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More Tariff TomFoolery

When I worked for MicksGarage (car parts online), Ireland was known, by Suppliers, as treasure island due to the margin that could be made there - before a product hits a consumer at all. Worth some thought. Our retail is largely multi brand, reseller led retail. Not conducive to huge margins or pricing flexibility. An open economy ripe for the picking - Cross Border Trade has provided much value to us, the consumer. So a story today preplexes me, Ireland to add another 2 euro on top of the 3 euro fee for items from outside of Europe with a certain value - yadda yadda yadda

Six weeks in, here’s the Irish arithmetic nobody has run. Revenue’s own figures, published 7 May: low-value consignments into Ireland were worth €1.895 billion in 2025, across 52.9 million declarations carrying 114 million line items.

The €3 duty applies per line item, not per parcel.

114 million x €3 = €342 million.

Ireland’s entire customs duty take in 2025 was €616.2 million. One measure, on static volumes, is worth more than half of everything Irish customs collected last year. Against goods worth €1.895bn, that’s an effective rate near 18%. For context, 84.5% of imported industrial goods by value carry a zero tariff, and the largest band in the schedule is 12%.

We have built the highest effective tariff in the Irish code and pointed it at the cheapest things people buy. Half those 114 million line items were valued at €15 or less. A quarter at €8 or less.

3 euro on an eight euro item is 37.5%. Then 23% VAT on the duty-inclusive total. Then, if the seller didn’t collect at checkout, An Post’s €6.95 admin fee, charged per package.

Roughly €11 of charges on an €8 purchase.

A flat fee applied to a distribution skewed to the bottom is not accidentally regressive. It is structurally regressive. That is the design.

Gee Scoob

Member states retain 25% of collected customs duties until 2027. Of that €342 million, Ireland keeps roughly €85 million. Roughly €257 million goes to Brussels as own resources.

Revenue administers it. An Post carries it up your path. The Irish consumer pays it. Three quarters of it leaves the country.

And the machine doing the collecting? We already paid for that.

Revenue processed 1 million import declarations in 2020. In 2025 it was 60.17 million. Ireland built a sixtyfold customs apparatus at Irish expense because our nearest neighbour left. De minimis reform is a new feature switched on inside a building Brexit paid for.

Which brings me to the bit Brussels keeps missing.

Every EU document frames this as a China measure. 91% of low-value parcels, Shein, Temu, the lot. In Ireland, Great Britain is the largest country of dispatch at 41% of customs duties, and Revenue’s consumer guidance leads with “including Great Britain.” Our biggest trading partner. UK orders to get even more expensive.

So which is it? A levelling of the playing field, or a regressive consumption tax with excellent branding?