Global mail deliveries to the US in limbo due to tariffs

The World

PRX

News, Lethaldissent

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some foreign shippers are suspending US package deliveries, as a customs tax exemption for low-value goods comes to an end this Friday. Also, a look at the status of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group’s operations in Mali. And, new mouth guards with flashing lights may be able to alert rugby players of potential concussions. Plus, Istanbul’s free public orchard allows visitors to pick their own produce.

Listen to today’s Music Heard on Air.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Carbon credits are meant to help you offset your emissions by investing in green projects,
0:11.0	but many of them are fraudulent.
0:13.0	I was one of the first people to really do a market-wide survey of carbon credits,
0:19.0	and what I found was really disturbing. I'm Carolyn Beeler. And I'm Marco Wurman, the reality of carbon credits. And what I found was really disturbing. I'm Carolyn Beeler.
0:22.1	And I'm Marco Werman, the reality of carbon trading. Also, three years ago, Russian mercenaries went to
0:27.3	West Africa to fight terrorism. That's not how things worked out with the Wagner group in Mali.
0:32.3	So it's really leading to chaos. Wagner has been an agent of chaos in Mali.
0:39.9	Plus, rugby is a rough game with lots of concussions. It's a common enough problem for the sport of rugby just because of the
0:45.3	physical high-collation nature of the sport. A small high-tech piece of gear aims to address the
0:50.7	problem. That's all ahead today, here on the world.
1:02.3	This is The World. I'm Carolyn Beeler. And I'm Marco Wurman. We are glad to be with you today.
1:07.0	If you're like me, you get a little boost when you get home and see a package waiting on your doorstep. Well, you might be getting fewer of them for a little while.
1:11.4	Some foreign postal services are hitting pause on deliveries to the United States because
1:15.3	this Friday, a customs tax rule that allowed businesses to avoid import tariffs for low-value
1:20.5	goods comes to an end. It's called the de minimis exemption and President Trump is getting
1:25.4	rid of it. We asked Andy Wu at the Harvard Business School to break it all down for us, starting with
1:30.8	which countries have suspended postal deliveries to the U.S.
1:35.6	We are seeing countries like Japan and Switzerland, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France,
1:41.5	Germany, India, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, pausing their
1:45.4	shipments. And it is going to change the nature of retailing and obviously our shipment process to
1:51.8	the United States. Also, DHS, a major international shipper, has also paused shipments, right?
1:57.8	Yes, that's right. So we're seeing pausing of shipments both from government
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.