Thursday, 6/26

I don't know if we'll get a medal or not, but Loraine and I have become casualties of the trade war.

As you may be aware, Loraine and I kinda like Europe. During the years we don't travel over there (like this year) we'll buy stuff from some of our favorite places, just to make sure they don't forget us. So far this year we've purchased chocolate, soccer jerseys, more chocolate, a couple of music CDs, and even more chocolate, all without incident.

And then came the soccer ball.

We saw a neat looking ball made by Derbystar, the official ball supplier of the German Bundesliga, and decided to treat ourselves to it. It was actually fairly inexpensive, especially for a soccer ball, with a cost (in US dollars) of about 45 bucks, plus shipping. We were looking forward to playing with it, but then a week after we ordered it we received an e-mail from DHL, telling us they had paid the $20.09 tariff on the ball, and if we wanted it we needed to reimburse them.

Yikes.

With all the crap going on these days we knew this would probably happen one day. In fact, we noticed that some of the chocolate we had recently purchased was more expensive than usual, probably to make up for the tariffs that are now applied to (seemingly) everything. But Derbystar apparently didn't add the taxes to our order, so when DHL put the package through Customs they were charged an (almost) 50% tariff, which they then passed along to us.

All for a cute soccer ball.

As you know, I try to steer clear of politics in here, because we're 1). inundated enough with it in the real world, and b). it's divisive. No matter what you say, half the people reading will disagree with you, and start leaving spammy comments. But an (almost) 50% tariff on a soccer ball? Really? There's so much more I could say about that, but I'm following my own rule, and keeping my mouth shut.

After all, I'm not an idiot.

The soccer ball should be here in a few days, and the we'll get to kick it around. We'll just have to remember that it's our special soccer ball, the first victim we've met of our (for better or worse) brand-new trade war.

(jim@wmqt.com)