Temu Addicts Suffering Withdrawal

American shoppers ordering from ultra-cheap Chinese shopping websites Temu and Shein are already experiencing major sticker shocks in the wake of president Donald Trump's trade war.

A 145 percent tariff on all imports from China and today's expiry of a "de minimis" exemption, which had previously allowed goods worth less than $800 to enter the country duty-free, are about to drive up the price of the foreign retailers' offerings by a massive margin.

So American shoppers, who once enjoyed cutting out middlemen like Amazon and Walmart by buying cheap goods on Shein and Temu, are already feeling the hurt.

As CNN reports, the situation for true addicts is grim.

"I can’t afford to buy from Temu now, and I already couldn’t afford to buy in this country," Virginia-based retired registered nurse Rena Scott told CNN.

Statistics show that the poorest parts of the country have come to rely heavily on affordable goods from Chinese e-commerce sites. Especially now that the de minimis exemption has expired, Americans are now getting a rude surprise when trying to import Chinese goods.

While unemployment has remained unchanged, experts warn that it could take a while for the effects of Trump's economic policy to start showing.

As one TikToker found out firsthand, tariffs are already being passed onto consumers. She was hit with a $372.40 bill by FedEx after ordering a made-in-China sweater vest from the UK.

"These tariffs don't affect the companies," TikToker and DIYer Krystle Perkins argued. "They're just gonna pass on the cost onto us."

Trump has tried to undermine the devastating effects of cutting off the US economy from the world. He raised eyebrows this week, saying that kids in the US might have "two dolls instead of 30" during a Wednesday cabinet meeting, in an odd attempt to paint his economic policy as a win.

Whether Trump's disastrous tariff war will have the intended effect of kickstarting American manufacturing remains unclear at best. Experts have long pointed out that protectionist measures like tariffs could lead to plunging employment rates and inflation.

Matching the skill levels and low wages that have turned China into a manufacturing powerhouse could take many years, which the US simply may not have. The country's economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, heightening fears of an imminent recession.

Even if the US economy were to heavily invest in manufacturing, unemployment could continue to rise in the short term, since positions would require specific skills, certifications, and training.

"The skills US workers have are mismatched for manufacturing right now," futurist and University of California, Berkeley lecturer Olaf Gorth told CNN earlier this month. "What we need to do is lift the majority of American labor from mid-skilled to high-skilled."

In short, instead of driving the US to compete with China, tariffs will more than likely hurt workers and consumers alike. Even US businesses, which have heavily relied on Chinese imports, could soon pass on soaring costs to shoppers desperately looking for affordable goods.

"At the end of the day, tariffs are a tax on imports," JPMorgan wrote in a February note. "The tax incidence nearly always falls on domestic sellers and consumers, not foreign producers."

More on tariffs: Trump's New Tariff Rule Is Wildly Convenient for Tesla

The post Temu Addicts Suffering Withdrawal appeared first on Futurism.