I gotta say the de minimis exemption and treatment of single packages that allowed the rise of Shein & Temu is one thing I’m pretty okay with handing it to them on. - ThreadSky

peark.es • 33 days ago

I gotta say the de minimis exemption and treatment of single packages that allowed the rise of Shein & Temu is one thing I’m pretty okay with handing it to them on.

Reposted from Jacob Bogage

👀 News: USPS has suspended inbound parcel service from China and Hong Kong.

Comments

danielmcnaughton.com•33 days ago

This is a very good point.

boomies-n-zoomies.bsky.social•33 days ago

The funny thing is that the obvious fix, hire more people to actually check things, is something they’re allergic to, so they’re gonna do the unpopular thing instead.

irishfrog.bsky.social•33 days ago

Omfg yes! I thought I was the only one!

runningsignal.com•33 days ago

Yes agreed, except they only pushed it forward. It was in the review process already.

Industry folks have brought it up a lot the last 2 years or so. It’s ok to admit these things as it was savvy but unfair and destructive for both economies.

smallbusiness.bsky.social•33 days ago

I assumed it would happen after the election no matter who won. As people will probably be mad about it I expect some politician to do what they do when people are mad about something the other guy did.

runningsignal.com•33 days ago

There is no shortage of mad, haha, but I have been behind it and written as much. The law was meant for cruise ship folks to bring back souvenirs, not presell into external markets without a buyer using foreign intel and influence. It was taking, not adding value for any normal person.

one-underscore.bsky.social•33 days ago

while i will enjoy ebay suddenly being much easier to use, i suspect that we're about to see the emergence of the dropshippers lobby on k street.

yourbrainonmoney.bsky.social•32 days ago

This same cognitive bias that makes us vulnerable to subscription creep has helped fuel the explosion of these fast fashion platforms.

The de minimis threshold effectively exploits our tendency to underestimate the cumulative impact of fractional purchasing decisions. I hope it goes away.

peark.es•33 days ago

Yeah this is a good point!

peark.es•33 days ago

Some more background reading if you're so inclined!

peark.es•33 days ago

Anyhow there are going to be so many goddamn lawsuits over the next four years. It's just going to be lawsuits, all the time. Everyone is going to sue everyone else. Gerald Broflovski's income is going to be 80% of GDP. Half the federal bench is going to go on strike over workload concerns.

skoryy.bsky.social•33 days ago

SCOTUS to issue a temporary restraining order on Everything

petergratton.bsky.social•33 days ago

Saying a prayer for the BLS tonight.

denam.bsky.social•33 days ago

Legal Full Employment Act, bill like it's 2006

sagastar.bsky.social•33 days ago

nuked chevron just in time too

peark.es•33 days ago

I genuinely wonder how they're going to manage the sheer volume of suits that get dropped on them. It's almost Roberts et al didn't think that one through at all.

defuncteconomist.bsky.social•33 days ago

Good thing Biden vetoed that bill that would expand the bench

sagastar.bsky.social•33 days ago

oh the 5th circuit will decide something stupid and then its simply not heard at higher courts

acreed.bsky.social•33 days ago

I was surprised SHEIN and Temu were exempt under de minimus. I thought it applied more for small businesses, etc. Only bright spot in this avalanche of stupidity.

agtmadcat.bsky.social•33 days ago

Yeah it's the value of each package, not the total value of their sales or whatever.

roypollock.bsky.social•32 days ago

Which is why you don't hand it to them for the hamfisted total ban with no phase in.

De minimus makes sense for genuine small transactions when compliance costs too much on both sides. But "this one weird trick" where you save enough on tariffs to not bulk ship is all bad news.

wertwhile.bsky.social•33 days ago

I think authority lies with the treasury secretary to determine the size of the de minimis exemption?

peark.es•33 days ago

CRS says it's the text of the act.
See: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48380

But apparently exemption under Sec 232/201/301 duties could be applied via CBP rule change. https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2025/01/cbp-proposes-rule-that-would-eliminate-section-321

So they're doing an end-run around Congress to at least some extent.

db-user.bsky.social•33 days ago

one less thing to put back together

voteblue4vr.bsky.social•33 days ago

It may radicalize a whole bunch of middle-class women who are into crafting though.

revrend.bsky.social•33 days ago

It would definitely inspire my mom and her buddies from back in their prime to add a flag to their scrapbooks.

voteblue4vr.bsky.social•33 days ago

There's a bunch of millennial and Gen X women living in the Midwest and the South with side gigs who make a bunch of kitchsy tchotchkees they sell on Etsy and they resource their materials from China.

revrend.bsky.social•33 days ago

I'm sure my wife has ordered lots of that stuff.

craig777.bsky.social•33 days ago

Bad for Bezos?

debirpo.bsky.social•32 days ago

No good for him. Consumers can't go around him & order straight from China.
Wondering if Temu etc. can go around Trump & Bezos by using UPS for stateside delivery.

herzogsstadter.bsky.social•32 days ago

Even then prices especially for smaller items would rise since UPS demands more for smaller packages. And with the entire advantage of them being low prices it could ruin some of the value proposition.

hyperplanes.bsky.social•33 days ago

Not really a legal use of sanctions authority though. Congress created the de minimis exemption, and congress should fix it

gdd9000.bsky.social•33 days ago

Legal? I think we're kind of past the point of them worrying about doing things that are illegal.

skoryy.bsky.social•33 days ago

BAH GAWD THAT'S JOHN ROBERTS'S MUSIC

foghorn453.bsky.social•33 days ago

Yeah, it's hard to blame every other political actor from taking advantage of Congress's abdication of responsibility

mosheroperandi.bsky.social•33 days ago

What's a Congress? We have one of those?

hurricanexyz.bsky.social•33 days ago

It's a vestigial body at this point, like the old House of Lords

schroedinger.bsky.social•33 days ago

Also legal or not, this isn't some smart targeted attempt at doing tariffs. It's just blindly shotgunning them out because Trump is a senile moron who sincerely believes blanket tariffs on everyone is a good idea, and an appropriate target happened to be within the spray zone.

mangyforestcat.bsky.social•32 days ago

Anything that makes Amazon a better shopping experience.

We must RETVRN!

Destroy COOFANDY and all of its brethren!

lizardky.bsky.social•33 days ago

I support ending the de minimis exemption, but done as a matter of actually passing appropriate legislation, not by random decree.

brianslionsblog.bsky.social•33 days ago

dumb this down for me...

so Shein & Temu shipments won't get delivered at the moment?

peark.es•33 days ago

Yeah USPS is saying anything that's part of the de minimis exemption (under $800) shipped directly from China/Hong Kong.

krl35.bsky.social•33 days ago

But how will my dad buy my cheap candle for my birthday?!

thoughtpolitik.bsky.social•32 days ago

It’s a tax paid by Americans.

neotiamat99.bsky.social•33 days ago

Trump and Musk are going after basically every interest group in the country.

Some of those will very sympathetic. Others will be... uh... "let them fight" meme-y.

rwsbob.bsky.social•33 days ago

But please can it wait until I get my 10 USB chargers? Gaaahhhhh

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