Trump’s Tariffs Hit Northern Isles Online Sellers

The tariffs imposed by the US President Donald Trump are impacting online sales in the Northern Isles with businesses no longer able to post products purchased by consumers to the US. The Ness of Brodgar online shop published the following information: We can no longer accept orders to customers in the USA and EU. Dealing…

theorkneynews

August 26, 2025

2–3 minutes

Jamieson & Smith, Ness of Brodgar, News, tariffs, trade, Trump, US

The tariffs imposed by the US President Donald Trump are impacting online sales in the Northern Isles with businesses no longer able to post products purchased by consumers to the US.

The Ness of Brodgar online shop published the following information:

We can no longer accept orders to customers in the USA and EU.

Dealing with tariffs, customs duties and other regulations has become increasingly difficult and we cannot guarantee customers in those areas will receive their orders from us. We’re very sorry this is the case and hope the situation improves soon.

You can still support us by donating and sponsoring a find and we are still happy to accept orders from the UK, Canada, Australia and anywhere outside the EU and USA.

And Jamieson and Smith, famous internationally for its wool published this statement:

USA Customers

�� Please note: Posting to the USA is temporarily suspended. Our USA stockists remain unaffected.

For more information see our delivery information page.

Jamieson and Smith still post orders to the EU, however, because the UK left the world’s largest free trade area customers in the EU now have to pay import VAT (and customs duties, if payable) and a handling fee. This also means that deliveries are slowed up.

Despite the spin and the grovelling of UK Labour PM Keir Starmer , the 10% tariff imposed by Trump still applies to most goods from the UK. Before Trump started his Tariff Trade war the tax charged by the US on goods from the UK (with some exceptions) was only about 2.2%. The UK exports more to the US than to any other country.

” In 2024, UK exports to the US were worth more than £59 billion, 16% of all UK goods exports. The next largest market is Germany which accounted for £32 billion of goods exports (9% of the total). The UK exported £174 billion of goods to the EU as a whole in 2024 (48% of the total).” – House of Commons Library.

None of this is good for business, especially small businesses and organisations. Posting anything to EU countries now involves customs declarations and other paper work, because we are no longer a member of that Free Trade Area. No wonder Scotland with the fantastic trading links it had with European countries, voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the EU.

It’s bad news for US consumers where Inflation has soared. Trump’s popularity ratings have hit an all time low and the big pledge to release The Epstein Files has not been honoured.

Dump Trump no kings placard at the Ring of brodgar

Fiona Grahame

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2 responses to “Trump’s Tariffs Hit Northern Isles Online Sellers”

Posting to the US – The Orkney News

August 29, 2025 at 8:14 am

[…] Trump’s Tariffs Hit Northern Isles Online Sellers […]

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SJ Mitchell

September 1, 2025 at 12:01 pm

It’s a technicality, but actually the difficulties with posting are not due to tariffs. Tariffs are essentially taxes applied to imports. It is certainly true that the US has begun to deploy tariff changes at speed and changeability that is unprecedented in nearly a century, and that this destroys business certainty, as well as consumer choice and generally bottlenecks international business of all sizes, particularly those smaller businesses without the time or energy to respond to it all.

The present difficulties, though, are not specifically about tariffs. They are about customs practices, where it was usual until very recently for there to be an exception from much of the paperwork and hassle of crossing borders, for small parcels generally understood to be for ‘personal use’by individuals. This ‘de minimis’ exception was seen to be proportionate for folk going on holiday, far-flung family sending gifts, and the like.

What really brought on the elimination of this de minimis exception is not the latest ‘trade war’ by the now-President of the US; it is, actually, a worldwide response to the boom in small parcels, many of which have been increasingly used for shipping counterfeits, products which do not meet consumer safety or health or environment standards of the country to which they are posted, not to mention other even more nefarious items or substances. A decade or more ago this might have been called the ‘Ali Baba effect’, after the gigantic China-based online marketplace; now perhaps it is the ‘Shein’ or ‘Temu’ effect, but there are so many purveyors of so many items that it may not be very helpful to tar one marketplace with this brush. It is, actually, a response to the explosion of e-commerce.

If you’ve read this far, you may feel the need to get out more. I probably should. And whilst I understand the emotions this mess creates, I prefer to direct the emotions to the most accurate target.

Many postal services will no longer ship to the US, and I do not see this situation improving soon, sadly. It is true that US tariff wars are not good for businesses or people more generally — but it is also true that there are other problems that affect businesses and people too, and customs charges and complexity fall in that basket.

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