US consumers foot the bill for tariffs

American consumers are bearing the brunt of President Trump’s tariffs.

The Big Picture: Consumers who buy imported goods are unexpectedly receiving shockingly high bills from couriers like FedEx and UPS afterward. These delivery services pay the import duties and pass them on to the consumer without prior warning, leaving many people understandably upset.

Between the Bills: Couriers are sending consumers fines that sometimes clear triple digits.

• Consumers can’t predict the import duties because they aren’t factored into a product’s cost at checkout, even in the shipping category.
• Delivery services sometimes add extra handling fees on top of the imports as compensation for their trouble.
• These steep charges apply even if a consumer returns a product because, technically, it was still imported, and a courier had to handle it.

Conclusion: Sellers have an incentive not to mention these costs upfront because doing so will likely deter buyers. But in an era of fast, seamless, cheap shipping, the sudden shock of hefty fines has jarred Americans and quickly generated outrage.

Prediction: The backlash against this practice is bound to create pressure — but only time will tell whether that pressure will fall on couriers, sellers, or the administration levying the tariffs.