U.S. tariffs from Japan - still happening?

[greenc]

Hi all,

Hope you're all enjoying a good weekend and a great World Cup!

I've not purchased a jacket from Japan to be sent to the U.S. in five or six months and as such I don't know if the tariffs are still in effect.

The Supreme Court struck down the tariffs, however, has that ruling been practically applied? If you purchase through Buyee and ship to the U.S. are they still collecting the tariffs?

I have a piece I'm interested in at a decent price with a coupon. If someone with recent experience could please let me know I'd appreciate it, thank you. Enjoy the day!

Chris

 

[Cheech]

Yes, the tariffs are still being applied. Although the IEEPA tariffs were struck down in February by the Supreme Court, the Administration immediately implemented a 10% global tariff via another mechanism that is supposed to sunset after 6 months, I believe. Long story short, importing products from Japan is still a lot costlier than it used to be.

 

[Cheech]

I should note that it hasn’t stopped me from buying a few things. I have found that FromJapan offers better shipping rates than Buyee, particularly if you use ECMS. You can still expect to pay somewhere around 15% on top of the purchase price in tariffs and fees, not including actual shipping.

 

[greenc]

I should note that it hasn’t stopped me from buying a few things. I have found that FromJapan offers better shipping rates than Buyee, particularly if you use ECMS. You can still expect to pay somewhere around 15% on top of the purchase price in tariffs and fees, not including actual shipping.

Thank you @Cheech I appreciate the information. Still a bit of a pest these tariffs. Hopefully in August things will ease. Thanks again, enjoy the day.

 

[Cyber Lip]

I paid a bunch for a bunch of shipments in 2025/26 during the 1st round of tariffs. Shipped via DHL and was forced to pay the tariffs to DHL. Per the supreme court order, refunds of those tariffs which were deemed illegal are happening. I applied for my refunds directly through DHL as they had set up a refund request submission process. Well guess what...they denied all the refund requests citing some BS reason. I had used my credit card to pay all of them, so I contacted my CC company and filed a dispute on each one, and the CC company decided in my favor and I got my $$ back.

 

[Cheech]

Before the February ruling, I had accrued a small backlog of bills to Fedex for post-delivery tariff-related charges. As soon as the ruling came down, I wrote to Fedex to expunge that backlog. To this day, some are "under review," and others they are still badgering me to pay even though I provide the legal rationale for not doing so.

 

[Tom71]

I paid a bunch for a bunch of shipments in 2025/26 during the 1st round of tariffs. Shipped via DHL and was forced to pay the tariffs to DHL. Per the supreme court order, refunds of those tariffs which were deemed illegal are happening. I applied for my refunds directly through DHL as they had set up a refund request submission process. Well guess what...they denied all the refund requests citing some BS reason. I had used my credit card to pay all of them, so I contacted my CC company and filed a dispute on each one, and the CC company decided in my favor and I got my $$ back.

Well done...

The only outcome from that will be that DHL will once again abandon services to the US.

This is not an issues of couriers filling their pockets but of an erratic administration and public bodies unable to adopt their processes at the rate the rules are changed and re-changed.

 

[Aloysius]

Well done...

The only outcome from that will be that DHL will once again abandon services to the US.

This is not an issues of couriers filling their pockets but of an erratic administration and public bodies unable to adopt their processes at the rate the rules are changed and re-changed.

I agree with the point about bad and arbitrary policy but I have experienced a lot of erratic DHL calculation of tariffs (even before the Trump tariffs); I tend to be proactive so I call or get on their chat to get rates corrected, to their credit, but I remember being asked to pay huge tariff rates on Aero parcels that were well below the duties threshold, or being asked to pay a huge rate on a small package from Japan that would have not had it etc.

To their credit they are responsive when you reach out in this way. But the issue is that apart from people like us who are a bit more informed there are probably plenty of people who buy something and automatically pay DHL's incorrect calculation (I can see my father doing this, for example.)

