Ordering to the US - what you should know

Well, the cat is out of the bag: the EU got a 15% tariff, and the De Minimis treatment for orders under $800 was removed. This will come into effect on  August 29, 2025.

US Tariffs ARE here, WTF do I do?

The USA recently put tariffs on European products, and they’ll go live on August 29. This means that when you buy stuff from Varusteleka, you’ll have to pay a separate tax to the US Government. Here’s how it works.

Fewer delivery methods

The only delivery options available to the US are UPS and DHL Express. The rest of the companies refuse to deliver packages because the tariff process is still unclear. All deliveries will be processed, adding an additional cost.

A tariff is a tax on top of the purchase price

There have been tariffs on the EU purchases before, but previously, purchases worth less than $800 were duty-free. From August 29 onwards, this exemption is gone, and all purchases will be subject to tariffs. Depending on the product, this will add a 15-50% tax to the purchase price. The delivery company will handle the import process and pay your tariff to the US Government, and they will charge the tariff sum plus a processing fee from you. The exact amount of the processing fee depends on the shipment and the courier, but it's usually around 15-20 USD/shipment.

How is the tax percentage defined?

Even though this is advertised as a 15% blanket tariff, it isn’t exactly that. There are some additional regulations that further define it:

• If the product previously had a tariff that exceeded 15%, the higher percentage will be used (e.g. Särmä TST L3 Loft Jacket 27.7% will still be 27.7%). You can find how different materials, etc., affect the tariff on this US Government website.
• If the product previously had a tariff lower than 15%, it will now rise to 15% (e.g., L2 Merino Wool Thermal Long Johns had 5.6%, but now they will have 15%).
• If the product contains both metal and non-metal parts, the metal parts will have a 50% tariff and the other parts a 15% tariff.

Some products cannot be delivered to the USA

Because of this tariff hassle, we cannot ship some products to the USA at all. This includes, e.g., all products made in China and all foodstuffs, including Scho-Ka-Kola. We would really like to provide them for you, but it isn’t feasible at the moment. If we find a way, we’ll let you know immediately.

You don’t have to guess what these items are, because we have blocked their sale to the US on our webshop. 

How about the future?

We are still figuring out the best way to handle this tariff thing in the future. We want to make ordering to the US as smooth as possible. One option is that we ship under DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), meaning that tariffs and handling fees would already be included in the price you see. Another option is a landed-cost setup, where duties and taxes are calculated and charged at checkout. Either way, the idea is that you won’t have to deal with the customs paperwork or unexpected costs afterwards.

This is still under investigation, and we’ll update you once our new webshop is fully armed and operational and the process is clear. In any case, we won’t get your tariff money; it will go to the US Government.