johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

When tariffs are imposed on goods imported into the US what camera would you buy then?

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

You should buy the camera you wish to use. Tariffs will need to be applied to specific goods from specific countries and only with specific justification - we are a member of an organization called the World Trade Organization, which has the ability of levying huge fines to nations who violate trade agreements. Any tariff has to be justified - such as a tariff on imported Chinese steel because we can document that they are dumping it at low prices on our markets. A lot of this gets silly and delves in to semantics. About ten years ago I recall reading in the same newspaper that the US was complaining to the WTO about unfair subsidies by the Brazilian government to their citrus growers which lowered the price of imported juice. In the same paper was an article about the US government purchasing $20 million worth of Florida orange juice because there was a surplus of oranges and the growers were hurting. So - go figure.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Like existing tariffs on goods, if expanded to include consumer cameras below a certain price point, it will be computed on a country by country basis as defined by Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). So, in theory it probably won't be a determining factor.

repleo Loc: Boston

Obviously you should buy the U.S. manufactured camera, which would be ..... ???? Kodak ???? Polaroid ??? OOH - I know - Apple iPhone!

Joe Blow

Why, is some country dumping cameras onto the US market?

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

True, and the Tariffs are applied for a reason. In the case of Canon and Nikon, Japan has most favored nation status with the US. This means that the tariff is about 2.3%. This rate is the same as most other Asian countries. As stated by others, the idea of Tariffs is to "even" the field. A few years ago, Brazil was caught flooding the market with oranges. The influx of extremely cheap oranges that were coming in below the cost of production by US orange growers caused the US Growers to start using their Orange Grove land for other purposes and also to have oranges rotting in the fields. The World Trade Organization fined Brazil and forced other remedies. Now, the issue of Grey Market is that a camera store in, we'll say Australia, purchases 500 Nikon D850 cameras, knowing that they can only sell 100. They turn around and sell the other 400 to a grey market buyer who then sells the camera in the United States as grey market. In this instance, Nikon says that the grey market group that purchased the camera from a Nikon Dealer is the end user and any sales after that point are selling a USED camera and thus NOT covered by warranty. Often times the grey market deal may be used to circumvent the tariffs on a country like Iran that does NOT have most MFT with the US. However, what some Non-Authorized dealers are doing is buying the extra cameras from Authorized Camera dealers (this action, in Nikon and Canon's view makes the secondary purchaser the end user) and thus they are selling used cameras as new.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Tarriffs are imposed by most if not all countries.
They make home manufactured goods competative (But the US and UK are mainly service industries now)
They can make exports seem cheaper.if sold to a 'favoured country' or one with lower tarriffs.
They can slow down the movement of currency out of the country, by making imports more costly. So less consumers buying ANY.
Oil Tarriffs were used by the US to attempt to stop Japan expanding their influence. Pearl Harbour was their answere......So tarriffs can be used as a threat too.

The EU was designed to reduce this 'bad neighbour' 'good neighbour' stance by individual governments. It just led to the transfere of industrial production to the cheapest workforce. Cheaper imports mean that the 'cost of living' flattens out - so saving 'benefits' increases for an unemployed workforce and a depression on wage increases. That sound familiar.......!

When!!!we come out of the EU... UK Import duty is going to rocket....I bet the US will be asking for 'special' terms.....

have fun

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

If a strict tariff system were imposed on goods imported into the US, you might just see manufacturers returning to the US. Of course, everything will be more expensive then.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

tariffs like taxes are things we deal with.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Brexit is really handy if you want to buy from the UK now from an EU perspective. Sterling is now much closer to the euro in price. So its like 20-25% off from the price before brexit was announced. Last night was helping my landlord source a shower price here €265, UK price €155 + €17 to ship.
It's the exact same product made to the same standards produced in the same factory.

Unfortunately when the uk leaves the EU the price will probably raise by 23% as customs would add VAT to that price. In which case Germany or France or Spain or any other EU country will have the better deal. It's great having common standards and a common market.
Standards the uk will still have to meet and without any say in how these standards are arrived at.

It's interesting to see how low tax the US is for japanese imports, i'd expect to pay around 23% minimum on top of the japanese price which is a real shame as they have some nice kit well priced until you take duty into account.

Brexit is bad for everyone when it finally happens Eu population is around 511.8 million as of 1st of January 2017, around 66,181,585 live in the UK For the eu thats 66 million customers which may shop elsewhere to some degree but its closer to losing 450 million customers for the UK. Then there are a lot of EU services which are ran from the UK these will have to be redistributed within the EU too...


I really do not envy you one little bit, meanwhile I will take advantage of the current fire sale :)

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

Tariff's or Duty....in a nutshell, Duty is paid on ANY item bought or imported from overseas if it exceeds a certain amount...~$1600. A Tariff is used to restrict trade. When are Tariff's put on Cameras?

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

Had the EU stayed an 'Economic Association' the UK may well have stayed and rejected Brexit. Seems the EU has become more of a 'Social Experiment' than a political or economic union. Policy making has become more inter-governmental rather than between the governed and governors.....Running away from their own voters, European governments have invested the EU with seemingly absolute authority, centrally located in Brussels, and then behave as if they were not responsible for what it does. I don't envy those both in or out of the EU, when you surrender your sovereignty, you surrender it all and it has consequences. However, I'm sorry you have to pay such high taxes on quality Japanese optics. Cheers

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Tariffs are because they undercut American Mfg. Unless Argus or Kodak reopens in the USA we have no American camera maker.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I doubt any Kodak or Polaroid camera has been manufactured in the U.S. in the last 30 or 40 years... maybe longer. In fact, neither of them have even manufactured a camera in a long, long time. Both just slap their name on other peoples' products, outsourcing absolutely everything, usually from somewhere in Asia.

I know for certain that no iPhone is being made in the U.S. right now. They are designed and the software is written for them a few miles from me, here in Silicon Valley.... but the manufacture is done in Mongolia, China, Korea and Taiwan.

The only brand I can think of that MIGHT be manufacturing some cameras in the U.S. is "Red"... who make primarily high-end, pro-oriented video cameras.

Heck, even GoPRO are outsourced... they're made by Foxconn, which is based in Taiwan.