Washington, DC – President Donald Trump has decided to halt tariffs on small packages from China following the chaos caused by his abrupt order to end duty-free treatment for shipments valued at less than $800. This sudden change left the US postal service and other agencies struggling to adjust, initially leading to the suspension of package acceptance from China before a reversal a day later.
The confusion surrounding the tariff suspension has raised concerns among US consumers awaiting packages from popular Chinese companies like Shein and Temu, which have leveraged the exemption for low-value packages to grow their presence in the American market. Trump initially introduced the alteration as part of a broader move to increase border taxes on Chinese goods by 10% last week. However, his revised order on Friday indicated that tariff-free treatment for packages under $800 from China would continue until appropriate systems are in place to effectively process and collect tariff revenue.
This latest development is one of several swift changes Trump has implemented since assuming office in January. Previous decisions, such as imposing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods before eventually suspending them for negotiation purposes, have faced challenges and legal disputes. Furthermore, Trump announced plans to enforce “reciprocal tariffs” on numerous countries next week, a strategy he had outlined during his campaign, aiming to match the tariffs applied to US products by other nations.
Even before Trump’s presidency, the US had been re-evaluating the exemption for low-value packages, known as de minimis. The Biden administration proposed tightening regulations on such packages from China in September, citing the need to support US firms in competing and address obstacles hindering the shipment of illicit drugs. The decision to raise the exemption threshold from $200 to $800 in 2016 aimed to streamline trade operations and allow officials to prioritize higher-value shipments, but critics argue that the surge in e-commerce has strained the system, leading to an influx of packages below the $800 limit, from 140 million to over 1.3 billion last year.