cbk57 Posted April 29 Posted April 29 Forget the 1920's boot legging, soon we will be smuggling Kotare kits and Nike shoes across the border from Canada. Just tell the border guy that I bought a couple model kits, he won't even look in your truck and see you just purchased 24 new Kotare 109ks. coogrfan, Shoggz, thierry laurent and 2 others 1 3 1
Rob Owens Posted April 29 Posted April 29 7 hours ago, Zola25 said: Will you not just have to pay the import tariff yourself when the package arrives at customs. That might be true for Non-US Kotare customers, but I just cancelled an ebay order from a PRC vendor who stated that there will be NO shipments to the US beginning 1 May 25. Paul in Napier 1
thierry laurent Posted April 29 Posted April 29 44 minutes ago, cbk57 said: Forget the 1920's boot legging, soon we will be smuggling Kotare kits and Nike shoes across the border from Canada. Just tell the border guy that I bought a couple model kits, he won't even look in your truck and see you just purchased 24 new Kotare 109ks. Funny! I was thinking the same thing this morning. Kit smugglers...🤣 CRAZY IVAN5 1
CRAZY IVAN5 Posted April 29 Posted April 29 2 hours ago, thierry laurent said: Funny! I was thinking the same thing this morning. Kit smugglers...🤣 That's not as far fetched as one might believe. I used to send/smuggle kits from the U.S. to some pen pals who lived in eastern Europe during the "Great unpleasantness". It actually worked out quite well, marked as "gifts" they were. LSP_K2 1
CRAZY IVAN5 Posted April 29 Posted April 29 I really don't know how tariffs work so... If I were to buy a Trumpeter kit ,say, from Hannants ,would I have to pay the tariff?
Gazzas Posted April 30 Posted April 30 1 hour ago, CRAZY IVAN5 said: I really don't know how tariffs work so... If I were to buy a Trumpeter kit ,say, from Hannants ,would I have to pay the tariff? It would show up as a price increase. So the trumpeter kit you were gonna buy for $30 will now cost $65. Even though he probably had that kit in his inventory since 2022. LSP_K2 and CRAZY IVAN5 2
MikeMaben Posted April 30 Posted April 30 Not an issue for me (I hope) as my pre-ordered has already been paid for and I don't intend to build it right away anyway. Gazzas 1
Dave Williams Posted April 30 Posted April 30 (edited) 1 hour ago, MikeMaben said: Not an issue for me (I hope) as my pre-ordered has already been paid for and I don't intend to build it right away anyway. But how is the paying the tariff, duty, whatever, actually going to work? You already paid Kotare for the kit plus shipping from NZ. Fine. The package shows up next month at US customs at wherever mail from NZ comes into the U.S. This likely isn’t covered by the tariff rate, but by the de minimus exemption that gets dropped for Chinese products on May 2. Supposedly the duty is 120%, so for a $109 Kotare kit, CBP is going to want $131. Who’s going to pay it? Are they going to bill Kotare? Highly unlikely. Are they going to bill the recipient (you)? Probably. Likely that package isn’t going anywhere until someone ponies up the money to the government. Edit: According to this, the transport carrier is getting billed. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/07/2025-06027/further-amendment-to-duties-addressing-the-synthetic-opioid-supply-chain-in-the-peoples-republic-of Looks like there is an ad valorum duty and a specific duty per postal item. Note that this says 30% and $25, but it was upped to $120% and $100 later. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/ So, it looks like Customs is going to charge the transport carrier $231 duty for your Kotare kit. Doubt that the transport carrier is going to just eat that cost. Likely the shipper is going to charge it to Kotare when they go to mail the kits out, and they aren’t going to eat it either. So, it may end up going to you (although more likely the order will just be canceled because no one is going to want to pay $231 extra). This seems to explain why a lot of eBay sellers from China are now showing $200+ shipping charges. I ordered a kit a couple of weeks ago from a Chinese eBay seller for $3 shipping. Looked today and same kit from same seller had a $203 shipping charge. Edited April 30 by Dave Williams Gazzas 1
MikeMaben Posted April 30 Posted April 30 True Dave, alot of unanswered questions so far. BTW, my pre-order price is $133.58 Gazzas 1
LSP_Ray Posted April 30 Posted April 30 I have had to pay tariffs a couple of times. Some were delivered by DHL, some by USPS. USPS came to the door and presented me an invoice, and I had to pay it right there to get the package. The DHL stuff they delivered the package then sent the invoice later. Gazzas and LSP_K2 2
CRAZY IVAN5 Posted April 30 Posted April 30 I've got a question that's been kind of bugging me about this whole tariff schlmozzle. I've always assumed that Kotare was a New Zealand company so how did China get mixed up in this? Apparently I've missed something [ no surprise that]. Is it because the molds were made in China? If so then it isn't China that's selling the kits Kotare is . so some clarification is needed on my part. Last I checked there wasn't a 125% tariff against New Zealand.
Dave Williams Posted April 30 Posted April 30 7 minutes ago, CRAZY IVAN5 said: I've got a question that's been kind of bugging me about this whole tariff schlmozzle. I've always assumed that Kotare was a New Zealand company so how did China get mixed up in this? Apparently I've missed something [ no surprise that]. Is it because the molds were made in China? If so then it isn't China that's selling the kits Kotare is . so some clarification is needed on my part. Last I checked there wasn't a 125% tariff against New Zealand. If you read the Executive Orders, it applies to “products of the PRC”. CRAZY IVAN5 1
CRAZY IVAN5 Posted April 30 Posted April 30 3 minutes ago, Dave Williams said: If you read the Executive Orders, it applies to “products of the PRC”. I did read it and that's seems to be spreading it a little thin. So even if just the box art was done in China then that would be enough , i was a fearin' that,what a mess!
LSP_Ray Posted April 30 Posted April 30 I was wondering that, too. One way Chinese companies' have gotten around tariffs in the past is to set up a shell company in Viet Nam and run product through there to avoid them or at least lower them. So here we have a legitimate NZ company, but it has its product produced in China. It is Kotare's design and investment and they do the packaging and shipping, so I am not sure where the line is drawn. LSP_K2 and CRAZY IVAN5 2
CRAZY IVAN5 Posted April 30 Posted April 30 5 minutes ago, LSP_Ray said: I was wondering that, too. One way Chinese companies' have gotten around tariffs in the past is to set up a shell company in Viet Nam and run product through there to avoid them or at least lower them. So here we have a legitimate NZ company, but it has its product produced in China. It is Kotare's design and investment and they do the packaging and shipping, so I am not sure where the line is drawn. So it wasn't as stupid of a question that I thought it was. as it appears now if Chinese hands were/are on something/ anything, it's "tainted". Well, isn't that a daisy.
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