STOCK UP: Don't say you weren't warned! (US)

Everyone is blaming the political party they don't belong to for theoretical future gear shortages. Good grief.
Aye mate, but that’s pretty much par for the course with American politics & political discussion noawadays.

Personally I’m quite surprised by your De Min-whatever system & not surprised it’s being overhauled for economic reasons, let alone as an attempt to limit smuggling of contraband. Eg by comparison, the value of goods allowed to be imported into the UK before VAT is incurred is around $50 & above around $180 import duty is also liable.
 
what is actually illegal? All the HGH, peptides, everythin

Hgh, HCG, and HMG are scheduled substances and you can get jail time for that without a script in the US. I think there may be a few more scheduled ones that I can’t remember. The other peptides are in a weird gray zone where it would likely be up to officers if/how bad they’re going to screw you over.
 

Shipping companies are gong to be held accountable for false representations of package contents. They are not going to risk their licensees to accommodate a tiny amount of illegal goods.

Suspending Seko and a dozen other companies for allowing inaccurate descriptions on the manifests given to customs, the message is clear. "Know your customers, and you'll be held responsible if they lie about the contents of the packs you're moving for them.". All the companies suspensions were lifted, but the warning will no doubt be effective.

Once the election is behind us, politicians will no longer fear Americans rebelling against a 20%+ increase in many goods, and the new customs regime will begin in earnest. The "old" congress will pass the legislation that's ready to go, the outgoing president will sign it. They always pass the most unpopular legislation as far from the next election as possible.

What are the gear shippers going to do? They can't "fake" a small new company and expect a shipper will just trust they're not sending contraband. Any legit company allowing gear to be mixed with their shipments risks getting blacklisted as a risk to the shipping companies and lose access to the US market.

The might trans ship through a different country, but how long before that's discovered? All countries are expected to provide manifests to customs in advance of shipment.

I believe the surprise executive order to get the small package enforcement ball rolling was necessary so the pending legislation and crackdown could begin as soon after the election as possible. The new congress and president will want to be able to say "Wasn't us!"

Stock up, don't expect prior warning, I think it's going to get bad, seemingly, overnight, but definitely before the outgoing Congress departs for Thanksgiving. They want it clear in American's minds that the significant price increases at Temu/Shein began under the "previous" politicians and president.
 
Last edited:
I've ordered 3 packages from India the last couple months and 2 out of 3 got seized. Yet I've ordered 5 packs from China and zero were seized. The one package that came in from India legit smelt like someone shoved it up their ass it smelt 100% like someone shit in the box. Wtf are these paki's doing

LOL, they smell so bad, you've got to rid of them as fast as possible.

They've been testing the new AI systems that red flags packs based on a ton of info. I assume they've done it using India as the guinea pig because the volume is much lower. Easier to divert a bag of mail for inspection because it's got a package of interest vs a Chinese cargo container with 20,000 packages.

That's the scam that's coming to an end.

They'll do random checks, and if they find contraband, they'll tell the cargo company not to accept packages from that shipper any more, or next time have their import license suspended. It won't take long before no one will take those risky packs into their containers, you'll have to be a trusted company to ship that way. They're also requiring a name, backed by ID, of whoever is providing the description of contents, If contraband is found, the name of the person providing the false content info will also be blacklisted by customs, so any containers with something that person gave the content info for will be detained for inspection, up to 45 days.

It's already happening. Some shippers have been banning Chinese UGLs, rejecting their packages and sending them back.
 
Last edited:
Where are you getting this part?

Personal experience. I'm trying not to garner the ire of certain Chinese vendors so you can DM for the name. However one large one here recently had many packages returned to them by the shipper after they were already en route, adding a month's delay because they had to reship using another company.

Another was Dragon Pharma, which had hundreds of packages returned to them once the cargo company discovered they were carrying packs from them with false info on the manifests, and the US was cracking down. This led to deliveries taking 3 months as they searched for an alternate to reship with.

UGLs are nothing volume wise compared to the legit merchandise coming from China in those small packs. The freight companies don't want their business, and are being forced by the US to identify those whose packages they're carrying with greater certainty.

The days of a customs manifest for 20,000 small packs in a container listing 500 from the same company saying they contain "perfume" or "health products" and getting a green light to bypass customs are over.
 
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/drugs-fentanyl-shipping/
It’s a complex problem.
That's an excellent article, the best I've read on the topic so far.

A final paragraph sums up one takeaway, with more detail in the body of the article, which is that there are many powerful interests in the US that benefit from the status quo and are going to dump lobbying dollars into K Street to minimize significant changes. And rulemaking and legislation can take months to years.

"the lobbying group for FedEx, UPS and DHL, said the firms do support more robust reporting requirements for de minimis shipments. But they want to keep the channel open for as many goods as possible because streamlined entry saves them money."
 
That's an excellent article, the best I've read on the topic so far.

A final paragraph sums up one takeaway, with more detail in the body of the article, which is that there are many powerful interests in the US that benefit from the status quo and are going to dump lobbying dollars into K Street to minimize significant changes. And rulemaking and legislation can take months to years.

"the lobbying group for FedEx, UPS and DHL, said the firms do support more robust reporting requirements for de minimis shipments. But they want to keep the channel open for as many goods as possible because streamlined entry saves them money."

The major pieces of bipartisan legislation are out of year long committees, and already run by all the interested parties.

The entrenched interests and cash are far, far greater on the side of ending de minimus than the tiny group of beneficiaries. Including Amazon, Walmart, every manufacturer, retailer. and all their associated unions. Throw in all law enforcement, "mothers of overdose victims", anti-China defense hawks, any group benefiting from filling government coffers with customs duty money, and those in favor of growing government with more regulatory apparatus and personell.

