On Tuesday, four Democratic senators from the United States jointly sent a letter to the Biden administration, urging it to cancel the customs clearance exemption for small imports through the postal service to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s use of this green channel to smuggle fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the United States.
The senators, in their letter to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, urged these two departments to use their statutory authority to prohibit this trade loophole that allows billions of dollars worth of imported goods to enter the U.S. with little supervision.
The “de minimis” rule for imported postal items allows goods valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. Retailers and online shopping platforms widely use this clearance channel to directly deliver foreign-made goods to American consumers.
Senators Warren of Massachusetts, Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Brown of Ohio expressed concerns in the letter about the abuse of the “de minimis” trade rule leading to rampant illegal drug trafficking.
In a statement on Tuesday, the senators stated, “The opioid epidemic poses a serious threat to the United States, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. We must utilize all tools – including the statutory powers granted to the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security by Congress – to combat and protect American families by limiting the abuse of the de minimis provision.”
Nearly 4 million small packages arrive on U.S. shores daily, with roughly 60% coming from China, many containing cheap clothing, electronics, and everyday household products.
According to Reuters, proponents of duty-free imports argue that significantly reducing the de minimis program would disrupt e-commerce, raise shopping prices, and overload customs officials by requiring them to clear billions of packages through traditional channels.
However, the proliferation of small imported goods makes it difficult for law enforcement to intercept packages containing fentanyl precursors, as fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid contributing to the worst drug crisis in American history.
A Reuters report on October 1 detailed how a smuggler successfully received over 15,000 pounds of fentanyl precursors in packages delivered to his Tucson home through small parcels.
These senators’ actions come amidst growing calls in Washington for comprehensive reforms to the de minimis exemption rules.
In September, President Biden proposed new draft rules to strip certain Chinese import products of their de minimis eligibility under certain circumstances. The four senators described Biden’s efforts in their letter as a “first step,” but emphasized the need for further action.
In their letter, the senators raised a series of questions and requested responses from the two departments by November 12, including the number of de minimis goods batches processed daily by the Department of Homeland Security and detailed information; estimates of the total amount of illicit trade entering the U.S. through the exemption loophole, including the total amount of fentanyl; and what measures the Treasury and Homeland Security Departments will take beyond the proposed rules to reduce abuse of the de minimis exemption.