Does anyone know about this program that is putting American business at a severe disadvantage? Apparently this was an eBay "innovation" that results in all American's subsidizing Chinese imports.
It costs roughly the same amount to make PCBs in the USA as in China. But it's 10x cheaper to ship a small amp or a PCB board from China to the USA than to my neighbor next store. Try shipping 4lbs with tracking and 6 day delivery for $2 (they may actually pay less) -- in the USA or to anywhere in the world. Have you tried ordering a $2 item from China and had it delivered with no shipping charge?
Today I sent a priority ENVELOPE to Taiwan. Cost me $25.00. 4 pieces of paper.
W.T.F.
Make no mistake. I love working with the Chinese. They are hard-working and in my experience, honest and kind. For goods requiring lots of hand-work and metal finishing, it's hard to be cost competitive on the manufacturing side in the USA.
But even if you make the goods in China... ePacket means you cannot economically ship them back to the USA and then ship them to customers. You basically have to setup a warehouse in China and ship from there.
I think this sucks.
