Closing the De Minimis Loophole Act
Key claim: The bill would immediately terminate the $800 de minimis tariff exemption for goods from China and end it for all other countries 120 days after enactment, while directing Treasury to strengthen informal-entry data, fees, and postal shipment rules.
Abstract
(S1867 · 119th Congress) Closing the De Minimis Loophole Act This bill immediately terminates de minimis treatment for goods originating in China and phases out such treatment for goods originating from all other countries. (Current law allows for U.S. imports under a de minimis threshold of $800 per shipment to enter free of tariffs, fees, and taxes.) Specifically, de minimis treatment ends (1) with respect to goods from China, beginning on the bill’s enactment date (with an exception for goods already loaded onto a vessel or in transit during the three-day period that ends on the enactment date); and (2) with respect to goods from any other country, 120 days after the bill’s enactment. During the 120-day period beginning on the date of the bill’s enactment, the Department of the Treasury must carry out a rulemaking process. Among other elements, the rulemaking process must ensure that data requirements and entry procedures for informal modes of entry are sufficient to ensure the effective enforcement of U.S. laws and the efficient and accurate collection of duties, fees, and taxes. The bill directs Treasury, in the case of shipments sent through the international postal network, to determine appropriate fees and procedures to ensure consistency between the treatment of shipments by the U.S. Postal Service and other shipments. Latest action (2025-05-22): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Why this matters
The Closing the De Minimis Loophole Act would convert CBP’s administrative suspension of the $800 Section 321 exemption into statute, immediately for China-origin goods and worldwide after 120 days, locking in a major shift in low-value import treatment. For importers and e-commerce exporters this means all shipments would require formal or informal entry with attendant duties, fees, and data requirements; consumer prices on low-value cross-border goods are likely to rise. The bill’s postal-shipment and informal-entry data provisions also align legislative direction with parallel CBP rulemakings, signaling durable bipartisan pressure to close the de minimis channel.