China e-commerce shipments would lose US tariff exemption under proposed law

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers planned to introduce a bill on Wednesday to eliminate a tariff exemption widely used by e-commerce sellers to send orders from China to U.S. shoppers, one of the sponsors said.
The exception, known as the de minimis rule, exempts imports valued at $800 or less from tariffs if the items are shipped to individual consumers. The bill would ban such shipments from China immediately upon enactment, sponsor Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said.
Ecommerce sellers such as China-founded, Singapore-based Shein and Temu, a rival owned by PDD Holdings Inc that operates the Chinese ecommerce site Pinduoduo, are big beneficiaries of the exemption. A federal brief in April said the companies “exploit” de minimis to avoid duties and import illegal items such as those made in China’s Xingiang region with forced Uyghur labor.
A Shein spokesperson said Tuesday the company has no manufacturers in Xinjiang.