 

[Cyber Lip]

I had a few low $ amount ones that I was trying to get them to refund, and the woman I spoke with on the phone said 'well this one is only a few cents' and I was like what are you talking about, it's for **x dollars! I don't remember the exact amounts, it was somewhere around $20-ish. And she tells me the extra $$ was their processing fees and the fees are non-refundable LOL! So not only are they charging a fee that is many many times more than the tariff charge itself in these particular low cost package cases, which is BS and hugely unethical, but also their stance is they took $ from you illegally but their fees to do this are not illegal LOL Such a joke. F DHL

 

[Cheech]

That's pretty poor treatment of their customer. I have found that DHL has generally been more reasonable than Fedex as far as fees go, although they do hold your items until you pay, providing just a short window of 5 days to do so.

I just now emailed Fedex about an invoice that I received last week from them for an item that was shipped to me in December. On that invoice, it is clearly written that duty was assessed as "JAPAN IEEPA EO <15% DUT," so it is pretty outrageous that they are still trying to collect on it. Fortunately, they don't hold items hostage, and their requests for payment have thus far been fairly toothless. That said, if they attempt to turn me over to a collections agent, that will certainly be a hassle.

I had a few low $ amount ones that I was trying to get them to refund, and the woman I spoke with on the phone said 'well this one is only a few cents' and I was like what are you talking about, it's for **x dollars! I don't remember the exact amounts, it was somewhere around $20-ish. And she tells me the extra $$ was their processing fees and the fees are non-refundable LOL! So their stance is they took $ from you illegally but their fees to do this are not illegal LOL. Such a joke. F DHL

 

[greenc]

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it.

It was my understanding that the tariff refunds in the U.S. were not geared toward individuals, rather companies that had imported high volume and were levied high fees.

Is it a reasonable expectation that any of us would receive a refund?

 

[Cheech]

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it.

It was my understanding that the tariff refunds in the U.S. were not geared toward individuals, rather companies that had imported high volume and were levied high fees.

Is it a reasonable expectation that any of us would receive a refund?

It is reasonable and, to my understanding, mandated by law. However, the feasibility of it happening, let alone in a timely manner, makes it uncertain. DHL (https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-il/Customs-and-Shipping-Guides/IEPPA-Updates-USA) and presumably other shippers have posted FAQs and guidelines for submitting applications for IEEPA tariff-relatd refunds.

 

[Cyber Lip]

That's pretty poor treatment of their customer. I have found that DHL has generally been more reasonable than Fedex as far as fees go, although they do hold your items until you pay, providing just a short window of 5 days to do so.

I just now emailed Fedex about an invoice that I received last week from them for an item that was shipped to me in December. On that invoice, it is clearly written that duty was assessed as "JAPAN IEEPA EO <15% DUT," so it is pretty outrageous that they are still trying to collect on it. Fortunately, they don't hold items hostage, and their requests for payment have thus far been fairly toothless. That said, if they attempt to turn me over to a collections agent, that will certainly be a hassle.

So has FedEx sent you a bill in every case, instead of holding the package hostage? If so I'll switch to FedEx as I have no issues at all with just pitching any tariff bills and subsequent payment due reminders right into the trash

 

[Cheech]

@Cyber Lip, that's right. Fedex has always delivered my packages first and sent a bill weeks later. I do hang onto the bills that are under dispute, though, until Fedex definitively resolves in my favor, which has yet to happen.

That said, unless the Supreme Court also rules that the current set of tariffs are illegal, which seems less likely than the IEEPA tariffs, it's likely that you'll have to pay up eventually. As I mentioned earlier, the current tariffs will expire on July 24, but the Administration is planning to implement another round of tariffs through some other mechanism. Until Congress re-assumes it's Constitutional responsibility to manage international trade, we'll probably be stuck with these.

 

[Cyber Lip]

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it.

It was my understanding that the tariff refunds in the U.S. were not geared toward individuals, rather companies that had imported high volume and were levied high fees.

Is it a reasonable expectation that any of us would receive a refund?

in these cases that we're talking about here, it's the shipping company used that's officially the 'importer of record' and is the one eligible to receive the refunds from the government. They are the ones that made the payment to the govt. Now, they should be passing these refunds onto us. I don't have any experience with anyone but DHL, but in their case, they make you apply to get reimbursed and go through a bunch of red tape, and in my case they denied about 15 separate claims saying that they weren't actually the refundable tariffs due to the way THEY had them coded in their system. So in other words, they're being slimy and are doing everything they can to wriggle out of repaying people. And also, according to them the hefty processing fee that they charged us along with the tariff fee amount is NOT refundable. So even if they do grant you a refund they will subtract their fee amount from the refund