The 'Trump Tariffs' change and how that affects orders from me, to the USA

Preface

It's all over international news right now, so I suspect you all will be well aware of these ongoings already. I know full well there are much larger fish in the sea than little ol' James' Home of Tone, but nonetheless, I have worked hard over the past few years at providing a quality, affordable product to my growing US customer base, and ultimately, these Trump Tariffs will do a lot to undo all of that hard work. So rest assured, none of these, by any means, is of my choosing or doing.

I have been hard at work learning more about this, ensuring what I do, how I export, how I serve my US customers is completely correct. But similarly with the recent EU changes too, there will be short term, and long term changes in how I handle orders heading to the USA going forward. I'll update this page as and when I learn more, or when I make key changes, but I hope this info helps.

Summary

I must admit, I'm getting pretty exhausted reading government export and import changes across the world the past few years, it has been a challenging time for absolutely anyone shipping and receiving goods that's for sure.

The latest major changes are focussed on the USA and Trump's focus on Tariffs. From the 29th August 2025, the USA's ‘de minimis’ duties threshold of  US$800 will be waved goodbye, and from that point onward, ALL goods entering the USA, regardless of their value, will be subject to tariffs. Yes, it's a lot of work for businesses but ultimately, you, the consumer based in the USA will be the hardest hit by all of this, so you do certainly have my sympathies. 

Shipping options and what this entails

I have exclusively, unless a specific scenario required something different, shipped to my USA based customers using Royal Mail International Tracked postal services, which transfer over to USPS once in the USA.
If I choose to continue to use this method of shipping to my US customers, I will need to accurately calculate and take payment for your import Tariff at the time of purchase via my checkout process. Where I then will be obligated to submit that to US customs. So to do this I need to find a suitable modification and app for my store, which I'll be doing ASAP of course.

Currently, USPS simply do not have the infastructure in place to handle a full import procedure for ALL incoming shipments, so they have instead been authorised by the US Government to apply a FLAT RATE tariff amount of $80. This will be in place until the latest end of January 2026. Where they will then have procedures in place to handle tariff charges consignment by consignment. USPS have also stated that they simply will not handle or process an incoming shipment that hasn't had it's fees already paid. So this basically means I have to implement a system and charge my customers in the USA their fees up front, for that parcel to then be able to be processed and delivered in the USA.

Shipments sent with faster courier services such as FedEx, DHL or UPS for example, already have the infastructure in place and can handle imports individually, as such, they will be calculating the accurate tariff, duty and taxes for each consignment and charging the recipient (you) directly for these prior to release of the shipment. I won't be obligated to handle the fees up front/at the time of checkout, so all of your relevant importing fees to the US government and customs, will be handled by the courier and paid to them. It is just my job to ensure the full declaration documentation is complete and accurate, which of course I already do on every international shipment already.

Which shipping method and tariff calculation is most cost effective ultimately is a case by case thing, on some ocassions the flat rate charge in place until end of January, might actually be a cost effective way of handling an order, whereas on other orders, having the courier handle it accurately and directly with you, will be more cost effective.

There are a lot of finer details I still want to see confirmed, details on origin country for products etc. For example, my popular pre-wired kits which ultimately are the most common product I am shipping to customers in the USA, are made by me personally here in the UK, but consist of components manufacturered across the world really. Switches from the USA, wire from the USA, pots from Taiwan, capacitors from the USA as well as China, fixings from here in the UK. And all of that adds a lot of complication on how I need to declare the product for shipping into the US with the new tariff changes put in place. So there's a lot of work to do be done, to ensure no one loses out here. 

Conclusion (in the short term)

As such, I think in the very short term, it will actually be better for me and importantly for you, if orders to the USA are handled manually. Not through the website's checkout. So it will be best if you contact me via email, with some info about the item(s) you are hoping to place an order for. I will then look into which shipping method will be best to use based on your order value. Both looking at the physically shipping costs, and how the import tariffs/duty/taxes etc will be calculated. 

It's a mess, and I am confident in saying that the most frustrated people dealing with all of this will be you, the consumer in the USA. I'm just one micro business in the UK, but I have felt very proud that customers in the USA have trusted me enough to place orders with. I do wish to continue with that, and I don't want to draw a line through it. But it's complex, and ensuring that I do everything correctly is important so respectfully, I think this method at least in the short term, is the only way I feel comfortable.

So as of today (13th August 2025), I'll be turning off US shipping from my main website, however if you want to place an order for an item/product, please drop me an email (james@homeoftone.co.uk) and I will look into the best method to do it for you. I have turned it off now, rather than the end of August to match the de minimis threshold date cutoff, because I have been informed by a reliable trade advice business, that should a backlog occur at US customs, pushing the processing/receipt of the parcel past the cutoff date, it will either be blocked by customs due to it not having duties pre-paid, or incur the additional costs. Neither I want to risk, so am doing it now to ensure safe passage of my shipments.

James