Thread: Trade War Coming to Shaving

It has been a while since I have posted here. My career is in international trade compliance and I ran into something the other day that I thought was interesting. Those of us in USA might be hearing about the trade war and the additional import duties being applied to various products. Steel and stainless steel was the big one that got all the headlines. However, there are many item on the list, especially items from China. Last week an addition to the list was published and includes 10% additional duty for badger hair. Right now the list is under the comment period and then the duties will most likely be applied in August. Since most shaving brushes are made with badger hair and most badger hair is sourced in China, anyone making brushes in USA are probably going to see an increase in the cost for the hair.
I am not making any political based comments and don't intend for this to become a political chain. Right or wrong, good, bad or indifferent, I just noticed badger hair on the list for the next round of increased duties (because reading lists like this is part of my job) and thought it might be interesting to this group.

Originally Posted by ericd

It has been a while since I have posted here. My career is in international trade compliance and I ran into something the other day that I thought was interesting. Those of us in USA might be hearing about the trade war and the additional import duties being applied to various products. Steel and stainless steel was the big one that got all the headlines. However, there are many item on the list, especially items from China. Last week an addition to the list was published and includes 10% additional duty for badger hair. Right now the list is under the comment period and then the duties will most likely be applied in August. Since most shaving brushes are made with badger hair and most badger hair is sourced in China, anyone making brushes in USA are probably going to see an increase in the cost for the hair.
I am not making any political based comments and don't intend for this to become a political chain. Right or wrong, good, bad or indifferent, I just noticed badger hair on the list for the next round of increased duties (because reading lists like this is part of my job) and thought it might be interesting to this group.

Interesting - I have not dug into the details of the various tit-for-tat tariff impositions. Thanks for the heads-up though. Anyone with brush-making plans in the near future might want to grab some knots now just in case...

Yup, that was brought up on an English shave forum a few days ago. Welcome to the easy to win trade wars where everyone is a winner. No worries I am fully confident it will get dumber yet.

Bob

Some just can’t be neutral as OP requested and keep snide comments to themselves. I can get ugly too. Go ahead, insult my President again. MAGA.

I don't know about you fellows, but I have to pay taxes/tariffs every time I move a muscle.
Nothing new here, IMO

I'm reopening this.

NO POLITICS PLEASE.

Certainly tariffs and taxes/fees take a toll on some recipients of things...
Being from Texas, we don't have to pay to pick a package-up.
As we receive, we have absorbed the tarriffs, etc as we buy.

Big problem for some is the experience of going to get a package and having to pay a bill to do so. In this regard, the fees are levied by the recipient's country.
Shipping from Texas is expensive to another country.
Countries with high tariffs seem to pay less to send, in retrospect?

I can see how this would already have some on edge as in receiving.
Taxes and death, Inevitable, FME

In economics, one of the ideas behind imposing tariffs is to protect domestic industries.

But if a product, like badger hairs, cannot be sourced in sufficient quantities from any other country but China, then it makes no sense to impose additional tarriffs on it, since there simply is no viable alternative.

All it does in the country that imposes the tariff is increase the price a consumer has to pay, without an economical benefit for domestic industries that depend on this source.

As far as economics go it is therefore difficult to find a justification, unless someone believes that hog farmers could benefit from more demand for bristles to make boar brushes after pork exports to China dried up.

After all, Wisconsin is called “The Badger State” because of early lead miners who burrowed caves to live in, not because of an overabundance in shaving brush raw materials.



B.

True...Unless there is a huge desire for badger-hair brushes/knots.
Otherwise it get's grouped-in as merchandise and dutiable across the board? China, Canada, UK, U.S., anywhere else. They ALL are gonna get money off of it. No matter what anyone does or says.
One way or another!
JMHO

If you collect a package sent to you from out of country and have to pay your government money, it is because your government has put a tariff, duty or sales tax on it. That has nothing to do with the country from where the package was sent. When I say "your country" that means whatever country you are living in be it Canada, the US or China etc.

Normally, once a country has tariffs place on it's goods by another country the country effected by the tariffs places tariffs on goods coming from the other country. This makes goods and services more expensive for consumers in both countries. It also, among other negative effects, forces companies to manufacture off shore in order to be able to sell it's products on a competitive basis in countries that have place tariffs on their products. Harley Davidson is an example of this.

Long term there are other negative effects of a trade war on a global scale. Just google the "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act" to get an idea of the consequences. I doubt very much that the average citizen in the different countries involved in this type of pissing match will be better off because of it.

Bob