Why we stopped selling to the USA

Important message to our friends in the USA.  It is with much sadness that we announce that we will no longer be able to ship orders to the USA.   The tariff wars consequences have now reached us and affected our little plant business.    

For over 30 years now I have been crossing orders over to the USA under the De Minimus rule that was negotiated between Canada and the USA a very long time ago.  Under the De Minimus agreement, commercial shipments under $800 were allowed to cross over free of duties and the seller could process the commercial entry him/herself.

This week, the Trump administration has put an end to this agreement which means that from now on, all commercial entries will be subject to duties and taxes.  This part alone would not be too bad however, they have also added the super tariff of 35% on top of the regular tariff which means that purchases would now have an additional 4.8% regular duty, plus the 35% super tariff charge, plus applicable taxes (not sure what this would be?) 

In addition to all of that, they haven’t put a procedure in place for us to be able to remit the tariffs and taxes if we decide to continue selling.   We spent some time at the border trying to find out what we needed to do to proceed with the new rules.  Well, they didn’t know anything and couldn’t care less haahahah. 

It seems that now all commercial entries, no matter what the value, will have to be cleared by a customs broker, and this is where we call it quits.   Customs brokers don’t come cheap and there just isn’t enough profit to cover these additional costs.   If they could offer a procedure for a person to be able to process the commercial entry and remit the taxes/duties him/herself, we will reconsider.

So, for now, we have decided to simply call it quits on the USA side, but we will keep informed as this administration does seem to go back and forth on decisions quite a lot and if some day the rules change again, making it accessible for us to start selling again to the USA, we will come back. 

I would like to thank all you Americans that have been encouraging Bloomlovers during the last 30 years.  I was able to raise my 3 children and keep a roof over our heads during all that time because of your patronage. 

Hugs to all from Tina & Sara xx