“De minimis” has been minimized to zero.
On March 4, the US imposed new tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. Only two days later US President Trump was changing this again and announced a pause on tariffs for some Mexican goods. Canada may also get a delay.
The tariff on China applies to all goods and was doubled just days ago to 20 percent. This applies to, among other things, articles that have hitherto entered the US under the de minimis exemption (19 U.S.C. 1321).
In short, under de minimis one person may receive duty-free one shipment per day of goods worth $800 or less. The exemption has enabled companies like Shein, Temu and in some cases Amazon to keep their prices low.
The Trump administration’s stated motive is the drug trade. As a new Executive Order reads, “the PRC [People’s Republic of China] has not taken adequate steps to alleviate the illicit drug crisis through cooperative enforcement actions” and so “the crisis described in Executive Order 14195 has not abated.”
The tariff for Canada and Mexico originally amounted to 25 percent and applied to almost all goods. The chief exceptions relate to Canadian energy (oil, natural gas, electricity), which goods now receive a tariff of 10 percent. There are exemptions for goods dispatched to the US before Feb. 1.
According to the administration, the US is by this means urging Canada and Mexico to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs, especially fentanyl, into the national territory.
A tariff of 25 percent on imports of steel and aluminum went into effect on Feb. 10. The administration has eliminated exemptions for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the EU, Ukraine and the UK, – exemptions that, it says, “inadvertently created loopholes that were exploited by China and others with excess steel and aluminum capacity” and thus undermined their purpose.
