ALBAWABA – A group of United States (US) lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill on Wednesday that would remove a tariff exemption widely used by e-commerce sellers, such as SHEIN, to send orders from China to US shoppers, Reuters reported.
The “de minimis” rule exempts imports valued at $800 or less from tariffs when shipping to individual consumers. The bill to be introduced by a bipartisan group of sponsors would rescind this exemption rule immediately upon enactment, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said.
Chinese e-commerce sellers, such as Shein, Temu and Pinduoduo, are big beneficiaries of the exemption. A federal brief in April said the companies “exploit” de minimis to avoid duties and import illegal items such as those made in China's Xingiang region with forced Uyghur labor, according to Reuters.
Under the bill, countries besides China and Russia will be able to benefit from the exemption by adopting the $800 threshold for their own tariff-free imports. The bill would only allow private shippers like FedEx (FDX.N), UPS (UPS.N) and DHL to transport de minimis packages and would exclude postal services, the news agency explained.
A Shein spokesperson said Tuesday the company has no manufacturers in Xinjiang. Temu did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
De minimis shipments have been an issue since 2019.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that it struggled to catch unsafe imports because of the heavy volume of low-value packages, as reported by Reuters.
Low-value shipments reached $685.5 million in 2022, compared with 410.5 million in 2018, the US customs data showed.
Other sponsors of the bill include Republican Senator J.D. Vance and Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Notably, a separate but similar bill by Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer failed to pass Congress last year, Reuters underlined.
