Tariff Terrors: What Happens to the Merch?

 By now, probably everyone has heard of and been worried about 'the tariffs'.
It's a serious problem for like...literally everybody it seems like? However, merchandise collectors (and producers) require special concern. So, sad as it is, a Sonic Merch blog has to sit here and talk about tariffs rather than having fun announcing new stuff. There may be a glimmer of hope among the madness though, so read onward for the quick summary of frights.

What is a Tariff?
It is a special tax applied to an item that is not made inside the country it is to be sold in.
When an item arrives in the destination/to-be-sold-at country, a fee is charged & collected by the country. It is then kept by the government which spends it as it sees fit, as it does with all money it gets.
Why is a Tariff?
A tariff is applied to an item to encourage the country buying to be also the country making the item
It is also applied to get money for the government and to break up competition and undercutting

Normally tariffs aren't something anyone considers.
When they are used responsibly, competition continues, prices are pretty normal across the board for countries and everyone is generally ok. Even with tariffs applied, it is still cheaper to get certain things from certain countries such as Computer Chips of Certain Complexity because some countries already have huge expensive factories set up to make them, while others don't. Also, when regarding the USA, items that many people want such as coffee, literally cannot grow inside the geographic area. It MUST be bought from outside the country, and no amount of discouragement nor tariff-ing can cause a plant to do something different. It's the same with certain trees, and minerals and such that only appear in the soil of other countries. They must be imported because of the geographic locations. 

How about that Sonic stuff then?
Well as you probably can guess most of it is 'made in china'. And then, of course, most of the photos sent to Gear are for stuff that's sold in the USA or co-sold elsewhere too...because the site is in English (most likely) but the whole world does use Gear (which is great) So, understandably, when some very very rotten leadership comes up and ruins the relation with 105% tariffs on China...the outlook for actually getting any more merch over here is extremely grim. Everyone, every factory knows that no one will pay double or triple the price for toys/etc. 
Sonic stuff is...well, let's face it, a luxury good. It's not food, it's not gas or housing. It's a luxury and if this badness keeps up the shelves of everywhere are going to be empty. But also if it keeps up, no one will have any money to buy anything with anyway because it turns out the whole globe is connected with stuff that everyone else needs and a lot of the jobs were kind of dependent on lots of other places/items/jobs/services. 

On hold:
Literally nothing like this has ever happened before because generally the entire (most of) government is not insane. But now apparently it IS insane, and no one has yet stepped up to say "putting every single person except like 8 guys in the usa out of a job is a very bad idea". Like, why are grownups like this? I hate it that someone is allowed to ruin everything like this.
So, with tariffs set at over 100% and usa officials being racist at China to further egg them onto hating trade, the outlook seems grim. However, it is this absurdity, this wild madness that is the glimmer of hope because it creates a catastrophe rather than some slow decline into "all stores are closed and all shelves are bare but it took 5 years to do it and now everybody's homeless". Catastrophes are BAD all at once, and loud and more likely to be stopped than slow declines.

So, anyone in toys like Jakks Pacific or etc. have put their stuff on hold.
Basically don't send it over (or the tariff will hit it and it'll become un-sell-able) but don't cancel everything and close up shop. Sell whatever's here now normally and wait for something to give. It's only a few days in to the tariff terrorizing so far, and because this has never happened in history nobody knows what will happen or how to behave. Companies big and small are attempting to weather the storm.

China is the biggest Sonic stuff producer, but the USA was also its biggest Sonic stuff buyer. So while items like the TapiMovi Tapi Tienda Argentina Sonic coloring paints set was made in China and sold in Argentina, that will continue normally because Argentina has no beef with China. However, losing the USA for some companies that make their stuff in China may end them. Hopefully however this madness gets stopped before there's too much damage for everyone.

I wish we had a hero, I wish we had Sonic. I want everyone to be ok.
I want to have fun again.