Last month, Suzanne Smith-Darley felt himself fantastic. She recently purchased a Japanese salesman’s used Chanel handle in eBay for $ 800 – theft compared to the original requesting price of $ 1,400. About a week later an email arrived that crushed her: DHL demanded a $ 142 fee for US rates before it will deliver the well-worn medalium total to Smith-Darley’s Atlanta door. “It goes to Japan, has a lifetime, and it could be in the trash literally,” she says. “I’m ready to pick it out of the trash, and I get this huge rate. It’s ridiculous.”
Rates imposed this year by President Donald Trump has triggered higher prices and decreased choiceAnd some shopkeepers were surprised to learn that taxes are valid for used goods.
Several online markets, including ebay And Collective dressing roomEncouraged lawmakers and officials in Washington, DC, to exempt used items from import duties, including those newly imposed by President Trump, according to industrial executives. “We are still a maturational industry, but we are the future,” says Rachel Kibbe, Director General of American Circular Textiles, a recommended group that represents about 30 organizations, including Vestiaire Collective, who do, repair, rent, rent, sell, recycle or resell clothes. “We would just like a preferable business treatment for secondary imports.”
But a sculpture for used items does not appear to be in the works, according to a person close to the White House, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Exemption would likely lead importers to try to transmit new items as used, creating an additional mandatory burden for government That is already Tightened Thin by Trump’s “government performance”.
Historians say that used imports, of Ancient jewelry Old smartphones have always been subjected to us. They realize that the concept of duties on pre -owned goods dates to at least the medieval era. But Trump applied rates to many more countries and raised rates to Historically high levels. The combination prompted people to question the benefits of rates and caused increased calls for reproductions. “We have never had such a situation before,” says Andrew Wender Cohen, a historian from Syracuse University, who is studying business history.
Trump described his policies as needed to increase Home manufacturingAnd it is possible to see how, over time, fees that discourage the import of new clothing and devices, could encourage some companies to change at least part of their manufacturing to the United States. It is much harder to imagine a reward of applying those same rates to used goods intended for new homes instead of spinalities.
Cohen says that acceptable access would be to keep rates to used items but at lower rates that would be in line with the risk presented to home manufacturing.
Some Second hand items have no alternatives; New versions may not be attracted, or the product may be stopped. Watching abroad can also be unjustifiable for niche items, such as business cards and used handbags. Circular economy Lawyers claim that reuse, even when it involves an item crossing national boundaries, can still produce some environmental benefit by cutting waste. “There should be policies that encourage people to choose used items first,” says Liisa Jokinen, founder of the Vintage Clothing App Gem.
“Pre-loving”
As consumers are looking for products more sustainable for the environment and their wallet, a new supply chain has emerged. Traders have now renewed and resell used items such as clothing and electronics, and an increasing number of online markets has made it easier for Americans to stem these items from almost anywhere in the world.
At the beginning of the year, the Japanese unit of eBay revealed Put demand for second -class cameras as people panicked before Trump’s rates came into force. Worldwide, about 40 percent of eBay’s gross sale comes What it it calls “pre-loved and renewed items.”
