Trump’s tariffs are now hurting record collectors, indie musicians, and indie labels (UPDATED)

August 27, 2025 Alan Cross 0 Comments 2 min read

Despite what he claims, Trump’s tariffs are insane, a tax on the American people. Many companies are laying people off or going out of business entirely because they can’t afford the cost of imported materials and machinery.

The Future of Music Coalition points out that the tariffs are hurting record collectors, indie musicians, and indie labels, too. How? Trump eliminated the exemption for orders of foreign goods under US$800. He now wants foreign post offices to collect the tariffs–a highly onerous and stupid ask–so he can claim that exporters to the US are actually paying them.

Post offices in Australia, the UK, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France, Austria, (with perhaps more to come), along with DHL, one of the biggest courier services in the world, have stopped shipping merchandise to the US.

This will affect import records and CDs, musical gear, band merch, and so many other smaller things that once fell under the old de minimis exemption. They won’t just be subjected to higher prices, but they may not be able to get their goods at all.

Nice one, DonOLD.

Here’s the list of countries that won’t ship small parcels to the US–so far.