Starting Friday, buying some items from abroad will cost U.S. consumers more money, after President Donald Trump ended the "de minimis" exemption on tariffs, which had been in place for nearly 100 years. 

What You Need To Know

  • Starting Friday, buying some items from abroad will cost U.S. consumers more money, after President Donald Trump ended the "de minimis" exemption on tariffs

  • The excemption had been in place since the 1930s and means that any products under $800 in value coming from overseas doesn't have to pay customs and duty fees 

  • According to Customs and Border Protection, a total of 1.36 billion packages entered the U.S. through the exemption in 2024

  • The Trump administration says the exemption hurt U.S. businesses and workers and was used to evade tariffs and smuggle fentanyl

Until this spring, shipments from abroad worth less than $800 could enter the United States without being subject to import taxes and customs costs because of the de minimis exemption. 

When it was adopted in the 1930s, it was used to make it easier to ship packages from abroad. In recent years, this has caused an explosion of e-commerce across the U.S. border. 

According to Customs and Border Protection, a total of 1.36 billion packages entered the U.S. through the exemption in 2024. On May 2, Trump ended the exemption for packages from China and Hong Kong. But next week, it is now ending for packages from everywhere else. 

According to the Trump administration, the exemption hurt U.S. businesses and workers and was used to evade tariffs and smuggle fentanyl. 

However, Marianne Rowden of the E-Merchants Trade Council argues that the end of the de minimis exemption doesn’t help businesses and consumers. She said if you order a cheap shirt from a site like Temu or Shein, that cost will no longer be as low as you remember. 

“It's going to raise the price of that $5 T-shirt, probably at least double, so you getting a single product for single shipment will probably end or be cost prohibitive,” she said. “These ancillary costs, in addition to the logistics, are going to add up."

With the end of the de minimis exemption, each item will also be hit with the tariff placed on its country of origin. For example, a product coming from Vietnam will have a tax of 20%.

The shipments will also no longer be allowed to bypass processing from U.S. Customs, driving the cost to consumers even higher. Rowden also warns that this could hurt businesses, especially smaller ones. 

“Larger businesses will be able to absorb these costs or be able to rationalize them in such a way they have flexibility the small companies, the e-sellers, which is basis of our membership," she said. "I fear that many of them will go out of business or stop being able to sell things online."

However, some domestic businesses applaud the end of the de minimis exemption, including Kim Glas, who heads the National Council of Textile Organizations. 

“These small little packages coming into our doorsteps, avoiding scrutiny and paying of the appropriate tariffs, have completely undermined domestic investments," Glas said. "We have now 1.4 billion boxes a year coming in through de minimis."

As for the wider impact, the Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University says the end of the de minimis exemption could cost U.S. consumers an extra $13 billion a year.