The United States eliminated from last Friday, August 29, the tax exemption that had been in force for almost a century for the entry of low value goods, which caused the interruption and partial suspension of package shipments in countries around the world and promises to force transnational e-commerce hard. The measure is quite similar to what the Brazilian government did in 2023, when it began to charge import tax for amounts of less than US $ 50-US exemption was much more generous, applied to shipments of up to $ 800.
From the 29th, these goods are subject to two different types of tariffs, as stipulated in the executive order signed by President Donald Trump in July. On the one hand, these shipments may be subjected to taxes ranging from 10% to 50%, according to the tariff that the Trump administration granted to the country’s home country. In addition, only during the first six months, an alternative collection system will also be in force that will apply the rate based on country’s tax scales: $ 80 for shipments from countries with taxes of less than 16%; US $ 160 for countries with tariffs between 16% and 25%; and US $ 200 for those who come from states that apply customs taxes greater than 25%.
Uncertainty in the logistical sector led to the suspension of shipments
The Universal Postal Union (UPU), the UN Post Office, had already said last Tuesday that 25 countries, from Japan to Mexico, passing through Spain and New Zealand, decided to suspend packet deliveries to the United States due to the measure, which generated uncertainty in the logistics sector. “Postal operators from 25 member countries have already informed UPU that they suspended their departure postal services to the United States, citing uncertainties specifically related to traffic services,” Universal Union said in a statement.
The end of the exemption for “Minimis” shipments greatly harms e -commerce giants, such as Chinese Alibaba, Temu or Shein, American Amazon or Japanese Rakuten, who face millionaire losses with the strong fall of orders and great delays in expected deliveries. The effect can be even more harmful to small and medium salespeople, which with all probability should transfer the large increase in logistics cost (which will be between 1,000% and 10,000% in many cases) to the consumer, experts.
Sending letters, documents or gifts valued at less than $ 100 will remain exempt, although analysts warn that the new customs review system will affect the punctuality of deliveries.
Government states that measure should contain illegal activities
In addition to saying that the measure intends to combat the “invasion” of cheap and unmarked products from China, Mexico and Canada-as in Brazil, where the “Rate of Blouses” was implemented with the claim of balanced the dispute between the national producer and those who sold their products by foreign websites such as Shein and Shopee-the US government said that taxes seek to contain fraud, counterbreading, counterbreading of illegal products and drug trafficking, especially Fentanil, according to the G1 website.
Low-value purchases from other countries to the US rose dramatically from 2015 to 1.36 billion a year in 2024. According to G1, the US customs currently sued more than 4 million packages daily, even with the reduction caused by the first wave of tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, which raised taxes on Chinese and Hong Kong products.
See also:
- US Court says most of Trump’s tariff is illegal
