The Glossary
De Minimis
The $800 duty-free threshold for parcels — ended for Chinese goods in May 2025.
Definition
Section 321 of U.S. tariff law allows shipments valued under $800 to enter duty-free and with minimal paperwork. Cross-border Chinese e-commerce platforms industrialized the channel — more than a billion parcels a year by 2024 — shipping direct from factories to American doorsteps. USTR moved against the exemption in September 2024, and the second Trump administration ended it for Chinese goods on May 2, 2025, forcing platforms to restructure around U.S. warehouses, price increases, or slower service.
Why it matters
De minimis was the quiet free-trade zone inside the tariff war; its closure marks the first time the war reached parcels that had previously crossed untariffed by design.