Category World News

New York City, United States – What could cause a chaotic holiday shopping season may be brought on by the recently repealed nearly ten-year-old trade law known as “de minimis” that American consumers and businesses are now subject to slower shipping, damaged packages, and high tariffs on international goods.

Navigating the most recent regulatory changes has proved more challenging for the major international carrier than for its rivals FedEx and DHL.

As UPS customers turn to his company to help them clear packages entering the US, Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager for Express Customs Clearance in New York, has seen the effects of his company’s assistance.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been seeing a lot of UPS shipments, particularly those that are stuck and being lost or disposed of,” Wasserbach said. After the de minimis was over, “Their]UPS’s entire business model changed.” And they simply weren’t able to do the clearance because so many people anticipate receiving international packages, which they won’t ever receive.

Al Jazeera requested a comment from UPS, but they did not.

Suspending tariff exemptions

Packages valued at $800 or less have been exempt from taxes and tariffs since 2016, according to the de minimis trade exemption. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimates that from 139 million shipments in 2015 to more than one billion in 2023, the number of shipments entering the country receiving the exemption has increased by more than 600 percent.

All of this changed in August. Imports from the US are now subject to new forms of paperwork and procedures, including duties and tariffs based on their country of origin, as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending de minimis treatment for all nations.

Tezumi Tea, an online Japanese tea and teaware business that sells its products online and through meetups in New York City, was hit by the tariff backlog at US customs just one month after de minimis ended. Tezumi lost roughly 150kg (330lbs) of matcha, totalling about $13, 000.

Ryan Snowden, a cofounder of Tezumi, said, “We responded by increasing buffers in our supply planning across the dozen farms that we partner with.” “Many of our cafe customers suddenly needed to switch to another matcha blend because of the loss,” according to the statement from the company.

UPS is no longer accepting shipments from Japan, and Tezumi has switched to using DHL and FedEx as a replacement shipping method.

removing shipments

Similar instances of UPS importing losses have been reported in Wasserbach.

A UPS package is essentially left unopened in a UPS facility for a while, Wasserbach said. According to what I’ve seen, UPS says in their tracking that they are removing the shipments without making any effort to contact either the sender or the receiver to obtain the information necessary to obtain the clearance.

Wasserbach and Al Jazeera exchanged email addresses from UPS customers who had hacked into his business to get their customs clearance from there.

Stephan Niznik, a customer of UPS, responded to a notice from the UPS Alternate Broker Team claiming their packages had been “destroyed.”

According to Niznik, “UPS attempted to contact the sender (me) on numerous occasions, but this is false, aside from a request for more information on September 5 (which I immediately responded to),” according to the tracking. “My package was mishandled, and children’s toys were completely destroyed by UPS,” the statement read.

UPS informed Chenying Li of the release of their package in another email chain after Express Customs Clearance informed them the shipment had been cleared.

When Li’s package was still showing as “Pending Release,” UPS responded, “At this time we are unable to provide an ETA, &nbsp, as volume is currently backed up and awaiting delivery due to the De Minimis impact.”

“Add more pressure,” you say?

According to Virginia Tech Associate Professor David Bieri, cost prevention may be one factor in UPS choosing to dispose of packages that have been rejected by US customs as opposed to returning the packages to the senders.

According to Bieri, “All these new rules and regulations put additional pressure on these companies’ already comparatively low margins, such as UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc..”. They must make money, and sometimes it’s simpler to not provide a service than to cover the additional costs associated with customs clearance and ensuring that goods arrive at their destination.

Bieri added that using package disposal by UPS may indicate that they believe they are in a “sufficiently strong monopolistic position” to engage in such abhorrent behavior as unilateral non-fulfillment of contract.

We aren’t seeing these issues with FedEx and DHL shipments, Wasserbach claimed.

When questioned about whether FedEx had handled packages that were stuck in customs, a spokesperson said that FedEx works with senders to update paperwork to remit it to CBP or return packages to senders. Shippers can ask for packages to be disposed of in some circumstances if they prefer not to pay to have the package returned to the sender. In those uncommon cases, the shipper directs the recipients. This is not a typical practice. We continue to operate normally.

Delivery costs are final and delivered to your door.

However, UPS and DHL both face the same difficulties. Anyone who placed an order from abroad was liable for unexpected fees on imported goods since August, when de minimis was in effect and small packages were suddenly subject to taxes and tariffs.

The consumer essentially becomes the importer if packages worth $800 and less are not de minimis protected from import fees.

You might order something you find a bargain on the internet, or you might be unaware of where things are being shipped from, or you might be in for a rude awakening when it arrives at your door, Beiri said. You paid the price, and you believed this to be true. However, your deliverer claims that we are actually passing that cost on to you. because you are acting as the importer.

These fees might be higher than the product you originally purchased. You must pay more attention to small prints, according to Beiri.

With projected costs and lost packages in store, Beiri says shoppers will likely ask themselves, “Do you renovate or are you taking a vacation?” Do you spend your Christmas shopping sprees on yourself or do you like to dine out?

“These are interesting times when you have to make decisions and ponder what you can do given the current economic crisis, which includes paying rent, insurance, living expenses,” Beiri said. That is what is happening right now.

Wasserbach claims that UPS will likely aim to employ a sizable number of entry writers to provide the documentation needed for the legal passage of goods across international borders in order to better manage changing trade policy. Given the amount of training required, Wasserbach doubts that an increase in hiring will make a big difference now that Christmas shopping is the busiest time of year.

