President Trump Wallops China with Massive de minimis Tariff Increases – Mail Order Product Costs from China Will Skyrocket

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

Within the Executive Order modifying the April 2nd global reciprocal tariffs [SEE HERE] section #4, we note a massive increase in the duty fees for mailed products from China formerly shipped under ‘de minimis’ rules.

REMINDER: The de minimis loophole comes from back in the 1930s. The idea back then was, say you went on a vacation to Paris, you shouldn’t have to file customs paperwork or pay taxes if you decided to ship some little Eiffel Tower statues to your friends back home.

Congress in 2015 then raised the de minimis threshold from $200 to $800. However, the e-commerce world exploded, and Chinese companies began using the de minimis loophole to ship cheap goods (ex. Temu and Shein) into the USA direct to consumers without paying any customs duty.

On April 2nd, as part of the global trade reset and tariff structure, President Trump revoked authorization for Chinese goods to transfer to the USA using the de minimis rule. The de minimis exemption was cancelled for all products coming out of China. The rule change only targeted China and Chinese shippers. No one else. [XO HERE]

Yesterday, as part of the modification to Executive Order #14257, President Trump has increased the baseline tariff for product mailed from China [de minimis tariff] from 30 90 percent to 120%.

Mailed products from China now face a 120% tariff.  Additionally, minimum tariff amounts increased from $75 to $100 effective May 1st, and from $150 to $2oo effective June 1st.  [See Section #4]

Example: If you order a $20 shirt from China effective June 1st, you will pay $220.  $20 for the shirt, and $200 minimum tariff.

There is no way Chinese E-Commerce can survive this level of tariff/duty fees.

♦ SUBVERSION – The only way for the Chinese e-commerce to maneuver this, would be to extend the delivery times and transship through alternate mail and distribution centers, in other countries.  Example, mail your $20 shirt to (Vietnam or Mexico or Canada) and have a distribution center then repackage and mail it to the USA.  Or, far less likely, the Chinese e-commerce company can set up manufacturing centers in the 3rd party country (Vietnam, or Mexico or Canada) and make it there, not in China (not very likely at all).

President Trump is setting up bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with each of the nations that China might attempt to use as a transshipping hub.  Within those pending FTAs, there will certainly be no transshipping allowed, and trade sanctions in the FTAs as punitive punishment if they did it.

Keep watching this mail-order pressure point, because it’s likely to be more substantive -albeit less visible- than the manufacturing tariffs applied toward China directly.