04/04/2025
If you wondering how the newly imposed tariffs will affect us (and most LNSs) a huge amount of what we sell is not manufactured in the US.
- Zweigart is German company and most of those who hand-dye fabrics use it as the base. Wichelt's fabrics also come from an EU country. The fabrics under the Legacy name are mostly from EU mills.
- Au ver a Soie and DMC are based in France so would be under EU import tariffs. Appletons is made in the UK. NPI silk is from China. Painters Threads are from the EU. Many of the hand-dyers used threads from mills in Europe or Japan so their base material will be affected. Kreinik and Rainbow Gallery are, in many cases, made in the US but some of the base component threads come from the EU or Japan.
- accessories like needles (EU, Mexico, Japan, Asia), hoops (EU, China) and stretcher bars are mostly made overseas. Evertite bars are made in the US but as they have had trouble keeping up with demand, their limited availability won't impact this much. The most common stretcher bars are F.A. Edmunds, which are made in China.
- K's Creations & Needlework System 4 stands and frames are made in the US as are RolaFrame scroll frames. If there are components in them from outside the US it would expect it to make a relatively small dent in the overall cost.
- Scissors are mostly manufactured in Europe and parts of Asia, only a small number in the US.
- Most lighting is manufactured in China, although it may be designed in the US or Europe.
- hand-painted needlepoint canvases are typically painted on Zweigart canvas so will be affected in 2 ways. The first is that it uses an EU product for the base, the second is that at least one of the painting services isn't in the US so what they ship would be subject to a tariff anyway. Would a painted canvas get listed as country of origin being the EU because of the base or the country it's painted in? I'm sure they are working on how the handle this mix, which isn't uncommon.
- Books - in the past printed material like books was usually exempt from tariffs but with the base tariff on almost all goods from most countries it's not clear if that exemption will continue.
- charts - we're assuming charts will be impacted by the tariff for those designers outside of the US since we've not seen anything indicating an exemption.
We have started to receive notices from suppliers about price increases due to the tariffs and those will start to take affect within the next few weeks for some. For others they will happen after May as they have shipments in transit now. And for some who have deeper inventory, it will be longer before we see price increases. And they won't be across the board, that will most likely be item/color specific. So for example if we get a shipment of hand-dyed fabric from overseas, it would effect that particular shipment and not the things we still have in stock. For the distributors that means if they are getting a shipment of Zweigart fabric, it would apply to the counts/colors in that shipment vs. what's already in their warehouse.
I read on Reuters that "A U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin provided a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded or in transit to the U.S. before 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday April 5th. These cargoes need to arrive by May 27 to avoid the 10% duty." So there is some grace period for shipments in transit before the tariff took effect.
The US importer is responsible for paying the tariff, but where that tariff is collected depends on how it's sent. If it's sent with the Duty (Tariff) prepaid (DDP) by the seller the importer still gets charged for it by the seller, but it doesn't get stuck in customs awaiting payment. If it's sent with the Duty unpaid (DAP), then it's collected in the US usually before delivery. That too depends on how it's sent - UPS, FedEx and DHL for example have their own customs brokerage so they would be the ones to collect it either before or after delivery. For the USPS typically they would collect it at the time of delivery but given their existing workload I don't see how this is going to go smoothly if they have to collect it. For our US distributors/suppliers they will be paying the tariff and then may or may not pass along that increase depending on how they are handling this. For the shop itself, shipments I receive are typically not sent with Duty pre-paid so we will pay that at the time we receive the shipment. In the end the importer pays whether it's collected before shipment or upon receipt.
If the value of the shipment is under the current $800 threshold it should come in without a duty/tariff attached to it. That will go away May 2nd for shipments from China and Hong Kong. It's not clear if the threshold will stay in place for Canada and Mexico, which had been terminated in February and then paused indefinitely.
We will notify customers of price increases on orders as we get that information. Given it's a daily changing topic, the unpredictability makes this even harder to plan for. But we're assuming that the tariffs won't be lifted any time soon and that much of what we carry will begin to be affected in the next several weeks, although hopefully just a trickle at first. Some vendors have indicated that they will note a separate tariff line item so that it's clear what the price change is coming from when it hits.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we, and our suppliers, grapple with this.
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