This is a hot button issue for those with small businesses in the United States, because we pay much higher shipping costs than those in China. Paying lower shipping costs decreases their cost of doing business, enabling them to lower their product prices, making them more attractive to buyers, which means we potentially lose sales to foreign sellers. I think it's interesting that Amazon is speaking up, and that could be an effort on their part to show handcrafters they are trying to recruit from Etsy that they care about small businesses. http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m06/i17/s01
I remember my parents in law who were residing in the US. From time to time, they would be shopping for goods on sale and ship it home to their daughters who in turn would sell it. Like the bath towel which was very popular that time, the daughters were earning a lot from those packages that we call Balikbayan boxes. They send home almost anything that is palatable to the eyes of the neighbors like clothes, mostly t-shirts, even foodstuff like candies and chocolates. Before my parents in law passed away, their children, including my husband, received an approved petition. All their children, except my husband who really wanted to stay here in the Philippines, went to America and are staying there until now. However, they are not sending us anything, hahahaaa.
So, its cheaper to send something from China to New York then from Lousianna to New York. Someone explain to me the logic in that. Oh right China has cheaper shipping cost. Not that I didn't already know this, there are sellers out on Ebay from China who sell things dirt cheap and sometimes with no shipping cost. Of course what you don't pay for in price you make up for in waiting. These items can take up to a month to come to you. I am glad though that here in the United States some including Amazon are trying to crack down on shipping cost, its gettting ridiculous over here, and something has to be done to crack down on it.
My understanding is that the U.S. government negotiated shipping costs that favored Chinese over American shippers.
I only found out that China taxes America for trading goods and services. America pays billions of dollars for tariff. While US doesn't tax China for imports. Why? Are Chinese better and smarter business-minded government than Americans are?
The United States is led by people who do not have the best interests of the American people or the nation in mind.
That's for sure. Those in charge seem to care more about supporting everyone outside of our borders, including those who enter them illegally, than those of us who've lived here all of our lives and worked and paid into the system. We need to cut off all foreign funding and fix the problems here. We can't afford to be generous outside of our borders, there are way too many struggling and doing without here, who actually need a hand up and would appreciate it, not a hand out.