My guess is that they have to be insured for product liability. And.... given that the US is the most litigious nation on the planet, I can see where that could be expensive. Also, if I understand the British health care system, if your child swallows one of daddy's model parts, you take the child to the ER, he is treated as necessary, and you are billed little or nothing. Whereas, in the US, one is billed 10's of thousands of dollars, likely have a deductible (nowadays) of thousands, and will pay a goodly percentage after than.... then sue the manufacturer of the product regardless of whether there is a note on the box that these model parts are not intended for children and may present a choking hazard.
But whatever they are being insured for, in many cases, insurance companies have a minimum or base rate - x amount plus a % of gross sales, or something like that, and the coverage for exports would likely be separate from domestic sales, and non-EU might well be separate from EU.
They state that it is not the cost of the insurance, per se, but that with tariffs and the elimination of the de minimus tariff/tax/fee waiver, their US sales (apparently the largest part of their North American sales) have declined precipitously and are not sufficient (after production costs, I assume) to cover the insurance costs. Let's face it- a lot of us are not ordering small batch or custom things from Europe (or Canada), even if we keep buying phones and computers that are made in China, or trains from Vietnam.
Meanwhile, here in the US, 50% or more of people who got an extra $200 income tax refund think their taxes have been reduced, paying no attention to the fact that they are paying $1700 in tariffs every year. Until their income tax refund is $1700 more than it was in 2025, they haven't broken even.
