Your packages are going to get more expensive as they get slower
The confusion that USPS has revoked after Donald Trump: Where are all the goods? How do you find them? An e-commerce attorney at Flexport
USPS previously announced that it was temporarily halting all packages shipped from China and Hong Kong. The de minimis exemption for shipments from China was revoked by President Donald Trump. It’s now eligible for US import duties and import taxes if you’re selling parcels worth less than $800.
“We talked to the Montana CBP cargo supervisor, and they said everything is from the higher-up,” Daniel says. A lot of trucks were turned away at the border. And a lot of officers were checking the trucks and questioning [drivers] like, ‘Are you sure there are no made-in-China items in there? This is your last chance.’ They were actually going through the trucks and randomly checking the packages.”
His trucks carry thousands of small parcels of toys, videos, and other items from a variety of sources in China, making the process of sorting and identifying them difficult.
The confusion comes after President Trump used an executive order imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods to also close a loophole called the de minimis exception, which allowed packages valued below $800 to enter the US duty free. It is how e-commerce outfits like Shein and Temu have been able to sell things at such low prices. It is used by merchants on eBay and on websites like Amazon.
According to the vice president at Flexport, about 100,000 entries are processed daily by US Customs. Now they must verify what is in the packages and how much it costs to process them.
What Do I Know about De minimis-Free E-Commerce Systems? How Do We Get What You Want? What Do You Need to Know About USPS?
About 10,000 people work for USAID, roughly two-thirds of whom are stationed overseas, according to the US Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan policy research group that serves Congress (the figure excludes “institutional support” contractors). The agency has more than 60 regional and country missions and represents less than 1 percent of the total US federal budget overall.
Do you work at Shein, Temu, or another ecommerce company and have insight into what’s going on? We’d like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter via email at [email protected] or on Signal at @zeyiyang.06.
While previous administrations have considered removing the de minimis exemption or introducing reforms, Trump is the first to have actually done so. “This is the administration’s version of moving fast and breaking things,” says Ram Ben Tzion, cofounder and CEO of Publican, a digital shipment vetting platform, citing one of the core tenets of startup culture.
The challenge facing USPS and others is managing the task of inspecting the large volume of shipments from China that are suddenly eligible for duty and import taxes, which is almost certain to create delays and problems for packages from other destinations. The additional burden of inspecting and processing the parcels is likely to be added costs.
In addition to enabling the likes of Shein and Temu, de minimis shipments have posed safety concerns, making it easier for low quality products to reach US buyers. In the extreme case, de minimis has been used by some e- bike and batteries manufacturers to skirt safety regulations and avoid product inspection, which has resulted in hundreds of fires in New York City alone.
The European Commission is considering implementing a customs reform in response to China’s anti-Trump restrictions on e-commerce shipments
China has already launched its own response to Trump’s tariffs, with levies on fuel and large vehicles shipped from the US, along with restrictions on exports of certain rare minerals used in some technology manufacturing. The country has initiated antitrust proceedings against both Google and Nvidia, as well as probes into Intel and Apple.
Today the European Commission renewed calls for the EU to implement its own customs reform that would remove its duty-free exemption for packages valued below €150, and further suggested applying a handling fee for e-commerce shipments imported directly to consumers as a way of recouping the costs of inspecting and processing the parcels.
