Low prices, high environmental impact: this is why Chinese online stores can deliver so cheaply to Switzerland

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One thing you should trust Chinese online retailers: They come up with clever ways to keep prices low. On the one hand, retailers benefit from low production costs in China. Factories produce mass-produced goods for export abroad for very little money, at the expense of employees: Non-governmental organization Public Eye reports that working conditions are disastrous. Employees are required to take only one day off per month.

No customs fees or VAT

Traders, on the other hand, wisely avoid fees. There are virtually no customs contributions on imports into Switzerland for packages from Temu, Shein and Co. “Since orders from the mentioned online stores are usually small shipments with low weight, in most cases there are only low or no import duties,” the Federal Customs and Border Protection Agency writes on the request.

Shops also cheat on Swiss VAT. Shipping packages are put together so this is no longer necessary. If the value of the goods is less than 65 francs with 7.7 percent VAT or less than 200 francs with 2.5 percent tax, the amount is omitted.

The planet is suffering greatly

The flow of cheap goods from China has serious consequences on the environment. Greenpeace criticizes the business model of Chinese off-price retailers as “producing and selling more and more, cheaper and faster”. Shein takes things to the extreme in the fashion industry: some days the fashion retailer offers up to 9,000 new items for sale online. Shein often sends old or unused clothes to Africa. And according to Greenpeace, huge mountains of textile waste in such large quantities need to be burned.

For most Chinese retailers, returns are not valuable. The buyer gets the money back but still keeps the product and sooner or later throws it away. “The destruction of new goods is an absolute disaster from an ecological point of view,” says Greenpeace Switzerland.

Source :Blick