A chicken ranch… 
Mmm… hot!
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I started a conversation regarding the tariff issue with my Mumbai based vendor back in June. He advised buying as much as possible. At first I thought it might be a sales pitch to score a big sale. But, now in hindsight it looks like he was being quite honest.
We are fortunate to have such good resources in India out there. I’m sure this is just a temporary hurdle. I’ve been purchasing marijuana seeds from overseas sources for 30 years. I’ve had so many customs seizures with the dreaded yellow seizure note in my opened packages. But, something has always made it through. So, weird to have cannabis legal now in Michigan and I can just place an order online from my local dispensary and then pick it up.
Perhaps that will be what happens with Rapamycin? The way Texas is making Ivermectin an over the counter drug?
The other thing I was happy to get this summer was my Covid booster due to a trip to south America. I’m a 63 year old school teacher and it sure feels good to be boosted as school starts. The young ones may not even get symptoms and recover quickly.
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Of course they won’t know if it’s a “bona fide” gift unless they open the package.
As you know, I have tried several different vendors over the last four years, and I remember more than one that put “Gift” on the label. It will be interesting to see if more vendors resort to this tactic.
True, but I have to wonder if someone in either the India postal system or US customs is going to be at all suspicious if “gifts” that used to make up 1% of the shipments are suddenly 95% of the incoming shipments
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Great I had just placed my order on Friday last week so who knows if I will get it at all now.
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I’m in the exact same boat 
. So far, Jagdish hasn’t offered a refund.
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There is some hope that people will get a reprieve from the trump tarrif and tax chaos
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, US appeals court rules
But not all the chaos…
Finally, the “de minimis” exemption was officially eliminated on Friday, so imports valued at $800 or less are now subject to tariffs and duties, another blow to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, and a part of Trump’s trade agenda that appears safe from court action.
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Perhaps a small amount of light in all this darkness… If they ever do resume shipments, the rupee exchange rate is getting better for those in the USA: (88 rupees to the us $ now)
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I find it interesting that there is no political backlash against this situation. The more restrictive FDA approach to medication imports by individual private parties for their own use, combined with this package madness means there’s potential for many people, especially the elderly to not be able to afford their meds. Presumably older voters and in places like Florida skew right, and it’s their party that’s putting the heavy hand of government on their healthcare choices. You’d think they’d let their reps know. But hey, maybe they like the other things so much they’re willing to suffer. Wonders never cease.
Anyhow, this is early days and things are in flux. Water will always find its level, workarounds will be found, it just takes time. If you can get illegal drugs into maximum security prisons, I don’t see why life saving or life enhancing medications can’t get into the hands of the motivated buyer.
My question is how long before this situation resolves itself in some way. Because I could very well see a situation where there is constant change and chaos, and no “new normal”. That would be the worst scenario. We’ll see. It’s too early to panic, seems to me, BWDIK.
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My last package from India made it to “Inbound into customs” on Aug 27 and was still stuck there on Aug 29, so I figured it would be subject to the new tariff (or returned to India Post, since the tariff was not prepaid by India Post).
However, on Aug 31, the tracking updated directly to “Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility” completely skipping the “Inbound out of customs” step that should normally be present. I guess I got lucky or someone in customs didn’t want to deal with these orphaned packages.
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I find a great deal of self-deception in the group you’re wondering about. I am astounded at their capacity to blame anything negative on previous presidents or other nations. This is not a rational identity group, at least when it comes to these issues.
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According to the NYT, Trump, in his grandiose way, wanted Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, supposedly for bringing an end to the recent skirmish between India and Pakistan. Modi, who has his own concerns about his image at home and abroad, said that Trump had nothing to do with the cease-fire. Whereupon Trumped slapped India with a 50% tariff. How this gets resolved, if ever, is am open question.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/us/politics/trump-modi-india.html
If the Supreme Court takes the case and follows the statutes of the law, the tariffs will be declared beyond the scope of presidential power. But this is the same Supreme Court that allowed the DOGE boys to access our Social Security data.
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A supplier just told me he can use India Post to ship again. Let’s roll the dice and see how this goes.
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Hmm, India Post doesn’t have a press release or X post confirming this. 15 hours ago they said nothing has changed. I smell a scam.
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My guy was talking up Dubai, but then he fell into a black hole, the black hole of Calcutta.
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I’d wait until there is more clarity and some official statements from India Post. It’s too risky atm. I think. At least speaking for myself, I’m going to wait a goodly amount of time for reports that things have stabilized to a “new normal” before attempting another order (I don’t have any urgent need for meds right now anyhow). YMMV.
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Agree. I’m sticking with the Dubai guys until I see a press release. India Post guy wouldn’t answer my follow up questions directly.
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Thanks for being the guinea pig.
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There is a specific procedure for dealing with this new reality.
The main thing is the shipping company needs to do DDP - (Delivery duty paid) and use a broker, either an out-side or in-house broker to deal with the payment to the US gov. A vendor will need to register their products with the broker prior to shipping, This would be a 1 time thing for each product.
The other issue is an HS code, you won’t be able to export without one. This code was not required under de minimus. Harmonized System (HS) Codes
My shipper is going through this now as they had been shipping under the de minimus process. All the big companies already are set up to handle DDP and HS codes.
If a company is not going to find a shipper that can handle these aspects, they will not be shipping anything to the US.
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