On Tuesday, February 4th, a new round of trade war between the United States and China has begun. The US Postal Service suddenly announced the suspension of accepting inbound parcels from China Post and Hongkong Post.
According to a notice posted on the USPS website, inbound international parcels from China and Hong Kong Postal Services will be temporarily suspended until further notice.
However, letters and flat mail from China and Hong Kong will not be affected by this suspension. This policy change came into effect starting on February 4th.
On Tuesday, February 4th, at 00:01 Eastern Time (which is 13:01 Beijing Time), the United States officially imposed an additional 10% tariff on all imported goods from China. In response, Beijing retaliated by imposing a 15% tariff on imports from the US, including coal, liquefied natural gas, agricultural equipment, and other goods.
One of the clauses in Trump’s tariff executive order states that parcels sent from China must go through customs. Chinese import products that are eligible for temporary tariff exemptions will now face a 10% tariff when imported to the US. This means that the “de minimis” tariff exemption for parcels from China and Hong Kong, covering items valued below $800, has been canceled.
The new policy by the US Postal Service has at least temporarily halted or delayed parcels from retailers such as Shein and Temu, as well as some packages from Amazon.
Reportedly, nearly half of the parcels transported under the “de minimis import threshold” come from China, as stated in a report by the US Congressional Committee on China in June 2023. A report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics revealed that packages shipped to the US daily by Temu and Shein constitute approximately 30%.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, the value of parcels meeting the de minimis import threshold hovered around $139 million in 2015. From that fiscal year until 2023, the value of such parcels increased by over 600%. By 2024, this number had surged to $1.36 billion.
The Washington Post reported that Jason T. Smith, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, stated in a release on Tuesday, “President Trump ensures that China (the Communist Party) can no longer evade applicable tariffs by exporting lower-value products.”
“The committee has spent significant time investigating how China (the Communist Party) and other countries exploit de minimis import privileges to undermine our tariff trade enforcement and evade compliance with US laws. The abuse of de minimis import privileges is becoming increasingly serious, resulting in the US government being unable to collect billions of additional revenues while unfairly harming US manufacturers’ interests.”