Trump delays tariffs on small packages from China

After his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than$ 800 left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply, US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China.

As a result of the purchase, the postal services briefly stopped accepting packages from China, only to change course a day later.

Many Americans in the US were left wondering about the death of deals ordered from companies like Shein and Temu, who had used the exemption to allow for low-value packages to grow quickly in the US.

Trump made the change over the weekend as part of a larger plan to increase Chinese border taxes by 10 % starting on February 4.

His revision of the order on Friday stated that tariff-free shipping would continue for packages from China worth less than$ 800 until “adequate systems are in place to fully and expeditely process and collect tariff revenue.”

The action comes as some of Trump’s additional rapid-fire initiatives, including those that he announced last month, have also encountered barriers, including legal challenges.

He announced last weekend that he would start imposing 25 % tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, before abruptly suspending those duties for a month so that conversations can continue.

Trump had outlined on the campaign trail on Friday that he anticipated he would start imposing “reciprocal taxes” on some nations next week. He had previously stated that the US would levy taxes at the same rates that various nations impose on the similar products produced in the US.

The US had started to re-examine the provision for low-value items, known as de minimis, before Trump entered business.

In September, the Biden administration proposed enforcing regulations that would enable US companies compete and address issues preventing illegal drug supplies.

To facilitate trade and give officials more time to concentrate on higher priority shipments, the US increased the threshold for tariff exemption from$ 200 to$ 800 in 2016.

However, that choice has drawn criticism because e-commerce has rapidly grown and the number of packages entering the US under the$ 800 cap increased from 140 million to over 1.3 billion in the previous year.