US Ends Trade Exemption That Enabled Flood of Cheap Chinese Goods
Workers produce garments at a textile factory supplying fast fashion e-commerce company Shein in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, on June 11, 2024. In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending de minimis duty-free exemptions for goods from China and Hong Kong, effective May 2. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images
Workers produce garments at a textile factory supplying fast fashion e-commerce company Shein in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, on June 11, 2024. In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending de minimis duty-free exemptions for goods from China and Hong Kong, effective May 2. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images
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US Ends Trade Exemption That Enabled Flood of Cheap Chinese Goods

U.S. Customs says it processes about 4 million de minimis shipments per day, up from 2.8 million last year.
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By Austin Alonzo
Updated:

One second past midnight on May 2, the United States ended a trading policy it says has been exploited by China to flood the U.S. market with cheap goods and smuggle illicit drugs into the country.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April to end the de minimis exemption for goods imported from China and Hong Kong as of May 2. The White House called it “a critical step in countering the ongoing health emergency posed by the illicit flow of synthetic opioids into the U.S.”
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