At the stroke of midnight, 92% of all U.S. cargo shipments, and as much as 4 million packages each day, misplaced their duty-free standing with President Donald Trump’s removing of the de minimis exemption for low-value commerce. Any imported items despatched by way of the worldwide postal community which might be valued at or beneath $800 will now be topic to relevant duties. While the winners and losers on the retail landscape and among consumers are debated, customs consultants are warning the troubles dealing with small to medium-sized companies that relied on the duty-free exemption are simply starting, and can be important.
“When I think about the de minimis change, the message is clear: tariffs are now universal, regardless of value,” stated Nunzio De Filippis, licensed customs dealer and co-CEO of CargoTrans. “Every package counts. That’s a major change in how global e-commerce has operated for the last decade.”
The postal service or “qualified party” (e.g., USPS, Royal Mail, La Poste) that decides how duties are collected on packages shifting by way of the postal stream should acquire these duties from shippers or recipients and remit them to U.S. Customs.
The carriers have two strategies to select from — both a share of the nation’s tariff charge (advert valorem) or a flat per-package price, De Filippis defined. With the flat charge, there are three tiers: $80 if the IEEPA tariff charge — the commerce duties put in force by Trump utilizing emergency financial powers — is beneath 16% (resembling EU items at 15%); $160 if it is between 16% and 25% (resembling Vietnam at 20%); and $200 if it is above 25% (resembling India at 50% or China at 30%). After a six-month transition interval, the flat price possibility goes away and all packages will be topic to the share tariff charge solely.
According to Marianne Rowden, commerce legal professional and CEO of the E-Merchants Trade Council, which represents e-sellers and firms that assist e-commerce, the full improve in price to be paid by small and medium-sized companies might attain over $71 billion, calculations that she stated are based mostly on a mean worth per bundle of $48 and knowledge from the U.S Customs and Border Protection for fiscal yr 2025.
Availability of air freight for U.S. shippers may also change.
The quantity of authorities postal workplaces shutting the door on shipments certain for the U.S. has grown to incorporate Swiss Post, Japan Post and postal companies in Australia, India, New Zealand, the U.Ok. and different components of Europe that introduced they’re suspending shipments.
Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany, each divisions of DHL, stopped U.S.-bound shipments on August 25.
“For shippers, this brings increased costs, complexity, and the need to adapt shipping setups to comply with new customs requirements. They may also face longer processing times and additional administrative steps when importing lower-value goods,” stated Andrew Williams, CEO for DHL Express Americas, who informed CNBC it is going to proceed to course of inbound shipments to the United States in accordance with the relevant customs guidelines and laws. “Our main priority remains to protect our core service commitment to customers and to minimize any disruption that arises from changes in tariff and trade policy, while remaining compliant with applicable customs rules and regulations,” Williams stated.
Ryan Elliott, chief working officer at Everstream Analytics, stated these international postal modifications might catch smaller companies abruptly. “We’ve already seen a number of countries, especially in the EU, pause deliveries to the U.S., explaining that they need more time to work through how they’ll collect and transit duties and data,” stated Elliott. “Small businesses may not be aware of the changes, and many will be caught off guard. But, when the dust settles, my best guess is that many will struggle to comply as they simply don’t have the resources to manage through customs requirements,” he stated.
Josh Teitelbaum, a global commerce knowledgeable at Akin and former U.S. Commerce official, stated the way in which this new tariff change is being carried out is resulting in international confusion. “With many of the world’s postal services temporarily suspending service to the U.S., ultimately, consumers and small businesses will be the ones that see increased costs or shipping delays as we undergo more changes to trade policy,” he stated.
Ronald Kleijwegt, CEO at Vinturas, a worldwide provide chain collaboration community serving international producers and OEMs like Mitsubishi and The Association of European Vehicle Logistics, stated small companies will really feel probably the most ache. “What was once a straightforward cross-border trade is now full of uncertainty,” he stated. “Larger companies may have the resources to adapt by absorbing costs, rerouting logistics, or investing in compliance. Smaller businesses often do not, which can limit their opportunities, slow innovation, and reduce consumer choice.”
Concerns in regards to the monetary well being of small companies are rising. Jacob Bennett, co-founder of small enterprise banking advisor Crux Analytics, stated the conversations it’s having with banks and credit score unions are in regards to the affect of the commerce volatility on U.S. small companies. “We are trying to help them navigate all of these changes,” stated Bennett. “So many small and medium-sized businesses operate on such thin margins and don’t have the pools of capital that they can fall back on and extend their runway, so many small businesses will unfortunately suffer because of these changes.”
In its explanation for the de minimis elimination, the White House has pressured that over the previous decade, the quantity of de minimis shipments to the United States exploded, rising from 134 million shipments in 2015 to over 1.36 billion shipments in 2024. Low-cost Asian retail e-commerce firms have been among the many main beneficiaries of that increase, such as Shein and Temu. In addition, the Trump administration says de minimis shipments accounted for 90% of all cargo seizures in fiscal yr 2024. “These shipments often broke the law, with 98% of narcotics seized from cargo falling under the de minimis exemption, as well as 97% of counterfeit items seized,” it said in a doc on the brand new commerce coverage.
But for small companies, the first concern is that the extra duties will eat into their already skinny margins and probably pressure them to boost costs.
Shippers which have leveraged de minimis is not going to have all of the tariff mitigation methods obtainable that bulk importers have, in keeping with Brian Bourke, chief business officer at SEKO Logistics, and he says its elimination will create two seemingly impacts for shoppers: greater costs and fewer dependable supply. Bourke stated companies will seemingly move on new obligation prices for the low-value items that transit into the United States, and the elevated knowledge necessities for the postal channels might result in delays relying on how the opposite international locations’ postal operators are capable of deal with and handle these new necessities.
“Large businesses that rely on small businesses should immediately get to work figuring out which suppliers they rely on for what and do what they can to either help them comply or find alternative suppliers,” stated Elliott.
Ultimately, the affect of the end of the de minimis exemption will prolong past U.S. companies, in keeping with Kleijwegt. “With de minimis scrapped, EU exporters now face tariffs on low-value items, added customs paperwork, and higher shipping costs when selling to the US. U.S. small businesses now lose out on cheaper European sourcing, while smaller EU firms lose easy duty-free access, which has huge implications for market access on both sides of the Atlantic,” he stated.