Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

404 Media: “The Trump administration’s tariff regime and the elimination of fee exemptions for items under $800 is limiting resource sharing between university libraries, trapping some books in foreign countries, and reversing long-held standards in academic cooperation. “There are libraries that have our books that we’ve lent to them before all of this happened, and now they can’t ship them back to us because their carrier either is flat out refusing to ship anything to the U.S., or they’re citing not being able to handle the tariff situation,” Jessica Bower Relevo, associate director of resource sharing and reserves at Yale University Library, told me. After Trump’s executive order ended the de minimis exemption, which allowed people to buy things internationally without paying tariffs if the items cost less than $800, we’ve written several stories about how the decision caused chaos over a wide variety of hobbies that rely on people buying things overseas, especially on Ebay, where many of those transactions take place…”

Posted in: Censorship, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries