Impact of Chinese Trump Tariffs Felt By US Hololive Fandom (Updated)

Update: Hololive has released a statement in English regarding the collection of duties from merchandise ordered by US addresses. As of Friday February 8, the collection of duties from US addresses has been temporarily suspended from its shipping and logistics partner, Global-e due to the temporary reinstatement of the de minimis exemption that came down from the Trump Administration late Friday afternoon. The elimination of the $800 de minimis exemption was initially enforced on Tuesday, February 4th. Duty collection in the US has been suspended for an unspecified amount of time according to the updated order until the Commerce Department is able to establish the systems and process required to collect tariff revenue. The original article follows below.

Within the past day, social media has seen the rise in posts from English-speaking Hololive fans based in the US already being impacted by the new tariffs on Chinese goods being applied by the Trump Administation starting on Tuesday in the US, keeping to campaign promises to enact protectionist trade policies against ally and foe. Some fans are also realizing that placing orders prior to the tariff implementation does not avoid them, as it simply means that the required duties will be applied by the carrier assigned to deliver the package.

The problem arises when the purchase was made without any expectation of additional duties being applied in the first place, as Hololive sells its merchandise in Japan with the ability to accept and process international orders, but does not disclose to its customers that the merchandise is contracted out to Chinese manufacturers, triggering the additional US tariffs of 10% on top of the additional 15% tariff now that the Trump administration has also canceled the $800 de minimis loophole that gave rise to to Temu and Shein in the US. This is forcing US carriers to apply the combined duties of 25% before the package can be delivered to their destination.

This also puts many US-based Hololive fans in a bind because the purchases are typically within a specific budget, and paying in some cases up to an additional $35 on an already expensive piece of merchandise is a tough and expensive pill to swallow. As COVER Corp is not required to cover the additional duties once they receive the finished merchandise, it’s passing on those duties to those that ordered the merchandise from the US, which will happen across more industries and sectors. COVER Corp. has yet to issue any sort of statement on these developments.

More cases like these are going to pop up across the internet and social media in the next few weeks and months as the true impact of the Trump Administration’s Chinese tarriffs become more widely felt, and a lot more pop culture products are going to be rendered more expensive as a result, but people don’t realize how much more expensive, judging by the complete shock expressed at the additional costs of merchandise produced in China.