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The US this week scrapped its nearly century-old tariff exemption for low-value imports in a bid to make the country less reliant on foreign goods
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The de minimis customs exemption for imports worth up to a maximum of $800 is seen to affect US consumers, online retailers, and smaller businesses
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As a result of the exemption, a good number of national postal operators and parcel carriers have suspended deliveries of some packages
The US this week scrapped its nearly century-old tariff exemption for low-value imports in a bid to make the country less reliant on foreign goods.
The de minimis customs exemption for imports worth up to a maximum of $800 is seen to affect US consumers, online retailers, and smaller businesses.
As a result of the exemption, alongside the Trump administration’s complex tariff policies and logistical challenges, a good number of national postal operators and parcel carriers suspended deliveries of some packages. They cited ambiguity over the new US import ruling and the short timeframe to adapt to the new requirements.
Following the shift in policy, global shipments to the US worth $800 or less will be subject to a flat duty of $80 to $200 per package for the next six months or country-by-country tariff rates, ranging from 10% to 50%.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the suspension in late July, with his administration saying the exemption was providing a duty-free loophole for e-commerce companies and flooding the US market with cheap foreign goods.
Trump also blamed the special treatment for allowing illegal opioids and unsafe products, such as fentanyl, to enter the US.
Before the worldwide suspension, in early May, the exemption for inexpensive items of Chinese and Hong Kong origin ended.
The de minimis — a Latin expression for “trifling” — rule was enacted by Congress in 1938 to help the federal government save time and avoid inconvenience disproportionate to the amount of tax revenue that would otherwise be collected.
Since then, the US has amended the rule several times, raising the exemption’s eligibility cutoff to $800 from $200 in 2015.
Between 2015 and 2024, the volume of de minimis shipments entering the US rose from 134 million shipments to more than 1.36 billion, with China and Hong Kong accounting for the majority.
Of late, a large rise in low-value shipments – which are still duty-free in many countries – has become a global issue not just in terms of trade, but also public safety, given that they are increasingly used for smuggling illegal substances.
The de minimis surge has been on the agenda of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies, with Japan and its other members also looking into the issue individually.
