Key points
• USPS says change will not affect flow of letters and ‘flats’
• US wants to close the “de minimis” loophole
• Shein, Temu accounted for over 30pc of all packages parceled to US
ISLAMABAD: The US Postal Service has confirmed that it would suspend, temporarily, parcels from China and Hong Kong, following President Donald Trump shutting a trade loophole used by retailers including Temu and Shein to parcel low-value packages duty-free to the US.
Moreover, Trump administration imposed an extra 10 per cent tariff on Chinese products that came into effect on Tuesday and moved to close the “de minimis” loophole that allows importers along with US shoppers to skip paying tariffs for packages worth less than $800, according to Bloomberg.
However, USPS said the change will not affect the flow of letters and ‘flats’ from China and Hong Kong.
It did not currently comment on whether this was tied to Trump’s change to ending de minimis shipments from China and other countries.
Minimis exemption
Shein, a fast-fashion retailer, and Temu, an online store, that sells products ranging from toys to smartphones, have grown fast in the US because of the de minimis exemption.
Together, the two firms likely accounted for more than 30 per cent of all packages parceled to the United States each day under the de minimis provision, the US congressional committee on China said in a June 2023 report.
Around half of all packages shipped under de minimis come from China, according to the report.
Shein and Temu did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Trump’s crackdown
Trump’s crackdown on de minimis would make the products sold by the likes of Shein and Temu more expensive however is unlikely to largely impact shipment volumes, experts said.
Shein has previously said it supports reform of the de minimis provision.
Both Temu, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings (PDD.O), and Singapore-headquartered Shein, which plans to list in London this year, have taken steps like sourcing more products from outside China, opening US warehouses and bringing more US sellers on board, to minimise the impact, according to media reports.
Beijing announced a broad package of economic measures targeting the United States on Tuesday, hitting back after US President Donald Trump imposed 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports.