European buyers now have to pay  a VAT tax on exports of merchandise purchased over the Internet from the United States.  

I shipped one Himstedt doll to the UK and another to Germany within the past week to 10 days via Air Mail Parcel Post, Insured.  They arrived just fine to the local post office, but the Buyers in both cases received a letter from their respective post office that they had to pick up their doll from the post office and pay a sizeable sum of money.  Europe now is collecting a  VAT TAX (value added tax) in addition to the normal Duty a buyer pays when importing a doll from the USA, regardless of what country it was made in originally, in addition to a small fee that their post office charges as a fee for handling a package that went through Customs.   This is going to substantially affect the ability of sellers in the USA to sell dolls to people in Europe.    Check out  the details of this tax that has just recently been enacted or perhaps just now being enforced in Europe  by looking at  wcoomd dot org on the worldwide web.   This tax  added about $50 to the price of a doll that sold for almost $500,  $74 total including the duty and the postal clearance fee.