Trump’s policies have already had an impact on the company’s revenue. Imports from China, which is UPS’s most lucrative route, reportedly decreased by 35 percent earlier this year as a result of tariffs on China and the repeal of the de minimis rule.

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At Turning Point USA’s annual conference, prominent conservative figures in the country clashed, exposing the root causes of the conflict between US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base and the ruling Republican Party.

Republican leaders, media figures, and conservative activists all gathered for a four-day conference in Phoenix, Arizona, which revealed deep ideological disagreements within the conservative movement.

Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly, and Tucker Carlson, media figures, criticized one another on the stage while discussing the issues of free speech, bigotry, and other related topics.

What is Turning Point USA (TPUSA), and what can we learn from the first AmericaFest conference since Charlie Kirk, the group’s founder, passed away in September?

Describe TPUSA.

Charlie Kirk, who was killed in Utah in September during an event, founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a conservative nonprofit organization with a US base. Erika Kirk succeeded Kirk in becoming the CEO of TPUSA after his death.

The group, which supports free-market principles and limited government, has more than 850 chapters spread across college campuses nationwide.

Political speeches, networking, and cultural programming are included in the AmericaFest conference, which has been held annually since 2021, in an effort to pique young conservative activists’ interest.

At what conference did AmericaFest take a speech?

A mix of Republican elected officials, well-known conservative media figures, and celebrities attended the event.

Among the most well-known voices were:

• Conservative commentator and co-founder of Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro.
• Tucker Carlson, network’s founder and journalist,
• The Megyn Kelly Show host and journalist Megyn Kelly
• JD Vance, the US Vice President,
• CEO of TPUSA, Erika Kirk
• Steve Bannon, podcaster and former Trump administration adviser

What issues caused the conservatives to differ?

debates involving platforming, conspiracy theories, and bigotry

Ben Shapiro, who delivered the first speech following CEO Kirk, slammed several conservative figures, most notably Carlson and Megyn Kelly. For amplifying so-called conspiratorial and extremist figures in the broader conservative movement, Shapiro, a vocal supporter of Israel, called others “grifters” and “charlatans.”

Carlson’s choice to host Nick Fuentes, a far-right figure, was “an act of moral imbecility,” according to Shapiro. Fuentes has been accused of anti-Semitism.

Carlson, on the other hand, directly addressed the audience, mocking Shapiro’s criticism and framing attempts to divide different voices.

He claimed that he “laughed” at the attempts to censor dissidents, which he described as “trying to censor” — which highlighted a contentious ideological conflict within the Republican-aligned media sphere.

Shapiro also attacked conservative media analyst Candace Owens, who has criticized Israel’s occupation of Gaza and called it a genocide. She has urged Washington to halt its military support for Israel.

Owens (who was not present at the event) “has been vomiting all kinds of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years,” according to the Daily Wire cofounder.

He claimed that Kelly, a former Fox News host, was “guilty of cowardice” because she refrained from criticizing Owens for making false accusations about a plot to involve the US and Israeli governments in Charlie Kirk’s death.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former US president and the son of Indian immigrants, also criticized bigotry and hate on the right, claiming that anyone who normalizes hatred for any particular race or religion “does not have a place as a leader” in the conservative movement.

Journalist Carlson also criticized bigotry targeting Muslims in his speech. Because they are Muslims, what you are watching right now is attacking millions of Americans? It’s repulsive.

I’m a Christian, too. I don’t practice Islam. I’m never going to say that because I’m aware that making a secret jihadi claim is difficult. I’m not”, he added.

In his speech on Sunday, JD Vance, the US Vice President, refused to take sides in the debate around bigotry, saying the conservative movement should be open to everyone as long as they “love America”.

During the convention’s closing speech, Vance said, “I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or de-platform.”

We don’t care whether you’re white or black, rich or poor, young or old, urban or rural, content or uninteresting, or some combination thereof.

US support for Israel

Israel was brought up repeatedly at the conference.

Steve Bannon claimed that Shapiro, a Jew, and others who vehemently support Israel were “the “Israel First” crowd.”

Israel requires independence, and it requires its own self-determination. Go for it if Israel wants to conquer Syria, but don’t force the USA to fight in an endless conflict, he said.

Some on the right have questioned whether Trump’s “America First” philosophy conflicts with the Republican Party’s historically unwavering support for Israel.

Carlson also harshly criticized a certain Christian minister for denying that his government’s genocidal war against Gaza was justified.

Do we murder a man’s children if he commits a crime? Whether it’s in Gaza City or Minneapolis, I’m not interested. No, Carlson remarked to the audience, “We don’t.” He continued, “God is not on any country’s side… [God] doesn’t have a nationality.”

debate over who is an American

The idea of determining an American’s ancestry or heritage is also questioned by Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio.

At the conference, he said, “The notion that a “heritage American” is more American than another American is fundamentally un-American.

If you believe in the US Constitution, the right to freedom of speech, the freedom of expression, colorblind meritocracy, the American dream, and if you are a citizen who swears allegiance to our country, Ramaswamy, a wealthy businessman, said in an opinion piece for The New York Times on December 17 that you are an American.

Ramaswamy’s position on the US appears to differ from Vice President Vance’s, who expressed his opposition to citizenship in a speech from July because he felt compelled to support the principles of the Declaration of Independence, such as the one in the United States.

America is more than just a concept, he says. It is a group of individuals with a historical and future in common. In summary, it is a nation, he had said.

Vance praised the Trump administration’s efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which were intended to give communities that have historically faced challenges equal opportunities, during his speech at the conference on Sunday.