((Translation automated by Reuters, please consult the non-responsibility clause https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))))
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American customs say they are ready to manage the new inspection volume
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Airlines and ocean ship operators must receive new rights to packages
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The rights must be perceived before the goods are dispatched outside China and Hong Kong
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The maritime transport sector is concerned about the resurgence of delays and disturbances
(Adding details on informal entry to paragraph 20, no disturbances reports in paragraph 23) by David Lawder and Lisa Baertlein
The Trump administration ended the United States’s rights access to low value on Friday for low value from China and Hong Kong, abolishing the “minimis” exemptions from Shein, TEMU PDD.O and other electronic commerce companies, as well as fetanyl traffickers and other illicit goods.
This measure reestablished a decree taken by President Donald Trump in February, which had been quickly suspended due to the absence of control procedures for shipments of less than $ 800, which had caused chaos in airports and caused the stack of millions of packages.
The customs and border protection service of the United States has “a huge task to be accomplished”, but it is ready to take care of the application and collection of customs duties imposed by Trump on small Chinese expeditions, said a spokesperson for the agency.
“We are ready and equipped to carry out a reinforced package control and apply the prescriptions effectively, as indicated in Mr. Trump’s decree (), which ends the minimis treatment granted to China, added the spokesperson.
The new procedures should not affect passenger waiting times in airports and entry points, the spokesperson said.
According to the latest CBP guidelines, shipments from China and Hong Kong, whatever their size, will now be subject to the new Trump customs duties of 145 % plus all previous rights, with the exception of products such as smartphones that were excluded last month. These shipments will be largely processed by express shippers such as Fedex FDX.N, united parcel service UPS.N or DHL DHLN.DE, which have their own freight treatment facilities.
Articles of maximum value of 800 dollars sent from China by postal services are treated differently. They are now subject to a tax of 120 % of the value of the package or to a flat -rate fee of $ 100 per package, an amount which will increase to 200 dollars in June.
Change in entry formalities
However, the CBP temporarily suspended a rule which would have required a formal customs entry for all shipments of a value greater than 250 dollars containing goods also subject to punitive customs tariffs. This rule would have resulted in a significant increase in costs for shipowners, but logistics experts said the suspension would make customs duties more difficult.
-The official customs entry, normally associated with larger and contained cargoes, requires detailed information on tariff codes, the prior electronic transmission of entry data, the tax identification of the recipient – potentially a social security number – and a deposit to cover customs liability.
In addition, it would have applied itself to many other countries currently subject to the American customs duties imposed by Mr. Trump, which would have created a new potential burden of administrative paperwork for shippers.
Under the suspension, much simpler informal input procedures can be used for most parcels with a maximum value of $ 2,500, including those treated by UPS, FEDEX and DHL sales.
For mail shipments from postal services from Hong Kong and China, the formal entry threshold is reduced to 800 dollars, the old minimis level, and they are subject to complete customs duties.
The absence of detailed information in the context of informal entry, including complete tariff codes, will make parcel control “practically impossible” to detect illicit goods such as fentanyl chemicals, said RAM Ben Tzion, Director General of Publican, a digital shipping control platform.
Trump ended the minimis exemption for China largely because it was used for low value shipments containing chemical precursors from fentanyl to the United States, a documented phenomenon in a series of the Reuters agency on fentanyl.
Takeoff collections
The American postal service said that it would not participate in the collection of customs duties. According to a USPS spokesperson, airlines and ship operators will have to work with Chinese sender and postal authorities to pay import taxes and provide evidence before the goods are transported outside China or Hong Kong.
The sender expect a new chaos for packages, and some wonder if the airlines are ready to manage taxes with China Post and Hongkong Post
“We have the same concerns concerning the bottlenecks,” said Kate Muth, executive director of the International Mailers Advisory Group (IMAG), who is among its members Amazon.com Amzn.o, Ebay Ebay.o and divisions of United Parcel Service, Fedex and DHL.
The end of the minimis rule and the high customs duties imposed by the United States on Chinese goods are likely to weigh on international air freight traffic, which had gone on the site as American buyers multiplied their purchases on platforms such as Shein and Temu.
Although minimis is a Latin term designating questions of little importance, the low value of China to the United States reached an estimated amount of $ 5.1 billion in 2024, according to data from the United States Census Office. This makes it the seventh category of American imports from China, behind video game consoles, but just in front of computer screens.
Minimis packages represent approximately a third of the total of tons of air freight from Asia for the United States, and this commercial volume could fall by 75 % this year, according to estimates of Trade and Transport Group.
According to Frederic Horst, director general of the Trade and Transport Group consulting company, based in Sydney, growth in international air freight traffic, which reached 12.3 % last year, could collapse to be between -0.1 % and 0.7 % this year, due to the stagnation of traffic between China and the United States and the weakening of the world economy.
“There are a lot of cancellations that are currently occurring for the next one or two weeks,” said Horst.
According to Derek Lossing, founder of Cirrus Global Advisors, freight flights have already dropped by around 10 % during the week which ended on May 2, stressing that the high customs duties imposed by the United States on China have probably played a role.
Friday afternoon, no major disruption had been reported.
In the end, CBP decisions in the application of the law will determine the fluidity of the implementation of new policies, said Mr. Lossing. For example, if the CBP strictly applies the declared value, this may require the inspection of more than 10,000 shipments per day.
“The situation could quickly become chaotic
