Ladies and gentlemen,

I am merely passing on some information that has recently come into my possession (via an intermediary) from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise.

There is currently a trade war going on between the US and Europe. If I were to purchase something from the US off the web and it arrived during this month (August) I would be liable for import duty, plus VAT @ 17.5%, plus a punitive 10%. That 10% will become 11 in September, 12 in October, and so on until someone backs down on whatever issue it is the children are squabbling over. I have no details of the reciprocal arrangement.

Something to bear in mind if you're thinking of buying trans-Atlantic bits for your XFire.