The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced a temporary suspension of parcels from China and Hong Kong following President Donald Trump’s imposition of an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods effective Tuesday.
This loophole has been utilized by retailers such as Temu and Shein to ship low-value packages to the U.S. without incurring duties.
The Trump administration has implemented an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods effective Tuesday and has moved to eliminate the “de minimis” loophole, which permits importers and U.S. consumers to avoid paying tariffs on packages valued under $800.
USPS clarified that this change would not affect the flow of letters and ‘flats’ from China and Hong Kong. However, they did not confirm if this suspension is directly related to the administration’s move to end de minimis shipments from China and other nations.
Retailers like fast-fashion giant Shein and online dollar-store Temu, which sell a wide array of products from toys to smartphones, have experienced significant growth in the U.S., partly due to the de minimis exemption.
Chelsey Tam, Senior Equity Analyst at Morningstar, remarked, “In our view, the USPS will require some time to determine how to implement the new tariffs before Chinese packages can resume arriving in the U.S. This presents a significant challenge given the 4 million de minimis packages per day in 2024, making it difficult to inspect all packages promptly.”
President Trump imposed the additional tariff on Chinese goods following repeated warnings to Beijing regarding its insufficient efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl, a dangerous synthetic opioid, into the U.S.