This photo illustration shows the Temu app in the App Store reflected in a video of Shein consumers on February 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Stephanie Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers plans to introduce a bill on Wednesday to remove a tariff exemption widely used by e-commerce sellers to send orders from China to U.S. shoppers, one of the sponsors said.
The exception, known as the de minimis rule, exempts imported goods worth $800 or less from duty if the goods are shipped to individual consumers. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, said the bill would ban such shipments from China as soon as it is enacted.
E-commerce sellers such as Shein, established in China and headquartered in Singapore, and Temu, a Pinduoduo Holdings The company that operates Chinese e-commerce site Pinduoduo is a big beneficiary of the exemption. A federal briefing in April said the companies “exploited” the minimum to evade tariffs and import illegal items, such as those made with forced Uighur labor in China’s Xinjiang region.
A Shein spokesman said Tuesday that the company has no manufacturers in Xinjiang. Thum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Microshipping has been a concern since at least 2019, when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that it was having trouble catching unsafe imports due to a flood of low-value packages. Such shipments will rise to 685.5 million in 2022, compared with 410.5 million in 2018, U.S. Customs data show.
The bill’s other sponsors are Republican Senator JD Vance and Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. It was unclear how much support the proposal would garner. A separate but similar bill introduced by Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer failed to pass Congress last year.
Under the bill, countries other than China and Russia can remain exempt by adopting an $800 threshold for duty-free imports of their own goods.The bill only allows private consignors like fedex, ups And DHL shipping minimum package, excluding postal service.
