The US has ended its long-standing โde minimisโ tariff exemption for small packages from China and Hong Kong, disrupting global e-commerce. Initially designed for low-value personal shipments, the policy had allowed over a billion duty-free parcels annually, many of which came from platforms like Shein and Temu. Now, those shipments face tariffs, customs paperwork, and delays, hitting consumers, small businesses, and logistics firms, according to Bloomberg. They write:
What was once too much of a nuisance for the US to regulate became too big of an economic force to ignore any longer.
A US trade provision dating to the 1930s, which eventually cleared the way for more than a billion small parcels each year, ended Friday. […]
The value of goods subject to the โde minimisโ tariff exemption โ from Latin meaning โtoo small to matterโ โ has been $800 since 2016, very generous by global standards. The number of small packages entering the US duty-freeย exploded to nearly 1.4 billionย last year, a 600% increase over the prior decade, according to US Customs and Border Protection. An estimated three-quarters or more came from China, with a big share fromย SheIn Group Ltdย andย Temu. […]
The Congressional Budget Office in 2024ย estimated that ending the de minimis exemption just for goods from China would result in more than $23.5 billion in additional customs revenues and fees over a decade. […]
Since US de minimis ended for China and Hong Kong, carriers includingย United Parcel Service Inc.ย andย FedEx Corp. have identified drops in volume between the US and China in their most recent earnings calls, saying itโs delivered a blow to their most profitable trade lane. […]
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