The de minimis exemption ended for shipments from China and Hong Kong on May 2, 2025, and then for every other country on August 29, 2025. The $800 duty-free threshold that used to let one international package per day slip into the United States without tariffs or paperwork no longer applies to any shipment, from any country, at any value. If a package is crossing the U.S. border in 2026, someone is paying duties on it.
What You Pay on an International Package Now
How the charge is calculated depends on how the package travels.
Packages moving through the international postal network fall under a flat per-package fee tied to the sending country’s IEEPA tariff rate:
- Countries with an IEEPA rate below 16%: $80 per package
- Countries with an IEEPA rate of 16% to 25%: $160 per package
- Countries with an IEEPA rate above 25%: $200 per package1White House. Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries
Carriers were allowed to use this flat-fee method for six months after the global suspension took effect. After that window closes, postal shipments must be duties calculated as a percentage of declared value (ad valorem). A February 2026 executive order continued the suspension and tied postal duty rates to a temporary import surcharge rate effective February 24, 2026.2White House. Continuing the Suspension of Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries
Packages moving through commercial carriers like FedEx, UPS, or DHL take a different route. They must go through formal customs entry in the Automated Commercial Environment system, and the shipment pays all applicable duties, taxes, and fees based on tariff classification and country of origin. That’s the same process that has always applied to bulk commercial imports, now applied to your $60 package.
There is a second cost most buyers don’t see coming: brokerage. Formal customs entry requires someone to file the paperwork. Broker fees on individual shipments typically start around $90 and can exceed $150 depending on the carrier and shipment type. On a cheap item, that fee alone can outrun the price of the goods.
How Chinese Shipments Are Treated Differently
China and Hong Kong were pulled out of the de minimis system four months before the rest of the world, on May 2, 2025, under IEEPA authority tied to the synthetic opioid crisis.3White House. Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Closes De Minimis Exemptions to Combat Chinas Role in Americas Synthetic Opioid Crisis
For Chinese postal shipments, carriers could choose between a 120% ad valorem duty on the package’s value or a flat fee that started at $100 per package and rose to $200 per package on June 1, 2025.4Federal Register. Notice of Implementation of Additional Duties on Products of the Peoples Republic of China Chinese goods shipped through commercial carriers face formal customs entry with IEEPA duties, reciprocal tariff rates, and legacy Section 301 tariffs from 2018 all potentially stacking on top of the item’s value.5Congress.gov. Presidential 2025 Tariff Actions: Timeline and Status
The practical result: a $20 item mailed from China can face either around $24 in ad valorem duty or a flat $200 charge, whichever the carrier selects. For cheap consumer goods, the flat-fee route is prohibitive by design.
What This Costs on Everyday Purchases
The effect on the cheapest goods is the harshest. A $15 phone case that used to arrive duty-free can now carry a $200 flat fee if sent through international mail from China, or the accumulated IEEPA and Section 301 duties if it comes through a commercial carrier. A $50 handmade item from Europe or Southeast Asia now needs formal customs entry through a commercial carrier or falls under the $80 postal fee at minimum.
Platforms that built their U.S. business on de minimis passed the costs to shoppers. Temu began adding import charges of roughly 130% to 150% on affected items after the China rule took effect, more than doubling the price of its cheapest goods. Shein folded tariff costs into its listed prices and posted a banner telling shoppers that “tariffs are included in the price you pay.”6CNBC. Temu Adds Import Charges After Trump Tariffs Temu’s U.S. daily active users dropped 52% after the China exemption ended; Shein’s dropped 25%.
Small Importers and Hobby Buyers
If you buy specialty components, craft supplies, or niche products from foreign sellers in small quantities, the change hits differently than it hits a casual shopper. A $200 order of beads from an overseas supplier now needs a formal customs entry, a Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification, and either your time to file the paperwork or a broker’s fee to do it for you. Those are the same procedures a company importing a full shipping container has to follow. The overhead doesn’t shrink because the shipment is small.
Some categories of goods were never eligible for de minimis treatment even before these changes, so nothing changed for them: products subject to antidumping or countervailing duties, goods under quota restrictions, and items taxed under the Internal Revenue Code at import such as alcohol and tobacco.
Getting the Value or Classification Wrong
Every international shipment is now subject to standard customs enforcement, which means the penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1592 apply to shippers who understate value or misclassify goods to reduce duties. The penalties scale with intent:
- Negligent violations: up to twice the duties the government was shortchanged, or up to 20% of the goods’ dutiable value if the violation didn’t affect the duty amount.
- Gross negligence: up to four times the unpaid duties, or up to 40% of dutiable value.
- Fraud: up to the full domestic value of the merchandise.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1592 – Penalties for Fraud, Gross Negligence, and Negligence
Self-disclosure before CBP begins an investigation caps the maximum fraud penalty at 100% of the unpaid duties instead of the full domestic value of the goods.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1592 – Penalties for Fraud, Gross Negligence, and Negligence CBP can also place holds on shipments, impose formal entry requirements on specific shippers or routes, and revoke preferential treatment for carriers that repeatedly fail to comply.
Whether This Could Be Reversed
The suspension rests on executive authority under IEEPA tied to declared emergencies, not on a permanent change to the underlying statute. 19 U.S.C. § 1321 still gives the Secretary of the Treasury authority to set a duty-free threshold, and the $800 figure remains in the statute as a floor for what the Secretary could choose.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1321 A future administration could reinstate duty-free treatment for low-value shipments, and legal challenges to the use of IEEPA for trade policy remain active. No rollback is currently scheduled. For now, every international package entering the United States faces duties.