Shein & Temu: Jeder fünfte Euro griechischer Verbraucher geht nach China. Die Realität der zollfreien Waren aus China und anderen Drittländern dominiert den Markt.

Having low prices on imports is better than tariffs.

source: live in the US.

Free global markets or „late stage capitalism“, pick one

A lot of the stuff I get online are not available locally. The few items that are available cost way more than they should.

I know companies that pay cents for products that they sell for over 10€. Even if you account for shipping and custom fees, it does not justify that massive increase.

So when corporations use duty free import options to globalize their supply chain it’s good, but when consumers do the same, then its bad?

Someone please explain this logic to me.

They’re not popular because they’re duty-free, they’re popular because they’re cheap and fast.

You may have heard that this duty-free status is ending for small packages (in a few countries, of which the Netherlands, Belgium, and others). Well now it’ll be shipped in huge containers to warehouses in Europe, and then redistributed at basically the same price. With an import tax, now, yes. And they’ll still be the cheapest.

Lol

As if online stores in my country don’t just resell China stuff

New favorite scam: Magic Holz

Claims to be a german store selling wood 3d puzzles and from certified wood or reused wood. They do sponsoring with some larger german youtubers.

I was curious and looked at their Web site under „mechanische Bausätze“ (mechanical kit) you find a pinball machine (now sold out) the 9th picture shows all the parts and the manual….which has chinese writing on it. They also have a very short Video that seems kinda cut weirdly. A small aliexpress search made it clear: they use 1:1 the kit from an aliexpress seller, using all the pictures from that seller as well as the video but cutting all the voice over away so you only have a 5 sek Clip

People here seem to miss many crucial points regarding these chinese imports.

First, these items are cheap because China massively subsidizes them, either through direct subsidies and/or massive tax breaks to manufacturers and exporters. China dumps their overcapacity to western countries and the aim is twofold: keep the lights on in the factories and in the long run kill the competition. Because of subsidies, you can get cheap junk delivered to your door for coupe of euros or for the price that doesn’t even normally cover the costs of international package deliveries or logistics.

The other fact is the role of the importer. If you have a company that imports and sells chinese manufactured goods, they are responsible for that the goods are made and sold according to european safety standards. At least if the importer is doing business legitimately and as they should. This means that importer needs to be sure that those items imported don’t include things like toxic chemicals or that they are electrically safe. Having these goods tested accordingly increase the import costs and of course chinese government doesn’t subsidize western import companies one bit. After all, they want to have the import/export market themselves.

When you direct order something from china, you are the importer and the responsibility is yours. Unfortunately many people don’t bother to think about the safety as long as you get stuff cheap, and the cheap USB charger then one day burns your house.

Edit: ROFLMAO the downvotes without a single comment what is actually wrong in this post. That is because everything is of course absolutely true when it comes to chinese subsidies and responsibilities regarding importing stuff. I’ve bumped into same phenomenon before when this very thing is discussed. Either the downvoters are chinese exporters (unlikely) or then my fellow contintent men and women who just decide to deny reality about the game that china plays in export business.

That amount would end up going to China anyway since that’s where all those products are made nowadays. Europe has sold itself down the river at this point.