The U.S. Postal Service will temporarily suspend accepting inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong amid President Donald Trump’s trade war.
The change, which went into effect on Tuesday, will not impact the flow of letters and ‘flats’ from China and Hong Kong, the agency wrote on its website.
USPS did not immediately comment on whether this was tied to Trump’s decision to end ‘de minimis’ shipments on goods valued under $800 from China and other countries.
The president halted the century-old trade law that allows low-price imports to enter the United States duty-free as part of his implementation of an additional 10 percent tariff on China and 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico – though levies on the latter two countries have been paused for a month.
Trump’s stated goal was to tackle shipments of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the US.
Nearly half of all packages shipped under ‘de minimis’ rule come from China, including those from fast fashion giants Shein and Temu, according to a June 2023 report from a congressional committee on China.
Trump’s decision to end the rule could now prove to be devastating for Shein, Temu and other businesses built on a ‘factory-to-consumer’ model, which relies on keeping costs – and prices – as low as possible.
But the move will benefit Amazon, eBay and other big online sellers that dispatch goods from within the US having already paid duty on them if imported.
The U.S. Postal Service will temporarily suspend accepting inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong amid President Donald Trump’s trade war
Nearly half of all packages shipped under ‘de minimis’ rule come from China, including those from fast fashion giants Shein and Temu
Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told The Telegraph: ‘If [Shien and Temu] behave like most companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pass on the costs.
‘But the real challenge is that their entire business model depends on how insanely cheap these products are.
‘American consumers are going to have to ask themselves, are they going to be willing to pay higher prices for these goods?’
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency processes over one billion de minimis shipments per year, with Shein and Temu alone accounting for nearly 600,000 packages daily.
US stocks initially plunged Monday morning on news that Trump would introduce tariffs, but they recovered after a deal was done with Mexico to delay them by a month.
Even if the President does not go ahead with a full range of tariffs, he plans to end the ‘de minimis rule’.
Meanwhile, designers have hit out at Temu and Shein after the retailers ‘copied’ their products.
Frustrated artisans have taken to TikTok to expose how their designs have been ‘ripped off’ by websites like Shein, which was founded in China in 2008.
The most popular items to buy from Shein and Temu are adult clothes and small electronics
President Donald Trump’s tariffs could help Amazon. The e-commerce giant was founded by Jeff Bezos, who has become close to Trump since he was elected President. Both seen here meeting with Google boss Satya Nadella in June 2017
Their videos compare their designs with strikingly similar Shein knock-offs.
In one, artist Vikki Jones revealed she had sent Temu a cease and desist letter after the retail giant ‘stole’ her artwork and sold ‘hundreds of copies’.
In the clip, the visibly upset 25-year-old says she ‘doesn’t know what to do’ after hearing of similar incidents that left independent sellers fighting to get their work taken down – with little success.
The designer, who founded her business five years ago, was left disheartened over how many sales the Chinese retailers had made that ‘rightfully’ belonged to her.
