Congress has at least two bills approved by the House Ways & Means Committee that address de minimis. They have not moved out of that committee at this time.
According to a DHS fact sheet released on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stopped 9,000 shipments worth more than $3.4 billion from entering the U.S. under the UFLPA and added 26 companies and subsidiaries to the Entity List this spring, which bars their products from being imported into the U.S. Inside Trade magazine, a subscription based news service focusing on trade policy, said it was hard to police shipments that may come under the UFLPA because of the “opaqueness” of supply chains and the onslaught of de minimis shipments coming into the country each day.
Mayorkas was quoted as saying in Inside Trade that some larger corporate supply chains have shifted out of mainland China, especially out of the Xinjiang region, the center of attention for the UFLPA.
He said Homeland was working “very closely with the solar industry” with respect to solar-grade polysilicon. Hoshine Silicon Industries, a major producer of poly for solar and semiconductors, is on Homeland’s UFLPA Entity List and cannot be part of a U.S. supply chain.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of movement from a reliance on the Xinjiang province, a major producer of polysilicon,” he said. “We’ve seen them shift the supply chain to a point where by 2026, I believe, we’re going to see a 200 percent increase in the manufacture of solar-grade polysilicon in North America and India.”
CPA estimated that de minimis shipments from China in 2022 added another $188 billion to our roughly $382 billion deficit with China. Adding those numbers together and you get a record-breaking trade deficit with China despite tariffs.
According to The Loadstar, an air freight news and information publisher, merchandise on cargo flights coming into LAX in early June from mainland China, many of which are shipments from China e-commerce retailers Shein and Temu, were being diverted to Customs warehouses for further review. The article said Customs so far has found narcotics and false declarations of package contents in order to meet the price threshold of $800 for duty-free de minimis entry.
See CPA’s analysis about the LAX detouring China de minimis shipments here.
Over the last year, evidence has been piling up that there is no way to effectively police millions of small package imports arriving daily.
It is unclear if LAX is still diverting freight flight deliveries from China to Customs warehouses at this time.
Homeland’s Mayorkas Criticizes De Minimis, Says It Comes With Risks
The de minimis customs provision that allows for goods priced under $800 to come into the U.S. duty free is full of risks, and an open door for “controlled substances and all sorts of contraband,” Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Tuesday.
This is the first time Mayorkas has weighed in on the customs rule, saying that we should not assume low priced goods are low risk goods. He was basing part of his argument on garments that use cotton that is banned under the Uyghur Forced Labor (UFLPA) law.
Congress has at least two bills approved by the House Ways & Means Committee that address de minimis. They have not moved out of that committee at this time.
According to a DHS fact sheet released on Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stopped 9,000 shipments worth more than $3.4 billion from entering the U.S. under the UFLPA and added 26 companies and subsidiaries to the Entity List this spring, which bars their products from being imported into the U.S. Inside Trade magazine, a subscription based news service focusing on trade policy, said it was hard to police shipments that may come under the UFLPA because of the “opaqueness” of supply chains and the onslaught of de minimis shipments coming into the country each day.
Mayorkas was quoted as saying in Inside Trade that some larger corporate supply chains have shifted out of mainland China, especially out of the Xinjiang region, the center of attention for the UFLPA.
He said Homeland was working “very closely with the solar industry” with respect to solar-grade polysilicon. Hoshine Silicon Industries, a major producer of poly for solar and semiconductors, is on Homeland’s UFLPA Entity List and cannot be part of a U.S. supply chain.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of movement from a reliance on the Xinjiang province, a major producer of polysilicon,” he said. “We’ve seen them shift the supply chain to a point where by 2026, I believe, we’re going to see a 200 percent increase in the manufacture of solar-grade polysilicon in North America and India.”
CPA estimated that de minimis shipments from China in 2022 added another $188 billion to our roughly $382 billion deficit with China. Adding those numbers together and you get a record-breaking trade deficit with China despite tariffs.
According to The Loadstar, an air freight news and information publisher, merchandise on cargo flights coming into LAX in early June from mainland China, many of which are shipments from China e-commerce retailers Shein and Temu, were being diverted to Customs warehouses for further review. The article said Customs so far has found narcotics and false declarations of package contents in order to meet the price threshold of $800 for duty-free de minimis entry.
See CPA’s analysis about the LAX detouring China de minimis shipments here.
Over the last year, evidence has been piling up that there is no way to effectively police millions of small package imports arriving daily.
It is unclear if LAX is still diverting freight flight deliveries from China to Customs warehouses at this time.
What's the Government doing?
Republicans from the House Ways & Means Committee quickly put together two de minimis bills after months of negotiations on bills by de minimis stalwart’s like Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). These bills targeted UFLPA shipments and would affect Shein and Temu’s business, but nothing has been done on this issue since.
In May, the Senate Finance Subcommittee for International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness took a one-sided view on the de minimis exemption in a hearing, rejecting anything but technocratic changes.
The Subcommittee’s only witnesses were anti-tariff groups — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC).
Senate Finance Committee Democrats posted their briefing sheet about the subcommittee hearing where staff repeated the big importers’ talking points that repealing de minimis would be burdensome for Customs.
“Eliminating de minimis entirely could maximize enforcement but drain CBP of resources and lead to bottlenecks and delays at U.S. ports,” they wrote.
Customs agents today are inundated with small packages sent via de minimis. Other than looking for products that are subject to the UFLPA, Customs agents are faced with searching for and destroying contraband goods from around the world, including narcotics like fentanyl.
In May, members of the Coalition to Close the De Minimis Loophole sent a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) providing information demonstrating the major role de minimis exemptions play in facilitating illicit drug sales into the U.S.
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