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President Trump is lifting a tariff exemption for small packages, subjecting billions of dollars in foreign products to import taxes after months of delay.
The White House is canceling the de minimis trade exemption starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, a move that significantly increases the scale of Trump’s trade reforms.
The new tariffs will apply to all countries, extending them from China and Hong Kong, where they’ve been in effect since May, to all U.S. trading partners.
The tariffs will apply to millions of commercial packages sent to the U.S. each month that are valued at or below $800.
U.S. senior administration officials told reporters Thursday afternoon the move will help combat drug trafficking, piracy and counterfeit goods and will generate significant revenues.
“President Trump’s ending of the deadly de minimis loophole will save thousands of American lives by restricting the flow of narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items, add up to $10 billion a year in tariff revenues to our Treasury, create thousands of jobs, and defend against billions of dollar more in losses in counterfeiting, piracy, and intellectual property theft,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said.
How will it work?
Starting Friday, all shipments, including those worth less than $800, are subject to duties, taxes and fees. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued guidance related to the order earlier this month.
Shipments coming through commercial carriers, which represent about 95 percent of de minimis parcels, will need to have informal or formal entry designation documents and pay the relevant tariff.
Shipments coming from international mail carriers have the option of choosing an ad valorem tax rate, which is the effective tariff rate imposed under the emergency economic powers law used by Trump to deliver his initial “reciprocal” tariffs. The tax is then based on the value of that package.
International mail shippers can also notify CBP that they are choosing a “specific duty” for their package ranging from $80 per item to $200 per item. That option is only available for six months whereupon shippers will need to use the topline ad valorem tariff rate.
Will there be changes or modifications?
Many of Trump’s tariff orders have been announced and then paused, modified or reversed.
Broad-stroke trade frameworks have been announced with multiple countries, with many of the details being left out for later inclusion. Economists have been hesitant to think of the agreements as proper trade deals, and businesses have complained frequently of uncertainty related to the policy environment.
But senior administration officials stressed that the worldwide closing of the de minimis loophole would not be reversed.
One top official said that the question of reversal was dead on arrival and that businesses would be able to take that assurance to the bank.
A barrier to transshipments from China
The de minimis exemption has been closed for China since May, but officials said the worldwide extension of the tariff will combat transshipments from China to the U.S. going through intermediary countries.
Navarro told foreign post offices to “get their act together” on package surveillance.
“Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff-evasion purposes,” Navarro said. “We are going to help them do that, but at this point they’re vastly underperforming express carriers.”
De minimis shipments in 2024 accounted for a 98 of all cargo seizures, 97 percent of all intellectual property seizures, totalling 31 million counterfeit items, and 77 percent of health and safety seizures, officials said.
Effect on revenues
Tariffs have been generating major federal revenue, even as Congress keeps expanding the deficit.
Revenues from customs duties, which are predominantly tariffs, came in at more than $100 billion over the summer for the first time ever within the span of a fiscal year. Duties were $23 billion in May, $27 billion in June, and $28 billion in July.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this month that tariff revenues would reduce federal deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade.
Officials said Thursday that the end of the de minimis loophole will amount to around $10 billion a year in revenue.
The effect of the de minimis closure so far
Closing the de minimis exemption for China has reduced packages under that classification from 4 million shipments per day down to about 1 million shipments per day, officials said.
Economic groups have worried about reduced consumption and output along with boosted effective taxes through increased price levels.
“In total, the imposed tariffs would reduce market income by 1.5 percent in 2026 … and amount to an average tax increase per US household of $1,304 in 2025 and $1,588 in 2026,” analysts for the conservative Tax Foundation wrote earlier this month.
They estimated that the tariffs would reduce gross domestic product by 0.9 percent.
Updated at 6:00 p.m. EDT
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