The existing low-value package inspection exemption was intended for individuals for personal use items, not for commercial transactions.
Known as the de minimis rule, imports under the $800 threshold can enter the United States free of duty and taxes. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also inspects these products minimally. The low-value package exemption was created for individuals to avoid paperwork and tariffs on items for personal use, not for commercial transactions.
Officials said the implementation of the new rule will start with textiles and apparel because they account for a significant portion of these small-value shipments. They said they decided on a “category of product approach” and would work with Congress to pass legislation to comprehensively reform the de minimis rules.
Officials said the sharp volume increase was mainly driven by Chinese retailers, such as Shein and Temu, which export goods directly to U.S. consumers.
Chinese company PDD Holdings’s Temu platform went live in the United States in September 2022, just before the U.S. government’s fiscal year of 2023, in which the de minimis volume grew by 380 million packages from the previous year.
Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for International Economics, told reporters that because 70 percent of Chinese Textile and Apparel imports are subject to tariffs, the new rules would “drastically reduce the number of shipments entering through the de minimis exemption.”
Just days ago, lawmakers called for a de minimis reform.
In a Sept. 11 letter to President Joe Biden, signed by a majority of House Democrats, lawmakers said that “massive direct-to-consumer e-commerce platforms and the exponential growth of e-commerce traffic has resulted in a dangerous mismatch” between what the de minimis exemption was intended for and how it was used.
The committee said Shein and another Chinese fast fashion retailer, Temu, likely represented more than 30 percent of all de minimis shipments to the United States in 2022.
Aaron Pan contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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