The Guardian phrases its description of what the EU is doing more sympathetically – “EU introduces €3 customs charge on small parcels to curb cheap Chinese imports” – but the end result is the same.
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EU introduces €3 customs charge on small parcels to curb poor people being able to afford thingsJune 29th, 2026 |
 15 comments to EU introduces €3 customs charge on small parcels to curb poor people being able to afford thingsLeave a Reply |
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I know that in britain EU taxes are nothing new; but I seem to remember that before 1776 one of the triggers of the Revolutionary Unpleasantness here in North America was the concept of “taxation without representation” imposed on us. Ah, the good old days!
Subotai Bahadur
How will this help local manufacturing?
The horse has bolted.
If it’s similar to the USA situation:
China ships goods here subject to duties and tariffs and taxes. There has always been a de minimus exemption – under $25 or so, no charge.
So the Chinese, being intelligent, stopped packing things together for the border crossing, and everything started coming in individually, and they bypassed the charges. Added up to a big chunk of money.
(When they fixed it, someone called it the Temu Tax.)
bobby b – yes.
As you know another scam was to send People’s Republic of China goods to third countries (for example Mexico) put a “made in ….” label on them – and then import them to the United States.
The “private business enterprises” of the PRC serve the interests of the state (if they do not – then the senior managers are killed) just as the “private business enterprises” of 1930s Germany did (as both Hayek and Mises pointed out) – the PRC does not care that-much if these enterprises make a profit – as long as they serve the purpose of destruction of Western industries. It is economic warfare – and has been for a long time.
However, if people are just buying trivial (“cheap tat”) goods, then it could be argued that cheap PRC imports should not be taxed – as no important Western industry is being destroyed.
Overall a better strategy would be to make the West competitive again – that could be done by repealing the “laws” (state interventions) that encourage “Collective Bargaining” (union sabotage, para military “picket lines” and so on, are not really pushed in the PRC) and greatly reducing taxes and energy costs – by greatly reducing government spending and “Green” regulations.
Sadly there is little chance of that happening in European nations – although President Trump has taken some action (not enough – but some, as much as he could do with a non functioning United States Senate) in the United States – on taxes, on energy costs, and on regulations.
Subotai Bahadur – the European Union would answer you by pointing to the “European Parliament” and claiming that people are represented – by elections to this body.
Many would argue that this is really “fig leaf democracy” – but even at national level policy tends to get decided by an establishment of unelected officials and “experts” with national Parliaments (such as Westminster) acting as a “rubber stamp” – and even in the United States the Senate has shown itself to be dysfunctional, the “Republican Majority” not really operating.
Of course, when and if the Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate all these “ancient Senate rules” (which can not be found in the United States Constitution – they are not there) will vanish – and the Democrat majority in the Senate will do anything it likes.
“Country Club Republicans” do not really care about getting things done, they just want to have a comfortable life – but the Democrats (like the atheist PRC – and like the Islamic powers) care very much about getting things done.
The good (or what passes for the good) lack all conviction – and the evil are filled with passionate intensity (hat tip to W.B, Yeats).
“Country Club Republican” is an obsolete term.
…in the U.S. the rank and file of the GOP are increasingly men and women in the trades and associated pursuits. The working class, if you will (although that’s also an obsolete term). Country club membership is, increasingly, more likely to be dominated by Democrats/leftists/progressives.
It’s a different world here, has been for some time. The time of the Country Club Republicans vs. Blue Collar factory workers is very long gone. The old terms and definitions no longer apply.
IrishOtter49 – the sort of Senators who do nothing in the Senate is what I meant by “Country Club Republicans”, they do not represent Republican voters – but they exist.
In the old days there never really was a clash between Country Club Republicans and Blue Collar factory workers (although the Democrats pretended there was) – as Karl Marx was wrong and the long term interests of both were the same, however there NOW may be such a clash – a political clash, not really an “economic class” clash.
