Unless you've been spectacularly out of the loop, you'll no doubt be aware that US President Donald Trump has been playing around with tariffs and causing chaos in the global markets.
We've already covered the fact that Trump's tariffs on goods shipped from China are putting the makers of cool retro gaming gear under increased pressure, and now RetroTINK maker Mike Chi has taken the next logical step—he's pausing shipments to the US until things resolve themselves.
"Due to lack of guidance on how tariffs will be collected starting May 2nd, we've made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend US shipments," says Chi before listing April 23rd as the last day for non-expedited orders and April 28th as the last day for expedited ones.
"Without proper procedures in place, the risk of delays and lost packages is simply too high," he continues. "As soon as we understand how to pre-pay tariffs on behalf of the customer, we will resume shipments. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience."
The RetroTINK maker then cautions against panic-buying: "Is this FOMO? Not necessarily. We have some reserve stock in the USA. We also expect that this will be resolved eventually—but it is impossible to say when or how."
Chi adds that this only applies to US shipments. "As before, service to the rest of the world will continue without interruptions and policy-induced complications," he says.
Trump introduced a whopping 145% tariff on Chinese-made goods before backtracking and saying that items like smartphones and computers were exempt. He has since said smartphones may be subject to tariffs after all—another example of how his maddeningly inconsistent policies are causing havoc.