America is the land of consumers. This country enjoys wealth and prosperity like no other country in the world. We have some contemporaries, but they are not quite on our level. The UK and parts of Europe have similar living standards but are less wealthy than the average American, by and large. Americans have an addiction to shopping. We like to shop. We like spending money on things. We also like cheap goods. And that’s something that can be good or bad. It does drive innovation. People like to feel like they’re getting a deal or a bargain on items they purchase. This drives market competition which is healthy. It’s a weird trait that Americans have; I mean, you only need to look at Amazon and how many filters for price, style, size, color, etc. exist there. The thing is. Our desire for cheap goods and our love for shopping is well-known in other parts of the world. It’s a trope. “Fat, greedy Americans you like to buy cheap goods and eat greasy cheeseburgers!” But I’m not here to talk about the food. I’m here to talk about Temu and Shein. But for simplicity’s sake, I’ll lump them together and call them Temu. Temu is a website that engages in several unethical business practices utilizing slave labor, abusing the De Minimis exception (I’ll explain later) and the newest member of “things I hate” club, Dumping.
The slave labor part is… “Under suspicion”, meaning it can’t be proven with a great degree of certainty, but I have my suspicions what China is reportedly doing to the Uyghur Muslims. Well, it’s horrific. (I’ll link a couple of articles here to show what I’m talking about). And it’s definitely something to consider when you’re purchasing on Temu. Let me dive deeper here. Temu buys products made in China, I’ve wrote in the past about how the CCP doesn’t give one single solitary crap about the Chinese people and companies like Temu exploit that. If the reporting on the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims is to be believed, then this takes an even more disturbing turn. Are cheap products worth exploiting actual Chattel slavery? (Pro-tip: they’re not.) There are some efforts in congress to get answers as to whether or not the Uyghur Muslims are in fact under chattel slavery. The UFLPA (Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act) was created after many disturbing reports surfaced about the horrific treatment of the Uyghurs were reported- we’re talking next-level sick stuff. Forced sterilization, unconsented medical testing, and organ harvesting (basically, the list reads like a horror movie script).
The fact that Temu uses a loophole in our duty system, (basically a “duty” is a fee foreign companies have to pay to bring their foreign-made goods into the US) It’s called the De Minimus exception. If you ship goods into the United States whose individual cost is under the sum of $800, you don’t have to pay a duty on it to ship it into the country. Why does this loophole exist in the first place? Well, kind reader, let me illuminate the rationale for you. De Minimus is Latin for “pertain to the little things“ or “lacking significance or importance: so minor as to merit disregard”. It’s meant to not over burden small investors or small business from having to talk about every nickel and dime they make or every small investment they have. Its meant to keep the heavy burden of government oversight from weighing them down. Well, Temu deliberately keeps the cost of their goods low to avoid the regulatory burden that the US imposes (rightfully so in many cases) on foreign goods. If you’re feeling brave, here is a link to a legal brief explaining the issue in detail.
They also violate anti-dumping laws. Dumping is when a foreign company brings in super cheap goods and sells them in another country (in our case America) at prices that make no financial sense, we’re talking prices that are below the cost to produce the goods in the first place. This undercuts the American companies that cannot compete with Temu’s prices because they must pay their employees, taxes, purchase material to make goods etc. Most, if not all, 1st world nations (including China) have laws in place to prevent Dumping and mitigate the very real and damaging effect this practice has on economies. Temu often skirts the line on what dumping is by charging a fraction of a cent or two over the “dumping” threshold and rakes in huge profits as a result.
Temu has a slogan, “shop like a billionaire”, for which they mean shop like you don’t care how much things cost; I argue that we need to shop like someone who does care. Someone who shops knowing the facts of where and how the things we want are produced the business practices of the companies we are giving money to and who is affected by these companies. We need to ask ourselves if we’re OK with prices that make it hard for American business to compete with. Are we ok with the potential use of slave labor? Are we OK with cheating the systems put in place to keep the American small business competitive in the world market? I’m not about to pontificate about how you should spend your money god knows cheap goods can be a blessing. Especially in this economy.
References:
- Burns, Brian. MSN. Accessed June 11, 2024. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/florida-sen-rubio-calls-for-probe-into-shein-and-temu-for-horrific-slave-labor-practices/ar-BB1lJWew.
- “U.S. Antidumping and Countervailing Duties.” International Trade Administration | Trade.gov. Accessed June 11, 2024. https://www.trade.gov/us-antidumping-and-countervailing-duties.
Images:
- Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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