WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded President Trump for his decisive action to eliminate the de minimis loophole for imports from China, effective today, May 2, 2025. This ensures that goods from China are no longer able to enter the U.S. market duty-free and without inspection under the $800 threshold.
As of today, all merchandise originating in China must enter the United States through standard customs procedures, submit full import documentation, and pay applicable duties and taxes—a long-overdue reform to restore order and accountability to America’s trade system. CPA strongly supports repealing the de minimis loophole entirely as it is incompatible with the rule of law and has overwhelmed U.S. ports entirely.
“President Trump’s action to close the de minimis loophole for China is a monumental victory for American workers, manufacturers, and national security,” said Zach Mottl, Chairman of CPA. “For years, China exploited this loophole to flood our market with untaxed, uninspected, and often dangerous goods—including counterfeit products and fentanyl precursors—undermining U.S. industries and endangering our communities. By ending China’s ability to exploit the de minimis loophole, the President has taken a critical step toward restoring law and order to our trade system.”
CPA has been the leading national organization advocating to close the de minimis loophole, highlighting its devastating effects on domestic producers, law enforcement, and U.S. consumers. Under the prior policy, nearly 1 billion packages per year—many from China—entered the U.S. without facing any tariffs, scrutiny, or meaningful regulation.
“President Trump’s move to end China’s abuse of the de minimis loophole is a critical step forward, but the job isn’t finished,” said Jon Toomey, President of CPA. “The de minimis loophole remains a massive backdoor for untaxed, uninspected imports from other countries as well. The administration should now go further and end de minimis treatment for all imports—not just those from China—so that every foreign seller plays by the same rules as American businesses.”
CPA continues to support additional legislative and regulatory reforms to close the loophole entirely and ensure robust enforcement of trade laws to protect American supply chains, national security, and economic competitiveness.
Earlier this year, CPA applauded new legislation introduced by U.S. House Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA-38) that would end the de minimis loophole entirely and once and for all. If her bill was signed into law, all merchandise originating in China would immediately lose access to de minimis—an action that went into effect today as a result of the Trump administration’s actions. Additionally, merchandise from the rest of the world would lose access to de minimis 120 days following enactment of the bill.
Closing de minimis means that commercial shipments from overseas vendors must enter the United States through standard customs procedures, submit full import documentation, and pay applicable duties and taxes—a long-overdue reform to restore order and accountability to America’s trade system. CPA strongly supports the total repeal of the de minimis loophole as it is incompatible with the rule of law and has overwhelmed U.S. ports entirely.
Repealing de minimis is necessary for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) trade enforcement functions, particularly in the fight against the smuggling of fentanyl precursors that is rampant in the de minimis environment. Repealing de minimis will encourage more secure bulk containerized shipments as opposed to cargoes of individually wrapped consumer packages.
Business Leaders Applaud the Trump Administration’s Move
“The de minimis loophole has impacted our businesses and our workforce significantly. Roughly half of de minimis shipments contain textile and apparel products which get an unfair competitive advantage at our expense. Illegal products like fentanyl and products made with Uyghur forced labor come into the United States under the de minimis exemption, causing economic damage and impacting the lives of many Americans.”
— Anderson Warlick, Chairman and CEO Parkdale Mills and Board Member of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
“I would like to express our gratitude on behalf of our company and our employees to the administration for taking this long overdue action to eliminate the de minimis exception for China and hopefully extend it to all countries. When 301 duties on flatware of 25% were announced we considered it a huge win for our company expecting to see increases in the price of imported Chinese flatware, thus making us more competitive. Instead, nothing happened. The most plausible explanation for this, perhaps the only explanation, is their exploitation of the de minimis loophole. We are aware that several of our direct competitors and Amazon have warehousing operations in both Canada and Mexico that were set up to take advantage of the de minimis loophole. Since practically all individual shipments of flatware direct to customers via ecommerce are under $800, this would explain why there was no discernable increase in pricing from those competitors.”
— Greg Owens, CEO of Sherrill Manufacturing and member of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
“As a U.S. manufacturer, I’ve seen firsthand how the de minimis loophole gave Chinese companies an unfair advantage, allowing them to dump low-quality, often counterfeit products into our market with zero oversight and accountability. President Trump’s decisive action to close this loophole for China is a major win for American workers and American businesses that play by the rules. This is about more than economics—it’s about protecting American jobs, families, and consumers from a broken system that’s been exploited for far too long.”
— Brian Riley, CEO of Guardian Bikes and member of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
“As the owner of Artelo.io, an American print-on-demand wall art business, I strongly support ending de minimis treatment for goods from China. This change levels the playing field, boosts domestic manufacturing, and helps businesses like ours compete fairly. It’s an important step towards strengthening American jobs, innovation, and economic growth.”
— Ophir Rahimi, Founder of Artelo.io and member of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
“It is a blessing to be put back onto an even playing field with the copy-cat companies who have undercut us on price, along with so many other American companies, for the last four years. We asked every member of Congress that we met how they expected us to compete when Chinese companies have stolen our product images, copied our products and sold them right beside ours on Amazon at a forty to sixty percent discount to what we can sell for. There are no legal routes we could take to stop it. Since news of this repeal for China vendors, we have had a forty percent increase in sales. I bet as soon as the Chinese start feeling the effects of the tariffs, they’ll drop out and our sales will go through the roof. We are so thankful that this loophole, which never should have been allowed, has finally been closed.”
— Ken Finley, CEO of SawHaul and member of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
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