The US postal service has stopped receiving parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong after US President Trump taxed buyers of goods from mainland China worth less than USD 800. Meanwhile, restaurants are surcharging egg-eaters. These are trivial issues, but they affect economic perceptions. Small parcels make up less than 5% of mainland China’s exports to the US, but individuals either do not receive those parcels or abruptly learn that tariffs are paid by consumers, not exporters. Egg prices were a key political issue, and some consumers (wrongly) use them as a measure of wider economic wellbeing.
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