On July 30, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order, "Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries," which, effective August 29, 2025, eliminates the ability of importers to receive duty-free treatment for most low-value imports. President Trump issued the Executive Order pursuant to national emergencies declared under previous executive orders impacting Canada, Mexico, China, and all other nations.
President Trump declared these national emergencies under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Importer plaintiffs have challenged these underlying executive orders successfully at the Court of International Trade, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted the United States' request for an administrative stay pending appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will begin hearing arguments in that case today.
Details of Duty Free De Minimis Executive Order
Pursuant to the July 30 Executive Order, most imports falling under the $800 de minimis threshold established by 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C) will now be subject to regular duties, taxes, and fees regardless of shipment value, country of origin, mode of transport, or method of entry. These low-value imports must now be entered, and entries must be filed through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
International postal shipments are currently excepted from the suspension of de minimis duty-free treatment. However, these items will be subject to specific duties, either as 1) an ad valorem tariff (based on the effective IEEPA tariff rate by country) or 2) as fixed per-item amounts ($80, $160, or $200 depending on country tariff rates). Beginning March 1, 2026, only option 1, the ad valorem tariff, will apply to international postal shipments under the de minimis threshold. The temporary carve-out for international postal shipments will remain in place only "until notification by the Secretary [of Commerce] to the President that adequate systems are in place to fully and expeditiously process and collect duties applicable for postal shipments otherwise eligible for duty-free de minimis treatment."
The Executive Order also specifically authorizes U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to require a basic importation and entry bond for informal entries valued at or less than $2,500.
Impacts
The Executive Order suspending duty-free de minimis treatment will have significant compliance impacts for importers that previously took advantage of the lack of formal requirements and duty-free treatment. According to the Fact Sheet published with the Executive Order, the volume of de minimis shipments imported into the United States has increased by an order of magnitude between 2015 and 2024, rising from 134 million shipments to over 1.36 billion shipments. In addition to being subject to the payment of duties, including tariffs, de minimis shipments will also face much more scrutiny from CBP than importers and carriers previously experienced. And this scrutiny will likely lead to additional detentions, seizures, and enforcement actions.
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