If you look at this in broad terms, most of the rules and regulations around importation into this country were already in effect, and use, long before this. Receivers of large bulk container sea shipments and users of other methods have been dealing with these customs regulations all along, and they've always been complex, and--above the de minimis rate of $800--there have always been tariffs. For them, what has changed is the rates. The rules and regs have barely changed, if at all. And the US has based its importation duties on where the product was manufactured, not where it was shipped from. So, none of that is terribly new.

For the individual modeler, we have been become accustomed to ordering and receiving items by mail under de minimis. And de minimis is now going away, which is a political issue which we've certainly expressed ourselves about here. Like it or not, it is happening, however. That now affects a group of consumers who formerly were blissfully unaware of any of the details our customs policies. All you the consumer really need to focus on are the details that apply to your situation. And, since this is being executed through the shipping companies (who frankly all have their own brokerages because they routinely deal with not just our importation rules, but the differing rules of most nations on the planet) you, the consumer, don't really even need to know the details if you don't want to. Hannants notes they have similar data for some other countries. In the business they're in, dealing with the actual shipping of their product entails dealing with these issues.

It only looks like it does to you since you are now newly aware due to the loss of de minimis. Most of our customs procedures are not new. Fiddling with the global economic situation is not new. All that's new is that your attention has been drawn to the matter.