Impact of Recent Tariffs on Jesse’s Teahouse
From Jesse
What’s Happening?
New executive orders from the U.S. President have increased the tariffs we need to pay when importing Chinese goods. Implementation of the new tariffs will begin in May and will likely cause customs clearance issues as the customs officials change their policies, leading to delays in clearing customs.
Because of this, we are delaying the launch of our next subscription box, probably by 1-2 months.
Previous executive orders have been reversed, or altered, so we still don't know what the actual rules are that we will be working with for the next subscription box launch, and will need to, as the Chinese say, “cross the river by stepping on stones” - take things one challenge at a time.
What does it mean for the subscription?
The subscription isn’t going anywhere! Repeat, we have already bought the subscription box teas, and the next box will be excellent!
However, prices aside, we cannot 100% guarantee hitting our May 1 deadline with these new changes to customs rules. We already have a shipment that has been stuck in customs for seven weeks and we expect delays to become more common.
We will be keeping everyone updated with emails, videos, and messages on our Discord Server.
We may need to raise the prices of the subscription box, but news about any price changes will be sent well in advance of orders being charged. I am going to work to keep price changes minimal and charge no more than what we are forced to pay to cover the costs of the tariffs and additional labor caused by these changes.
Will this affect the EU and UK stores?
Good News: We still hope to be able to ship the next subscription box directly from the EU and UK warehouses!
BUT - we are not sure if this will affect the price of the products. We are asking our tax advisors if American companies will be punished by the EU and UK for the tariffs and will update everyone when we know more.
Do you support this?
No.
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I have been honored by your trust and support in choosing me as your tea guy, and I hope that you will continue to support me as we all go through this together.
If you are an American citizen, I encourage you to call your representatives and remind them that supporting small businesses and free trade are strongly bipartisan issues that affect real people, both customers and small businesses.
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Many thanks, tea friends!
Jesse