The end of an exemption this Friday may profoundly upset the trade flows and habits of American consumers, who notably found at Temu or Shein clothes and items for the house at low prices.
The packages from China, especially those containing the cheap clothes of e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, will be struck by punitive customs duties from Friday in the United States.
As part of the trade war between the two powers, the United States has decided to end an exemption from customs duties for parcels from China and Hong Kong, with a maximum value of 800 dollars, a mechanism that has notably enabled Chinese electronic commerce giants to develop in the United States.
This exemption ends on May 2 at 04:01 GMT and risks deeply upsetting the trade flows and habits of American consumers, who notably found at Temu or Shein clothes and items for the house at low prices.
More than four million packages benefiting from the exemption arrived so far in the United States every day, according to the White House.
Due to customs climbing between the two countries, the level of taxes that the Trump government has decided to impose only increased.
Concretely, parcels routed by private carriers like UPS and Fedex will be subjected to 145% customs duties, like all Chinese products passing borders since early April.
For those conveyed by postal services, they will be struck either by customs duties representing 120% of their value, or by a package of $ 100.
This package is due to increase to $ 200 on June 1.
President Donald Trump had announced the first time in early February, the restoration of customs duties for these small shipments, before suspending his decision to give the government time and his agencies to prepare.
According to Washington, companies based in China hide illicit substances in the flow of small packages, such as chemical precursors of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, responsible for many overdoses in the United States.
Also faced with an influx of parcels, France suggested last week to charge “management fees” on those arriving from countries outside the European Union (EU).
These flat -rate fees would be applied from 2026, until 2028, the date on which the EU could remove the current customs duties exemption from parcels worth less than 150 euros.
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