I wouldn't get my hopes up. But look, what I'm suggesting is assuming the worst and taking appropriate precautions. The only downside of buying a bit more of what you'd buy anyway I've heard is "Intent to distribute!", which is nonsense.

Maybe it'll turn out to be nothing. Business as usual will continue indefinitely and those who did nothing in anticipation can pat themselves on the back. I certainly hope that's the case.
 
The major pieces of bipartisan legislation are out of year long committees, and already run by all the interested parties.

The entrenched interests and cash are far, far greater on the side of ending de minimus than the tiny group of beneficiaries. Including Amazon, Walmart, every manufacturer, retailer. and all their associated unions. Throw in all law enforcement, "mothers of overdose victims", anti-China defense hawks, any group benefiting from filling government coffers with customs duty money, and those in favor of growing government with more regulatory apparatus and personell.

I wouldn't get my hopes up. But look, what I'm suggesting is assuming the worst and taking appropriate precautions. The only downside of buying a bit more of what you'd buy anyway I've heard is "Intent to distribute!", which is nonsense.

Maybe it'll turn out to be nothing. Business as usual will continue indefinitely and those who did nothing in anticipation can pat themselves on the back. I certainly hope that's the case.
Is this one of the bills?
 
Is this one of the bills?
No. That one's been superseded by much tougher ones written by this year's committees, after feedback from all those interested groups mentioned. This is
from a few weeks ago. I'm sure they're just kidding, everything will be business as usual and gear will keep slipping through the mail, right under customs noses despite tens of thousands of new CBP agents, and all the groups putting years of pressure and millions into the campaigns of every single representative out there.

“Foreign corporate giants are inundating our borders with millions of low-value packages, making it tough for customs agents to stop dangerous goods like fentanyl from falling into Americans’ hands,” Wyden said. “Americans should feel confident that anything arriving on their doorstep is safe, legal, and ethically produced. Our legislation would crack down on foreign companies abusing the law and make sure they play by the rules.”

“Whether through the southwest border or in packages mailed into the United States, China is using any tool available to get illicit drugs across our border,”
Lummis said.“It is time for CBP to crack down on shipments from China to ensure drugs and products made using slave labor are encountered before making it into our communities.”

 
Last edited:
Not mentioned here were other comments I came across about more resources to, it was implied, impose consequences on recipients of illegal goods. I wouldn't have big enough balls to order raws at any point where they may land in the US within weeks after the election. If this gets signed into law while a package is still in transit, I wouldn't want to be "first in line" for them celebrating their upcoming raises(and fat new overtime budget just waiting for an opportunity) by using me as press op and an example of a "drug manufacturer using Chinese precursors" stopped thanks to the great efforts of our brave Senators and outgoing President signing this bill into law and getting CBP the resources they need.
 
Last edited:
They can’t pass even bipartisan supported and written shit in the US. I can’t see passing any time soon and it taking years to implement once it is passed after reading what’s been proposed.
 
They can’t pass even bipartisan supported and written shit in the US. I can’t see passing any time soon and it taking years to implement once it is passed after reading what’s been proposed.

That's a promise huh?

I can't seem to find a single lawmaker voice any opposition to this. Not one.

I'll bet it passes unanimously. Perhaps 1 or 2 token votes in opposition.
 
That's a promise huh?
Unless this election drastically changes the composition of the House and Senate, which polls suggest is increasingly unlikely, then yah it’s basically a guarantee. Have you been paying attention to Congress the last 10-15 years?

I can't seem to find a single lawmaker voice any opposition to this. Not one.

It just came out of committee, that means most special interests don’t even care about it yet really. Also it doesn’t even really matter if there is no opposition, as laws get sabotaged after committee before the floor in a myriad of ways even if it has overwhelming support politically and publicly.

I'll bet it passes unanimously. Perhaps 1 or 2 token votes in opposition.

I’d take that bet because it’s clear you don’t understand the American legislative system and that literally nothing passes unanimously in the House, and hardly anything unanimously passes the Senate that isn’t national security funding related, and even that’s controversial now. That’s an easy bet.

The bill itself is a hollow set of ideas they want implemented, and the implementation of those ideas will take years of other committees working out how to make this possible. It’s 22 pages (nothing) and lacks almost entirely any details on *how* it will be implemented.

This is fear mongering at this stage. A change may be coming, but it’s not anywhere near as rapid as you’re panicking about.


Text of the bill if anyone’s interested in seeing what’s proposed,
 
LOL, they smell so bad, you've got to rid of them as fast as possible.

They've been testing the new AI systems that red flags packs based on a ton of info. I assume they've done it using India as the guinea pig because the volume is much lower. Easier to divert a bag of mail for inspection because it's got a package of interest vs a Chinese cargo container with 20,000 packages.

That's the scam that's coming to an end.

They'll do random checks, and if they find contraband, they'll tell the cargo company not to accept packages from that shipper any more, or next time have their import license suspended. It won't take long before no one will take those risky packs into their containers, you'll have to be a trusted company to ship that way. They're also requiring a name, backed by ID, of whoever is providing the description of contents, If contraband is found, the name of the person providing the false content info will also be blacklisted by customs, so any containers with something that person gave the content info for will be detained for inspection, up to 45 days.

It's already happening. Some shippers have been banning Chinese UGLs, rejecting their packages and sending them back.

Sounds like another big step to secure corporate profits and kill off the little guy.
 
Back
Top