If you’re a China-based reader who enjoys buying imported products online, you might want to grab up the rest of your wish list right now before the price goes up. Rumors of an April tax hike on global ecommerce imports have been swirling in the industry for a few days now, and while no new policy has been officially announced, companies like Mia (a maternity products ecommerce site) say they’ve received preliminary notifications from China’s customs authorities.
Supposedly – and again, these numbers aren’t officially confirmed – the new rules would see both hikes and cuts across different product categories, so some companies would be worse off than others. Maternity/child products and food, for example, would reportedly be seeing an 11.9 percent tax hike. And makeup products worth less than US$15 would see a massive 32 percent tax hike. But other categories, like makeup worth more than US$15, would actually see cuts.
Still, if the hikes go through, it could be a tough adjustment for some consumers. Buying imported maternity products, for example, is extremely common in China – mothers want the best for their kids and believe foreign goods to be healthier and safer. But a nearly 12 percent import tax hike would significantly impact the price of those goods.
Of course, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt until Chinese authorities announce the official plan. It does seem likely a tax change of some kind is coming to import ecommerce, but it’s entirely possible that the numbers circulating online are incorrect.
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