The United States plans to cancel tariff exemptions for Chinese goods! Shein and Temu may be hit again

According to foreign media reports, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers plans to introduce a bill aimed at eliminating tariff exemptions for e-commerce sellers shipping from China to the U.S. If the bill is passed, it will deal a huge blow to cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Temu.

Under current U.S. law, Chinese imports valued at $800 or less are exempt if the goods are shipped to individual consumers. Sponsor Republican Senator Bill Cassidy explained that the bill would immediately eliminate the tariff exemption for such goods from China upon enactment.

The bill's other sponsors are Republican Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. It's unclear how much support the proposal will have. Last year, a similar bill introduced by Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer ultimately failed to pass Congress.

Under the bill, countries other than China and Russia can continue to receive exemptions from U.S. tariffs on $800 worth of imports. In addition, the bill only allows private shippers such as FedEx, UPS and DHL to transport minimum packages, but does not include the postal service.

E-commerce sellers, including China-founded, Singapore-based Shein and Temu, are the biggest beneficiaries of U.S. tariff exemptions. A federal brief in April said the companies "exploited" minimal tariffs to evade duties and import illegal items, such as those made with forced Uighur labor in China's Xinjiang region.

Since 2019, the number of micro-e-commerce packages shipped from China to the United States has been increasing. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission previously stated that it was difficult to catch unsafe imported goods due to the large number. According to U.S. Customs data, the number of such e-commerce shipments increased to 685.5 million in 2022, compared with 410.5 million in 2018.

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