( MSN )
The U.S. Postal Service said it would resume accepting parcels from China and Hong Kong, after temporarily suspending the service and sparking concerns about delivery disruptions.
The Postal Service said Wednesday it was working closely with Customs and Border Protection to create “an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”
The notice came a day after the Postal Service said it was suspending inbound parcels from China Post and Hong Kong Post, adding to worries about disruptions to global trade after fresh tariffs from President Trump.
The Trump administration this week imposed new tariffs on China and moved to close a loophole that allows companies to avoid paying tariffs if they ship packages valued at less than $800 directly to U.S. consumers.
Use of the trade provision has ballooned in recent years, partly through the explosive growth of Shein and Temu, the China-founded merchants that have flooded international e-commerce networks with deeply discounted goods.
About 1.36 billion shipments entered the U.S. using the de minimis provision in fiscal year 2024, up from 637 million in fiscal year 2020, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The move wouldn’t affect shipments by UPS, FedEx or DHL, which operate their own flights from China for big companies such as Apple that ship goods into the U.S.
Packages from China that used to qualify for the de minimis exemption are now subject to tariffs imposed during Trump’s first administration and largely kept in place during Biden’s term. They also are subject to an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China announced last weekend by the Trump administration. Those levies went into effect on Tuesday.
The de minimis exemption has been around since 1930, but has been increasingly used in recent years. Since Congress raised the threshold in 2016 from $200, the number of packages entering under the exception exploded.
Chinese e-commerce companies and logistics providers have been leasing more warehouse space in the U.S. as the Biden administration cranked up efforts to restrict the use of the de minimis rule.
Critics of de minimis say the provision has allowed Chinese firms to grow rapidly in the U.S. market while sidestepping tariffs designed to protect American manufacturers. They also say the de minimis rule enables smugglers of counterfeit goods and narcotics.
Goods from China and Hong Kong accounted for roughly a third of de minimis imports in 2023, according to Congressional Research Service’s analysis of Customs and Border Protection data. Global exports of low-value single packages from China have grown more than 10-fold from 2018 to 2023, CRS found.
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