The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday halted an order to suspend incoming shipments from China that threatened to severely disrupt trade between two major economies, CBC News reported.
A day after announcing the suspension in the wake of President Trump’s tariffs on China, the postal service said in an online update that it would “continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.”
It added it was workin to “implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”
Letters and flats were not included in the suspension, the postal service said.
On Tuesday, Beijing announced it would counter Mr. Trump’s new 10% tariff on Chinese goods with retaliatory tariffs of his own. China said starting next Monday it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquified national gas products along with a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S.
Mr. Trump’s tariff increases also eliminated a duty-free exemption for low-value packages coming from China. The “de minimus” exemption allows goods valued at $800 or below to come into the United States without paying duties or certain taxes.
BBC reported: The US Postal Service (USPS) has resumed accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong following a brief suspension after Donald Trump changed the rules on import taxes.
USPS said it as working with US Customs an Border Protection to ensure “the lease disruption” to package deliveries as the US president announced trade measures which included higher tariffs on Chinese goods.
The US also ended a policy that allowed small packages worth $800 (£641) or less to be sent to America without paying taxes or fees.
Chinese retailers, such as online giants Shein and Temu, have used the exemption to ship low-value packages to the US and have benefited from similar rules in the UK and the European Union (EU) to reach millions of customers.
The explosion of parcels being shipped under the loophole has prompted increased scrutiny in recent years. While all retailers use the exemption, those who sell fast-fashion and cheap goods have seen their sales soar.
NPR reported: A trade loophole called de minimus helped drive explosive growth for bargain sites such as Temu and Shein, allowing them to ship cheep goods from China to U.S. consumers without having to pay taxes and import duties.
But that now stands to change, after President Trump signed an executive order stating de minimus treatment “shall not be available” for products made in China, the top source of goods imported to the U.S.
The effects could be far reaching: De minimus shipments account for most of the cargo entering the U.S., Customs and Border Protection said last fall. The agency said it was handling some 4 million de minimus shipments every day — a rate that would blow past the previous year’s mark of more than 1 billion shipments.
In my opinion, it appears that President Trump does not want to allow products from China to be delivered to the U.S.