Will My Temu Order Arrive With All the Trump-China Tariff Give attention to?

• Donald Trump’s govt orders might cease low-cost provide for e-commerce orders direct from China.
• That could possibly be dangerous knowledge for Temu and Shein.
• An vital query: What is going to occur to the $2.74 mousepad I ordered from Temu final week?!

A number of days beforehand, I seen I needed a mannequin new mousepad. The material masking was beginning to peel away from the rubber. So I went to Temu — extra on that in a minute.

Mousepads are a lot of of these factors that — in thought — you should by no means purchase; they solely come into your life, like low-cost umbrellas or Mason jars.

Nonetheless attributable to a really very long time of repetitive movement from typing, my weary wrists want the type of mousepad with the ergonomic padded blob on the tip, not the plain flat ones you accumulate at no cost.

So, spend my very private cash I have to.

Now, I’ve conflicted emotions about purchasing for on Temu, nonetheless a mousepad is type of an excellent Temu merchandise: Top of the range would not actually matter, and a $3 one is analogous as a $10 one — at the very least to the human eye. As a price-sensitive shopper, I went for it.

I discovered a plain grey mousepad with a wrist leisure on Temu for $2.74 and ordered it.

Appropriately, it wasn’t fairly that simple — Temu requires a $15 minimal for an order to ship, so I threw in just a few completely totally different objects: a squishy elbow leisure, a mannequin new telephone case, some hair scrunchies.

Then catastrophe struck. Shortly after I positioned my order, President Donald Trump declared an finish to the “de minimis” exemption. There’s nonetheless some dialogue as to precisely what his govt order will counsel, nonetheless de minimis permits orders beneath $800 to ship immediately from China to US prospects with out encountering duties and taxes. It is an enormous a part of how Temu and Shein have operated all through the US so successfully.

Then factors went apocalyptic for my mousepad: On Tuesday night, the US Postal Service stopped taking inbound parcels from China. By Wednesday morning, the USPS had reversed that call, resuming service.

What all of this implies for Temu and related sellers like Shein should not be precisely clear, nonetheless let’s merely assume it is not good. (Temu did not reply to a request for remark.)

Nonetheless, each e-commerce platforms have superior earlier provide solely immediately from mainland China, and now a number of their sellers have warehouses all through the US to ship orders domestically.

On Temu’s homepage, the easiest promoted half was for “native warehouse retailers” — sellers provide from warehouses all through the US.

Shein’s web site had a so much a lot much less distinguished tab for “QuickShip” objects that ship from the US, which wasn’t seen in the least on its cell app.

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Whereas relations with one among our largest commerce companions are up all through the air, I’ve good particulars about my mousepad (which I am optimistic you have gotten been fearful about).

My Temu order seems to be nonetheless shifting alongside in processing to be shipped.