The trucking industry is weighing in on the potential scrapping of the de minimis provision and the proposed addition of fees for Chinese ships to dock at American ports.
In commentary filed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) warned that amending the regulations for the entry of low-value shipments into the U.S. would be a costly overhaul and require more education to be effective.
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The nation’s largest trucking lobby comprising 30,000 trucking companies recommends that the CBP begin a period of “informed compliance” for one year once a final ruling on de minimis is made. Under informed compliance, the CBP would educate importers on how to comply with new laws and regulations.
“These changes will require major capital investment in system infrastructure to create mechanisms to identify if a shipment qualifies for the administrative exemption,” said Kaitlyn Holmecki, senior manager, international trade and security policy, ATA, in the Monday filing. “Moreover, these changes will place logistics firms on a steep learning curve while they determine which parties own the new data elements and the optimum approach to collecting the data and consolidating it for submission to CBP.”
CBP is proposing to create a new process for packages entering the U.S. that are valued at less than $800, so that it can target high-risk shipments with synthetic opioids like fentanyl more effectively.
The future of the duty-free de minimis provision brings plenty of uncertainty to importers. If the trade exemption was axed, e-commerce retailers that ship the majority of goods via air freight out of China like Shein, Temu and even Amazon, would no longer be able to ship tax free.
At the same time, logistics providers on the ground would be forced to deal with the headache of package backlogs at customs, resulting in shipment delays for consumers.
This was the primary reason the suspension of low-value shipments entering the U.S. from China at the start of February lasted just days before being lifted.
“It became clear that CBP did not have the necessary resources to collect tariffs on all the products that no longer qualified for the de minimis exemption,” Holmecki wrote. “Efficiency is paramount to ensure the safe movement of trade across borders, therefore it is imperative that CBP roll out this new policy in a thoughtful and measured manner.”