Washington, D.C. — With the deadline looming this Friday, August 29, 2025, for the global termination of the de minimis trade loophole to U.S. Customs enforcement, interest in the loophole is increasing. Lori Wallach, director of American Economic Liberties Project’s Rethink Trade program, is available for interview. Some factoids that may be useful:

• Less than 10% of De Minimis Entries Are by Post, so Why the Big Hubbub About Temporary Suspensions of “Low-Value” Commercial Shipments from Foreign Postal Services?: The flurry of coverage about other countries’ post office systems temporarily suspending commercial shipments of low-value goods to the United States is certainly disproportionate to the impact it will have on U.S. consumers. People will still be able to order goods online and have them delivered to their houses speedily. The difference is that, after Friday, goods valued under $800 will no longer be allowed to enter the United States without standard U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) forms listing where the good was produced, information about the sender, and a tariff code describing precisely what it is or without payment of applicable tariffs. Having the additional information filed online, which will be required for the vast majority of packages under $800 in value that enter the United States via systems other than postal, will make it easier to identify and remove forced-labor, dangerous, and fake goods and to inspect the goods—baby products, medicines, and more—on high-risk import lists that receive targeted screening when imported in container ports.  (See Section 4 of this Federal Register notice for the data on shipment modes and entry types that shows in 2023, 8% of de minimis entries were postal.) U.S. express delivery firms FedEx and UPS have not suspended their services for imports valued under $800 and, as expected for sophisticated global logistics firms, have updated their consumer-facing websites to accommodate the change.

• Foreign Postal Agencies Can Continue to Use the Procedures/Forms/Tariff Payment Systems They Already Use for Packages Heading to the U.S. Valued Over $800 or, for a Six-Month Transition Period, Can Use Flat-Fee Entry: It is a bit of a mystery why some other countries’ postal services are temporarily suspending deliveries of low-value commercial packages to the United States. The suspensions apply only to commercial shipments, not to items sent person-to-person. However, procedures for shipping low-value goods to the United States after the de minimis loophole is closed were included in the July 30 Executive Order finalizing the termination of de minimis that was first announced in April. In sum: Postal agencies can use the same procedures/forms/ad valorem tariff payment system they have been using for shipments valued over $800 going to the United States. Alternatively, for a six-month period ending in February 2026, packages valued under $800 can enter paying a flat fee per package set in a range related to the tariff rate of the country of origin of the goods. (Given the flat fee schedule, this option only makes sense for more valuable goods.) These two options were included in the July EO and detailed in a “Global Guidance for International Mail” issued a few weeks ago by CBP. Non-postal shippers, such as express carriers and e-commerce firms with their own delivery infrastructure, are to use CBP’s online system (aka the Automated Commercial Environment or ACE), which they already use, the entry form appropriate to the value of the good and the tariff payment system to which they are already subscribed.

• De Minimis Imports from China Ended in May 2025, Meaning Already We Have Experienced a 60-76% Drop in Such Imports Without the Price Spikes, Supply Chain Collapse or Delivery Delays Predicted by De Minimis Defenders: Given the majority of de minimis shipments came from China—up to 76% of such packages in recent years and more than 60% in 2024—the lack of major disruptions when de minimis treatment was terminated for China four months ago suggests that the doomy warnings from large e-commerce firms and express shippers reflect their unhappiness about the end of this boondoggle, not a prediction of how the policy change will affect most of us.

Read Rethink Trade’s previous statement on the end of the de minimis loophole here. 

Learn more about Rethink Trade here.  

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.