubber sole industry. It's only purpose was to generate revenue for the US federal government, and it was functionally a baked-in tax on the items that I sold.

Sorry about that guys. I guess the $2 Trillion F35 Joint Strike Fighter gotta be paid for somehow.

wait where is the rest of your anecdote ? this ^ doesn't address the economic issue .

 

[Mariokartfever]

I do not pay tariffs I am a sovereign citizen

 

[qubed]

i'm responding to a claim that consumers pay 100% of a tax or tariff .

No one actually said that consumers pay 100% of the tariff. I think everyone's talking past each other since double00 is **** at explaining things. Are there certain markets where a manufacturer has to absorb part or all of the tariff themselves because of the competitiveness of the market? Yes. Are there also markets where all or nearly all the tariff is passed on to the end consumer? Also yes.

 

[ValidusLA]

I will chime in here just so we can maybe come to a...idk.....middle ground that doesn't have to be unnecessarily antagonistic.

In the example furnished by @Epaulet above, he is indeed showing how a tariff is being paid by the US consumer.

Let me use another example with numbers for ease of use.

Lets say I import a pair of jeans and my declared value is $10.00.
Lets say the US government back in 2018 puts a 20% tariff on those goods.
Lets say the Chinese government, which can manipulate RMB at will, manipulated exchange rate of off-shore and on-shore RMB so that I now pay $8.50 for those goods and that's my new declared value.
Now after a 20% tariff I pay $10.20.

Who pays this tariff?
1) Well, the Chinese factory and the Chinese government which subsidizes it takes the brunt of the hit. This works out fine for PRC because they don't actually care about their businesses being profitable as much as they care about people being employed.
2) The remaining cost increase has to be born by me, my customers, and their end customers in turn.

 

[Texasmade]

I will chime in here just so we can maybe come to a...idk.....middle ground that doesn't have to be unnecessarily antagonistic.

This is SF. That's what we do here.

No one actually said that consumers pay 100% of the tariff. I think everyone's talking past each other since double00 is **** at explaining things.

He posts in such a weird way and expects you to read his mind on what he means.

 

[qubed]

He posts in such a weird way and expects you to read his mind on what he means.

I think he hopes all those extra spaces will fill in the gaps.

 

[double00]

No one actually said that consumers pay 100% of the tariff.

?

Any tax or tariff is always paid by the consumer.

 

[ppk]

In the example furnished by @Epaulet above, he is indeed showing how a tariff is being paid by the US consumer.

FYI @Epaulet is Eva.

 

[ValidusLA]

FYI @Epaulet is Eva.

Doh.
I shall scourge myself accordingly.

 

[APK]

This is SF. That's what we do here.

He posts in such a weird way and expects you to read his mind on what he means.

Styleforum’s very own Bobby Kennedy Jr.!

 

[Mariokartfever]

Do you guys recall that bodybuilding.com thread where they argued over how many days are in a week for over 100 pages

 

[gdl203]

The asymmetry of B2C costs between the US and other developed countries is frankly astounding. Between a really high de minimis exemption in the US ($800 in US vs EUR 22 in EU!) and no VAT or sales tax on imported purchases, this amount to a massive advantage for B2C exporters to US consumers and a massive disadvantage for US businesses trying to sell overseas. Ever wondered why all the large scale online retailers are European? Why we don't have anything of the scale of Matches, Mytheresa, Porter as a US retailer selling worldwide?* They build their entire business on being a low-cost alternatives to US native e-commerce stores. They ship VAT-free (i.e. 20% below MSRP) and the vast majority of orders are also duty-free (under de minimis).

Adding tariffs or sales taxes for US consumers importing packages from overseas would balance this out, sure... But the real fight here is too force our EU partners etc... to lower theirs, and mirror our de minimis instead. Level things out to a lower costs for all consumers.

*(Amazon doesn't count as they operate directly in each region, they do not export any packages to consumers).

 

[Texasmade]

Do you guys recall that bodybuilding.com thread where they argued over how many days are in a week for over 100 pages

That sh1t was classic bro logic.

 

[APK]

The only BB.com forum thread I remember was that dude in the UK who "bulked" for over a year on "continental chicken" and looked like total **** afterwards.

 

[smittycl]

Gift link (that of course does not post as a preview. @admin )



https://wapo.st/4i3mVG9