every other small business closing their shipping to the US due to tariffs, and here I'm sitting like... my country always had fees to be paid upon receiving a parcel coming from a different country, customs fees to be precise. tariffs seem to be the exact same thing.. or am I wrong?

I think the main problem is, in the US there's no infrastructure for payment of taxes via postal company (USPS), so they took 2 measures to "solve" it: 1) shipping must be DDP (delivery duty paid) to even enter the country. This means effectively every other country has to urgently set (1/3)

such systems in place, and every shop has to learn how to charge those to customer. 2) flat fee for USPS packages is anywhere from $80 to $200, depending on origin of goods. So normally one would pay say 15% as a tax (you buy like $40, pay $6). But for the first 6 months it is highly likely you(2/3)