Electronics have already been named in the coming Trade Tariffs against China from the US.
Prices will climb quickly more than likely.
Sucks for us flashlight enthusiasts, not like we have a choice in where our products are made. (Surefire and Streamlight don’t really count, as one costs more than most of us like and the other has outdated emitters and technology)
Please don’t get all political as that won’t help.
It is what it is.
Eep!
Lucky us.
I have been watching this and now I am concerned
come on GT Team, Please!
now is not the time to stall!
I hope we can pay for the last round of BLF - GT’s…………. - ASAP
I am ready to pay the day the email comes
I have been waiting for months to get my hands on this awesome light
Here is the tariff list that came out today:
(lighting equipment UP 18.7% )
No one wins trade wars. Hopefully it is all for show.
dumb question but does this apply to packages labeled as “gifts”?
So a 20 dollar Convoy will now be $23.74? Not sure how this tariff will apply, if it will apply at all. In the US, we already have a $800 tariff free amount for individual purchases. I don’t know how the heck they would control individual purchases without restructuring US Customs in a big way.
Right now individual’s imports from most sources below a certain value come into the USA with no import duty being assessed, unlike most of the rest of the world. I have never been charged duty on anything from Europe or China that I have bought. For most personal purchases this may well continue based on the rationale that collecting duty on such packages costs more than they collect. Individual imports is not the problem. It is the literally billions of dollars in corporate imports caused by companies having moved their manufacturing to China by either going to contract manufacturing by Chinese companies or setting up joint venture manufacturing in China.
I agree. None of this will effect us buying our precious flashlights from Simon at Convoy. However, it might effect the cost of a flashlight being sold on Amazon FBA. (fufilled by amazon)
Our Supply Chain World we live in means as long as there are multiple sources, we should see prices remain steady as competition does what is is supposed to do: keep quality up and prices down.
But the same larger players at work here ALSO do not want us to get cheap (high quality) lights if they can (eventually) lock up the (any) market. Walmart/Wall Street has been “dumbing down” quality and producing landfill and repackaging 100 yr old OLD technology for TOP dollar (i.e. burning coal for Enron type scams Vs. pushing distributed solar) since I can remember (and I’m over 50).
Question: Where (in the world) can you find lights of this quality for anywhere NEAR what we are paying?
Answer: Nowhere… and in the US you will NEVER get this quality from Walmart or Home Depot who BOTH sell the worst quality junk in the market for any consumer or contractor respectively (and I am both).
Yes, there are a lot of junk lights out there too, but for about the SAME price (and with a little knowledge) we get great quality builds made by craftsmen with a drive to deliver a good, fair priced product— for now 
And we ALSO can get parts to improve them to our personal standards.
So for now, life is good but I have noticed recently that batteries are getting a lot harder to find (and ship) to the US specifically; so that is a concern for today- time will tell.
I’ll never put it past any politician (chose a party, they all do the same in my book) to NOT screw things up if they decide to “fix” something. :person_facepalming: And for decades… tariffs have been proven to be THE stupid thing to do here. The real question is who in the US (really) wants a trade war with China (and why are we going back to the dark ages with Draconian, outdated trade policies)? I hope I don’t find out in my lifetime; but I might with the dumb asses running things in the US lately. Not being political, but factual here… all politicians bow to the money, we all know that.
Net neutrality in the US is another BIG future scam of the same ilk- like toll roads in Texas, get ready to bend over for something that use to be free. Now a young person starting out in metropolitan Texas cities pays a fat, mega-rich (usually white) guy (who borrowed tax payer dollars at LOW interest to build toll roads Vs. public roads) to drive to work to make less adjusted income than WE did in 1980. Those toll roads are NAMED after these same politicians— coincidence? :question:
But if we are left alone to trade for a few % of our lights super-low cost (as we are today in the US anyway) and we are willing to learn (here and a few places) how to buy the “good stuff” :+1: - I’m happy to enjoy these little amazing devices while they are affordable and available. We (in the US) ARE voting with our dollars sent to China- not Walmart. Net result: we get QUALITY- not landfill. (sad but true).
I’m am happy to NOT live in a place where I don’t have options and must consume junk (and pay toll road fees to survive my job) and I also thank and respect the craftsmen who listen to us and improve this niche market we are enjoying. Let us hope it remains a viable and FREE market— like we used to have in the US years ago (and we do not today, OR we’d be buying these lights IN the US, right?).
Free trade is great as long as it’s really free, and if it were not for China (AND some smart folks here at BLF too)… this site (and our killer little lights) would not exist. We need each other to make it work, and so again: why the idiotic, non-capitalistic trade barriers and who’s big idea is this really? Answer: BIG $$$ :money_mouth_face:
If you want to control consumption through taxes, the easiest thing to do is target the materials (re)sellers and manufacturers in your country use and buy. They already have to declare their imports with customs. It’s pretty impossible to target specific consumer items. Unless you can open a few cans with customs officers. The end of the story is that what you buy directly from China won’t be affected that much. But the same stuff bought from US sellers will be! By supporting a technological outdated segment of industry, a lot of (my guess is: more) jobs in the trading and retail sectors will be at risc. A trade war only breeds losers on all sides. Don’t cut off the branch (of the tree) you’re sitting on.
