De Minimis packages: For some of the cheapest exports of China, there is still a massive Trump tariff

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Cnn
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The buyers received a small relief from a huge tariff for previously cheap, dutation -free goods from China this week. But the remaining tariffs are still ready to derail the shopping habits of millions of Americans who buy from e-commerce websites with ultra-low-lined winners such as Shein and Temu.

The Trump administration has reduced its tariff for “de Minimis” packages or deliveries of goods worth 800 $ 800 or less, whereby it occurred from China from 120% to 54% and reduced the rate of 145% to 30% for packages of commercial bathers. An option with a flat fee of $ 100 will not increase to $ 200 per postal from June 1st, as already planned, such as an executive order issued on Monday, which will come into force after midnight on Wednesday.

The change is a symbol for the condition of the US China trade war. The relationship improves, but it has to go even further before it goes back to level before January. On Wednesday, China returned its overall tariffs for US goods to 10% for 90 days, while the US taxes for the vast majority of Chinese products have dropped to 30% during this period. The US tariffs are on taxes that were already present before US President Donald Trump began his second term.

The executive order on Monday makes the 120% tariff easier for de -Minimis post packages. The new 54% rate only applies to shipments treated by postal services such as USPS. Instead, deliveries of UPS, FEDEX and other Express Courier companies will be exposed to the basic tariff for Chinese goods, which the United States has reduced to 30%and still paralyzed for many companies and consumers.

Ultimately, the main load of tariffs will fall on US consumers, in particular on low-income, which are dependent on relatively inexpensive products from China. Now Americans can expect longer waiting times and higher prices, said trading experts CNN.

“It is a better scenario than the alternative, but in the end this is an enormous disorder for basic household items such as clothing, etc. that are shipped with the de -minimus exemption,” said Clark Packard, a fellow of trade policy at Cato Institute, a Libertar thinker, said CNN.

The liberation of Minimis had made Chinese e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu possible to flood the US market with cheap objects on which millions of Americans had rely on.

But after President Donald Trump had issued the punishment of tariffs for Chinese imports for the first time, chaos occurred: USPS briefly stopped delivering plots from China and grew delivery times. After the exception had expired two weeks ago, the customers said CNN that they had difficulties in continuing to buy from Shein and Temu after the platforms had increased their prices.

Hours after the exemption from Minimis at the beginning of May, Temu announced that he will revise his shipping model and send all American sales via the sellers based in the USA, and added that the “pricing for US consumers remains unchanged”.

After the announcement of the new tariff to Temu, CNN has contacted the updates of its shipping guidelines.

The tariff remains higher compared to the overall tariff for Chinese goods, since the Trump government said that it wanted to go against illegal substances such as fentanyl, which are allegedly trapped by these packages. Packard also noticed the growing skepticism of the liberation that the critics claim to complain about US companies and the Americans fake or “dangerous”.

The roller coaster has brought the sender and consumers equally in confusion. Despite the newly reduced rate, the effects on this gigantic e-commerce company remain unclear.

Trading experts say that Chinese e-commerce giants will probably store products in the United States during this de-escalation phase in the United States, especially if companies prepare for the busy holiday season.

Temu and Shein have already started Build your US warehouse portfolios on lower shipping times. Shein began to store goods and Already last year in US warehouses, and Bloomberg reported in February that Temu overtook his Chinese supply chain and asked the supplier factories to send objects in loose fills to US warehouses.

Some of the American buyers of Temu complained this month that articles were not already in stock or that many items were no longer available.

Households with lower incomes are the most from suffering Higher prices for Chinese e-commerce websites. About 48% of the DE -Minimis packages were delivered to the poorest postcodes in the USA, while according to research by UCLA and Yale economists, 22% were delivered to the richest.

“It will hurt people who fight a little more than average Americans,” said Packard.