The United States is also facing an explosion in parcel shipments from China. More and more parcels are being caught by US-China tariffs because they are exploiting a so-called de minimis loophole. This allows parcels with a value of less than $800 to be sent to the United States with relatively little scrutiny. In this way, the value of de minimis shipments has increased from 140 million parcels to over 1 billion parcels in the last decade, according to the news outlet CNBC.
“The dramatic increase in de minimis shipments has made it increasingly difficult to target and block illegal or unsafe shipments to the United States,” said Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, in a call with reporters on Thursday. The focus is primarily on Chinese fast-fashion retailers Temu and Shein.
Now the current administration under President Joe Biden has announced a strategy against this exploitation of the de minimis rule. Among other things, a new regulation will mean that overseas deliveries of products subject to the relevant tariffs will no longer be able to benefit from the duty exemption. Specific data from people who apply for any de minimis shipments will also be included.
The new regulations will now be presented by the Biden administration. The next step is for the US Congress to agree to pass a law to revise the original de minimis rule.
