A Note on Trump Tariffs

Part One: US Customer Orders

On 22nd August, many countries around the world stopped all postal services to the USA. This includes Germany, where Elska is shipped from. Services were halted in order to find a way to implement new procedures around Trump's tariffs, which went into effect on 29th August. Due to a lack of clear rules and guidelines on what US Customs actually wants, the various companies chose to not send anything rather than risk getting fined or having items rejected and returned.

Our warehouse team in Berlin is working hard to find a solution. US customers who have ordered something from us since 22nd August will have their items sent as soon as postal services return.

If by 17th September, Deutsche Post still isn't back up, then I will send these orders personally from my home in Wales. Since Royal Mail has (as of 1st September) implemented a procedure on dealing with Trump tariffs, this is possible, even though costs are a bit on the crazy side. (By the way, I can't do this earlier than 17th September because I'm abroad until then.)

Part Two: Increased Shipping Costs to the USA?

Although US official rules indicate that books (e.g. Elska) are exempt from tariffs, most shipping companies are being cautious and charging tariffs anyway. To make matters worse, although the tariff rates Elska deals with (15% from Germany or 10% from the UK) aren't huge, the various shipping companies are charging ‘tariff processing fees’. These vary but tend to be around $10 per shipment. That is of course in addition to what it had been costing us to send one copy of Elska to the USA, which was €8.96 / $10.45. To charge more for shipping than what an actual copy of Elska costs seems like insanity!

I'm hoping that whatever solution Germany comes up with will be reasonable. Owing to this hope, I've holding off on making big increases on shipping charges for US orders. Since US customers make up 46% of all Elska customers, I don't feel it's worth the risk of alienating them. However, if the German solution proves more expensive than the UK one (Royal Mail currently is charging £17 / $22.84), I'll have to look at raising prices for US orders.

Part Three: The Impact of Trump Tariffs on the Future of Elska

I'm trying to remain positive. I've been making Elska for over ten years and I absolutely don't want to let someone like Trump destroy it! If a solution for cheap shipping isn't found, I'll do my utmost to find some other way to keep Elska going. In the meantime, please cross your fingers. And if you are a US customer, please be patient about delivery times and know that I care deeply about your satisfaction.