Amongst the chaos of Trump’s global tariffs, which have all now gone live from today, the changes to the ‘de minimis’ exemption may have flown under the radar.
Over 60 countries were due to receive higher tariff hike, but everybody will receive the 10% rate for the next 90 days except China. China to US shipments are now the subject of an astonishing 125% duty rate, while China have imposed an 84% rate on American products.
However, the removal of the ‘de minimis’ exemption for shipments from Hong Kong and China mainland is now set to come into force from May 2nd.
This exemption has allowed shipments valued at less than $800 to be imported to the US free of duty. On average, the rule enabled around 3.5 million low value shipments to enter the US per day last year, most of which were from China. From next month, a duty rate of either 30% or $25 per item will apply.
Trump signed an executive order to cancel the rule completely in February, but had to postpone the action due to the US Postal Service and US Customs being unable to manage the duty payments at the time.
The new measures will be a major blow to e-commerce providers of Chinese origin products, and especially for companies like Shein, Temu and Etsy.
Perhaps of greater concern is the belief that this may extend to further countries in the coming weeks or months, and perhaps even include the UK.
The team at Westbound are of course monitoring developments closely.
If you have any questions regarding the above, then Westbound are here to help. So, please do not hesitate to contact us.
