A gap that allowed US buyers to buy many cheap products from mainland China and Hong Kong without paying invoices and filling in customs publications on Friday.
Prices have already risen.
Orders for many imported goods from retailers such as Shein and Temu could be reduced as consumers block the highest prices and new difficulties. But as well as a large part of President Trump’s trade war, the administration’s policy policy has gone through changes. The president had ordered to close the gap in February, but then brought it back in a few days. Supply experts said the short closure caused a pileup of border packages.
What exactly is it going away?
Since 2016, $ 800 or less could be imported into the United States without the recipient’s payment invoices or even the deposit of bureaucratic work usually linked to foreign goods markets. The gap is known as the exception de minimis. Mr Trump eliminates the exemption only for goods from mainland China, the largest source of de minimis missions and Hong Kong.
A Congress report this year stated that customs and border protection of the DE Minimis packages per year. The average price of shipments in 2023 was $ 54.
Shipments of less than $ 800 have been free because the Congress believed that the costs and suffering of their processing would not justify customs revenue. Mr Trump terminates the exemption, in part, to try to prevent the flow of Fentanyl and Fentanyl’s precursors to the United States through de minimis missions.
De Minimis’ missions, after Mr Trump imposed invoices on China during his first administration, suggesting that people and businesses were turning to smaller packages to avoid invoices.
Mr Trump on Wednesday called on the provision of de minimis a “fraud” that came to the detriment of small businesses in the United States. Traditional retail traders who usually send large missions to their warehouses – and pay invoices on these missions – have long expressed their frustration with the solution, claiming that it has put US companies at a disadvantage.
How is this bustle bump?
Since invoices for Chinese goods are punitive, de minimis goods are already starting to cost much more.
This is evident to buyers in the Chinese TMU e -commerce location. The company has recently begun to describe in detail the costs that would add the invoices to their purchases.
For example, a basket of 10 items from Temu, including a 50 pack of heavy -duty hangers for $ 70.50, a green men’s shirt for $ 19.38 and a fluffy pink dog bed for $ 24.05, came out of $ 275.03, including international cargoes and $ 10.20 on sales. But in the fund, the website rushed to $ 343.26 in import fees, bringing the total to $ 628.49. (TEMU gives buyers the possibility of buying goods marked as derived from local warehouses that are not burdened.)
In the opponent of Temu Shein, a basket of 10 similar items came to $ 244.03. Although it does not describe in detail additional import fees for goods, Shein’s website told the buyers: “Invoices are included in the price you pay. You will never have to pay extra at delivery.”
Still, buyers said they had seen prices for some information on Shein’s website are increasing on the weekend. Although the discharge of duties is not expected to expire by Friday, the charges are already displayed, because the orders they have now received will not cross the border until afterwards.
Atlanta’s Lindsay Olive, who regularly in Shein, put a series of summer dresses in her basket last week, including a blue for $ 10.88 and a floral for $ 11.29. When she went to see this weekend, the price for the blue dress had risen to $ 13.88 and the floral had jumped to $ 15.43, according to screen shots.
“I knew things would start to go up and wanted to get some summer dresses before that happened,” said Ms. Olive, 39. It expects prices to go up further.
Amazon said on Tuesday that it had examined in detail the import charges on its website – called Amazon Haul – competing with Temu, but decided not to.
“The teams are discussing ideas all the time,” spokesman Ty Rogers said in a statement. He said he was never under consideration for the Amazon main website, adding: “This was never approved and will not happen.”
Import fees can vary according to the manner of shipment of goods. If they come to a carrier or DHL or FedEx, the goods will be subject to $ 145 % or $ 14.50 in $ 10 T-shirt.
Shipments coming through the postal service will face an invoice equivalent to 120 % of the value of the goods, starting on Friday or $ 100 per package. The fee rises to $ 200 in June.
What about bureaucracy?
One of the amenities of a de minimis mission is that the recipient does not need to provide a social security number to get the goods, as is the case with other types of imports.
Instead, de Minimis goods require only one name and address.
Since Friday, De Minimis missions from China will be classified as “informal entry” imports. Unofficial entry goods, which may be worth up to $ 2,500, do not require the recipient’s social security number, reported customs and border protection in a statement. Still, the Agency said in January that carriers often require social security numbers because they have accelerated clearance through customs.
FedEx said that, according to the requirements of customs and border protection, it would not require social security numbers in China missions that lose their exemption de minimis on Friday. DHL said it would not require social security numbers on unofficial entry missions. UPS refused to say whether it would require social security numbers, but the company added that it had the know -how to help its customers “navigate to world trade and follows all applicable laws and regulations”.
A Post Office spokesman said that “it would not have a role in collecting duties for de minimis posts.” Instead, invoices should be collected by the carrier who bring the goods to the United States.
Will there be delays?
Collecting invoices and checking a much larger number of packages could be a challenge for carriers and customs and border protection. But it is not clear whether these actions would delay the packages more than one or two or two or much more.
The Customs Organization said in a statement that although he had “a huge task on his hand”, he was “uniquely positioned to implement and impose the President’s invoices”.
Ana swanson; Danielle Kaye and MOGA They contributed reports.