Damn it the Sky is Falling again, :person_facepalming:
No, the Fall is now going to be Taxed
Love the “storm” reference. Sorta wondering why the truth media hasn’t used that clip yet lol! 10/10!
Well.
You lot have got a complete selfefacing idiot in charge. We in Australia have an arselicking, gutless, dollar driven fool.
What chance have we got till these idiots get gone.
Just sit back and cruise till they get swapped out.
and hope the Labor Wankers don’t get in here hey.
They even worse.
So looking forward to the GST on imports plus $5 customs charge! 
We need to send some of you guys to Washington. If we, as this community, can hash out a volatile subject like this without getting on each other’s nerves like we usually do, we need to be running this country. I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this place.
I was discussing this with someone I know yesterday, and we came up with an interesting scenario.
I’ll take solar panels as an example, since they’ve recently become cheap enough to compete with utility power in sunny areas, largely because of Chinese mass production.
If US import tariffs discourage US customers from buying Chinese solar panels, the Chinese aren’t going to slow down their factories, they’re going to look for new markets. We’ll have the same supply of solar panels being offered to fewer customers, i.e. the original pool of global customers, minus the US customers. Those remaining customers will then be able to hold out for lower prices.
The upshot is that even while US customers have to pay more because of the tariffs, customers in (say) Europe will end up paying less than they are now. In terms of competitive advantage, it’s a double whammy. The US is effectively handing savings to everyone else even as it penalises its own people.
I installed an 8200 KWH solar array in my property last August in Kansas- I bought all the parts and installed it all myself. Except for two days of contracted services (to help with setting the panels on the rails), I did all the work myself. I took my time carefully following all NEC rules and enforcing the structure (an RV barn I fortified and enclosed and used for mounting my East/West facing 24 340 watt panels) [corrected… thanks Tom Tom!]. Suffice it to say… I know the market as I shopped it for two months last spring 2017 as I progressed through my project.
I am frugal (why I am here) but for this project, I wanted good quality as I’m not willing to “fix” this solar system when it breaks. So I bought the top of the line stuff and the long and short is NONE of ANYTHING I used was sourced from China. In fact, of the several options I did look carefully over, the best gear came from Germany (inverters), or the US or Canada (panels). There were some well rated inverters coming out of China, but of the six or so panels- nothing from China had the track record or reputation as the US and Canadian panels did.
With that said… I am one of LESS that 700 solar users using “grid tied” solar for their home serviced by Westar— a multi-billion dollar electric company with over 750,000 customers here in Kansas. And… Westar is pushing HARD (and succeeding) in assessing solar users a fee (on top of their regular bill). We are waiting, but expecting a $50 monthly fee ($600 a year) to be added to our bill— JUST BECAUSE WE SUPPLEMENT OUR BILL WITH SOLAR. This is a penalty our state utilities commission IS ALLOWING this draconian company to assess less than .01% of their customers.
So I get a penalty for doing the right thing while Westar gets “energy credits” when THEY buy a wind turbine farm for a few hundred million in the form of cheap loans and tax credits. AND… they (*already) charge a premium to users to have “wind power” as their “guaranteed” (primary) source for their home electricity- total marking BS already starting up here.
So the story is once again: The Wall Street (big money) guys get all the bones while screwing the small local (independent) producers at the national (AND state levels) via POOR policy. My payback WAS 5.5 years, but with a new fee it will now be closer to 11 years (double). Now, If I wish to buy another $12k in batteries AND install them myself (Vs. TWO Tesla Power Walls for TWICE that), I can pay about the same money over time (but DYI all the way) and go OFF grid. I’m getting close to doing this but I’m waiting for the actual fee to hit before deciding.
At any rate… I despise my state right now for allowing such a shitty policy allowing the energy company to “treat me as hostile” for trying to do what we all keep saying we need to do on this planet. And you can save the BS argument over “fair costs per customer” which applies more to a coop, not a company (where losses exists in corners which LARGE tax credits are covering for THEM… while they SCREW me— legally).
Net, net… Westar GETS the energy credits to build more production AND charge me PREMIUM pricing (about 10 times the cost per KWH) for the little energy I draw (at about 17% today Vs. my original use before the solar array was turned on).
WHY is this happening? - because they want me to not think for myself, or do math. We independent thinkers are losing (in the US) to idiots (in all the corners) because big money (not our own tax payers) are deciding HOW the laws passed (for clean, renewable energy) get steered away from the “We The People” (of the US), to the BIG money players. Principled individuals are losing to the money— plain and simple folks.
This is a bad trend and it’s not going to get better here (or in Australia) any time soon. I do feel the door to China will close as soon as they can control it— and a “customs fee” sounds JUST like something we will see soon. So if we are buying a few hundred lights at a time, $5 means little. But a hosts, LED, and a few batteries that used to cost $25 will be harder to buy when it’s closer to $35 after customs fees (and lately shipping for batteries) kick in.
Caveat Emptor 