Related to the suspended “de minimus” exceptions
This could have significant effects on the supply chain.
Hopefully just temporary.
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Odd, very few details on that link. So letters and flats get through, no parcels or packages get through.
Effective today! And to be sure, all should know on this forum how little they pay for inbound shipping throughout the US compared to what we other sellers pay.
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It’s the actual official USPS announcement, and yes, quite bare on details. I would especially appreciate the word “temporary” to be explained somewhere. 
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Agree, especially “temporarily suspended… until further notice.” That has no expiration date IMO.
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OK CBS also reporting, so we know we’re not just seeing things. But no details on how temporary is temporary.
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Because they haven’t decided yet.
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In an online event in October, Ralph Carter, the vice president of regulatory affairs at FedEx, observed that resources were stretched for U.S. customs officials and that a change to de minimis rules could lead to bottlenecks for shippers.
“If we convert these millions of shipments from de minimis into formal, informal clearances, we’re going to have serious supply chain backups, because there simply isn’t the resources to manage that,” he said. “And so that’s going to affect all importers, not just importers of de minimis.”
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It might affect customers who already have orders, and will affect future shipments from companies that rely on the U.S. Postal Service to get their products to customers. They would need to find alternatives like UPS and FedEx, which are likely see rising demand and could command higher prices.FedEx and UPS move a large portion of de minimis parcels, running frequent cargo flights from China to the United States. Neither company has responded yet to questions about how they will handle the new rules.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/china-us-usps-de-minimis.html
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This will help my business in the short term. I have a lot of Chinese competitors or Chinese import competitors.
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Just for the record, the cost of living is actually fairly high in Hong Kong compared to Mainland China. For example a 1lb express parcel from Hong Kong (through HK Post) to the US costs around 46 USD, which is still cheaper than vice versa, but not as little as many may think.
The problem is the e-packets from Mainland China. Even the same service shipping from Hong Kong costs about four times what it costs in the mainland.
So honestly I’m quite surprised that it included Hong Kong in the equation due to the fact that parcels coming out of Hong Kong aren’t “that” cheap. Also, there seems to be no mention of Macau. (I know all of them are technically the same country but I recall they are treated as different destinations in the postal system/contract)
Every action of a leader will surely benefit some and hurt some, and I’m trying to see from both sides, but I just sense a big ego behind all this and a lot of “reasons” to justify that ego. Instead of stopping the de minimis measure, IMHO restricting what postal services it can be applied to (e.g. only excludes e-Packet parcels) will do the trick with less disruption. In the end, it’s the consumers (especially those in the low-income range) that have to pay the price.
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Since I don’t deal with any of the Chinese stuff can someone please tell me if the packages that WERE covered by the de minimus exemptions actually have a customs form with values on them?
My GUESS is that since the de minimus exemption is voided at this time the USPS is looking at any parcels without values (or a form) to be in violation of the now required customs information.
Personally, since I am not having any oxen being gored by this, I am fine with it!
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Yes they do. Every international parcel requires the sender to declare the value of the goods inside, no matter if it’s a gift or a product with commercial value.
Now that the de minimus is terminated, customs will have to collect tariffs from the importer of record on those millions of parcels that were previously exempted. Until the payment is made and the clearance process is completed, those parcels can stuck in customs for up to weeks before they are finally admitted or sent back.
We don’t import from China (or Canada or Mexico) so this won’t directly affect us, but as mentioned in the NYTimes article @papy quoted, those shipments stuck in customs, or simply the sudden increase of workload will definitely cause a huge backup for other import shipments and that aftermath is what we fear.
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True. I was referring to China e-packets.
I spent many years in the Asian Basin many months in Hong Kong, by the way my favorite city on this planet.
That was before the handover to China, so others may now not agree.
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Another link
May have more information.
Sorry for those of you that source from china, but for those of us that have been hit hard by the Chinese knockoffs this is good news.
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Apparently the suspension is already over US Postal Service restores delivery of incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong after briefly suspending them | CNN Business
There is so much damn flip flopping going on in the past two weeks it just makes me want to ignore it all and bury my head in the sand…which is exactly what they want me to do, and yet I’m just so terribly exhausted at the idea of having to continue to read the news 
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My guess (and it is a guess) is that they are trying to figure out how to implement the de minimis exemption with customs and border patrol. The easiest solution (for them anyway) is to just press pause until they have systems in place to deal with the it. I can only imagine the increased workload with having to declare and collect on all the goods that came in de minimis before.
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Oh goody. I had ordered 3d printer parts before the lunar new year, they have never moved, and clearly now never will. Ugh
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Since the US seems to have no control who is a developing nation within the UPU, it seems the only choice for the US to level the e-commerce playing field would be to withdraw from the Union. This has been a consensus for a long time. I would think this would curtail some of the de minimus exemption trade which should be the next topic of discussion.
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