Navigating US Tariffs as an International Seller — A Workaround and a Plea for Better Tools

[HatsForward]

Hi fellow sellers and Etsy team,

I wanted to share a recent experience that I hope can help other international sellers — and also highlight a much-needed area for improvement in Etsy’s global shipping framework.

At the end of August, I had to cancel 7 orders to the USA because I wasn’t yet set up with a proper solution for handling the new US tariff/duty requirements. It was a really difficult decision, but I didn’t want to risk non-compliance or surprise charges for my customers.

Thankfully, 4 of those customers asked me to reserve their items and were very understanding. That gave me the motivation to figure out a workaround, even without platform support.

What I Did:

• I got set up with Zonos (for direct billing of duties and taxes) and verified and integrated with Canada Post for shipping on their platform.

• I created dozens of duplicate shipping profiles within Etsy to reflect estimated tariff costs based on various items with different Country of Origin (COO) and item price.

• Since it’s impossible to assign a precise tariff per item (especially for vintage), I rounded down the estimated tariff I will charge my US customer, adding it into shipping costs - therefore any extra tariff amount will be covered by us directly. It’s not perfect, but it’s transparent and fair for US buyers.

• I communicated all of this directly with the customers who had their orders canceled — and 3 of them immediately reordered and were thrilled I’d found a way to ship again.

My Concerns:

While this workaround is working for now, it’s time-consuming, clunky, and frankly — not scalable or fair to sellers who may not have the bandwidth or knowledge to navigate this themselves.

Etsy currently lacks tools to collect and remit US tariffs/duties on behalf of international sellers, the way it already does for VAT, GST, etc. This leaves us exposed, having to navigate compliance ourselves, with no official support or clarity.

My Ask:

Please, Etsy — consider implementing a transparent tariff collection system for US-bound orders, similar to what’s already in place for other countries. Even offering a Zonos integration, or a setting where Etsy could collect tariffs at checkout (when applicable), would make a huge difference.

In the meantime, I’m hopeful my first few orders under this new system go smoothly. I’d love to hear from other sellers dealing with this too — let’s help each other figure it out while pushing for platform-level solutions.

Thanks for reading!

[AutumnHollowStudio]

Etsy can't do this because the tariffs are not like US sales tax or VAT. The tariffs have to be paid through the shipping courier, similar to how customs duties are paid upon receipt when a US seller sends a package to the UK (for example). Only our government wants those fees pre-paid before it reaches here, which is where things get complicated.

I know this is a mess and it's frustrating and debilitating to many Etsy shops outside the US, but Etsy can't collect these fees on behalf of anyone

[GhostCustomGuitars]

Absolutely right, it’s not an Etsy problem. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@HatsForward 

Customs duties into the USA are billed to the shipper, by CBP, when they go through customs, long after the sale has happened

Etsy is not a shipper, there is no mechanism for them to be billed, when they don't actually put anything through customs - it's the shipper who interacts with customs that is billed.

it is completely different to sales tax (and VAT), which are sales taxes on the items that are sold on etsy's platform, at the time they are sold, and remitted with tax returns

They are two completely different types of things

.......

tariffs and duties are due everywhere, always, it's not a new thing, etsy has never done it, anywhere

even with the vat, which is sales tax, it's only collected up to the threshold before duties/tariffs are due, once duties/tariffs are due, etsy doesn't collect any of it, vat or duties/tariffs.

[HatsForward]

Etsy usually likes to stay competitive with other marketplaces.  eBay has come up with an International Selling program - they are planning to launch in October:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/eBay-International-Shipping-is-coming-to-Canada-this-fall...

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Ebay has had an international shipping service for a long time

They just adding on to whatever they already have.

they call it the global shipping programme in the UK, and they have always handle customs etc. into the USA, and everywhere else

Looks like Canada is just late to their party

[LePourquoiDuComment]

it sounds like Ebay is looking at what Etsy does and does just the opposite ! 

[VintagePeatCottage]

I am a UK seller selling low value vintage items worldwide. About Half my customers are from the US. The UK royal mail has stopped all parcels to the US. I am using the courier Evri, but they are having to comply with the new US tariffs and demanding tariffs plus administrative costs from my customers. I have looked into what paying these taxes myself would cost. For an item selling for about £10, Evri wanted £9. For an item costing about £75, they wanted nearly £40. I can't charge anymore for these items to cover these high tariff charges because not all my customers are in the US. I have given it a go, but will have to stop shipping to the US because the administrative time spent trying to deal with these tariffs is ridiculous. None of my items can be made in the USA because they are vintage! Not sure what the tariffs are trying to achieve except taxing US citizens and reducing their choice of goods to buy.

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

Royal Mail has not stopped sending packages to the US. 

[BeachFindsByEllice]

It's very easy for Etsy to solve this. 

Etsy could add a dropdown menu in the shipping profile for the country "United States" ranging from 0% to 100% of the total amount. This way, for example, sellers from Europe could indicate "15%," sellers from Canada "25%," sellers from the UK "10%," and so on. Very clear for the customer, very clear and convenient for the sellers. 

And let me be clear: collecting these fees is, of course, not Etsy's job. I know that. But helping sellers with this (with helpful tools, for example) is Etsy's job; there's no need to pretend otherwise. See eBay, Amazon, etc.

I sincerely hope that a solution will be found very soon, as sales in all my stores have dropped by an average of around 40% as a result.

[KanjaniCraft]

Exactly this.

We just need an add-on to the shipping costs which varies the tariff collected depending on the total price, and is only applied to products shipping to the United States.

for my UK products, and products with variations which vary in price, the shipping automatically adjusts but always remains a set percentage of total value of product purchased. 

and with my China-made products I can set the correct tariff percentage cost which again would automatically adjust the tariff collected by total value of product purchased.

(that is literally what the postal service is doing).

we receive the full amount and remit the tariff via our postal service. Nobody is asking Etsy to collect or remit tariffs. The postal services that are willing to are doing that, and the ones that are not willing to have stopped shipping to the US.

Job done.

[KanjaniCraft]

Anyone else notice how the postage price has been dropped from RM labels, but only for items going to the US? Lol.

[DollyDangles]

You have to have a business account for Royal Mail to have DDP .