Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 05:05:41 JST Matt Blaze

   Trump delays indefinitely the elimination of the $800 de minimus tariff exemption for packages from China, presumably because CBP isn’t equipped to handle the increased workload.

   https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-signs-order-delaying-tariffs-de-minimis-imports-china-2025-02-07/

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 05:05:37 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     @mattblaze loooooool

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 05:05:38 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     So the disruption wasn't so much about the increased tariffs, but rather the more cumbersome paperwork and clearance processes involved for small shipments to individual consumers. No one was ready for the increased workload - not foreign merchants, not CBP, not shippers like USPS or Fedex, or UPS, etc. It ground everything to a halt.

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 05:05:40 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     Background: Most packages entering the US valued at under $800 (from any country) are exempt from import duties. This greatly expedites small imports, since there's no need for a broker to arrange payment before they're released at a port of entry (a process which generally costs several times the actual duty and adds delays).

     When Trump imposed additional tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, he also eliminated the de minimus for those countries, requiring a lot of new work at ports of entry.

   • Embed this notice
     Carolyn (cstamp@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 06:09:04 JST Carolyn

     in reply to

     @mattblaze They ARE their definition of DEI: people getting jobs for which they are unqualified based on their skin colour (and income level).

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 06:09:05 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Carolyn

     @CStamp and the dismissal of the value of expertise and experience.

     Paul Cantrell repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Carolyn (cstamp@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 06:09:06 JST Carolyn

     in reply to

     @mattblaze LOL, it's the administration of not understanding consequences. ;)

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 06:09:07 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     Anyway, the widespread disruption that led to this rollback of the new rules was 100% predictable. It was CBP itself that several years ago asked that the de minimus threshold be INCREASED, because they couldn’t handle the workload caused by the growing number of small e-commerce shipments to consumers.

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Feb-2025 06:09:08 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     Note that the de minimus rule exempts small packages from paying small duties (and simplifies paperwork), but does not exempt them from inspection (for contraband, fraudulent valuation, etc). CBP still can inspect any goods entering the US, regardless of declared value, including with xrays and dog sniffs, etc. In practice, though, de minimus packages probably get less rigorous routine scrutiny.