There is indeed more of a class clash between “taxpayers and taxeaters” – a much older (and truer) “class theory” that the ideas of Karl Marx and the “relations of production”.
Cheap Chinese imports don’t appear to have made Europe any richer. I appreciate that correlation is not causation, but the years of Chinese manufacturing ascendancy have been years of wage stagnation in Europe.
Remember that every ‘cheap’ Chinese item was made using coal-fired power, in conditions which would be illegal in Europe and with no unions (OK, one fake union). And, depending on the industry, with vast state subsidy too.
The libertarian argument in favour of cheap Chinese imports is as bogus as that which says European farmers must compete with overseas rivals who have carte blanche to mistreat animals and use whatever chemicals they like.
Paul Marks:
In America the term “Country Club Republicans” has fallen into disuse, to the extent that it has virtually disappeared. Now we call such folk “RINOs”.
I know what I’m talking about. I live here — in a bright red state, Indiana. I was raised in a family of Midwestern “small town Republicans,” the best kind. They vastly outnumbered the Country Club Republicans.
Lincoln was a founding member of the small town Republican movement, and Illinois (where I grew up) was the birthplace of such. My grandfather, the son of a German immigrant, who spoke German most of his life and sent his sons (including my father) to Lutheran grade schools where German only was spoken from Kindergarten through 8th grade, was archetypal in this regard. His immigrant father and mother cordially but vigorously disliked Democrats and the Democrat Party, whom they correctly saw as being (among many distasteful things) the party of disunion/civil war and slavery and big city corruption. Class warfare was not an issue for them. They didn’t give a hoot or a holler for Marx or his ridiculous theories. Midwestern German immigrants were the backbone of the abolitionist movement; they voted for Lincoln and served in the Union Army in large numbers. I think of these German small town Republicans as a sort of moral backbone of this country and I’m proud of to be descended from them.
My mother was Irish, and that’s a whole ‘nother story. But being as she grew up in the same small town as my father, she also voted Republican. Her family fancied themselves as Lace Curtain Irish and certainly were that in terms of manners, and they had no use for the ill-mannered shanty Irish in distant Chicago. To them the slavery issue and the fair treatment of blacks was primarily a matter of good manners, which was (thankfully) of paramount importance to them.
There may be a test on this.
IrishOtter49 – I am happy to use the term RINO – and, if you recall, have often used it.
You are correct about small town German-American Republicans – for example the two counties in Texas that voted against “FDR” in 1936 were (and are) dominated by such people.
They are far more J.S. Bach than Karl Marx. J.S. Bach as in creative (although, obviously, not as creative as him), honest, family men (he had ten children – three of who became composers themselves), hard working (but not hard work for the sake of it – working hard to achieve planned goals), and, yes, quietly pius – believers, but in a calm manner.
However, my favorite 19th century Republicans in terms of policy were men of rather different culture – such as Senator Roscoe Conkling.
I am part Irish (the other side of my family) – perhaps the Jewish side produces the intellectual doctrines, and the Irish side gets riled up by people disagreeing.
Marius – you are correct about coal energy, and about lack of union POWER in China. Workers associations are about welfare provision in China – if someone in China said “let us go on strike – picket the front gate of the factory, prevent anyone working…” they would get vivisected – their organs would be donated whilst they were still alive – well alive at the start of the process.
There need to be a mid point here – between the cruelty of the People’s Republic of China (towards people or animals) and the insane antics of the modern West.
For example, unions should not be banned – but nor should they be given powers.
As for the modern Western practice of giving preferential treatment to people of certain races, or to women, or to the disabled, or to people who practice what used to be called sexual perversions – the Chinese have invented a new word (and character in Chinese writing) for this – it means “white leftist”. Someone who does not care about merit – about ability to do the job.
For a Chinese to use this word about another Chinese is considered a deadly insult – of course using the word to describe non-Chinese is fine.
Indeed Paul, the term is Baizuo (白左) and funnily enough I sometimes use the term myself 😀
Thank you Perry.