WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security’s workforce, particularly U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is on the front lines of the Biden-Harris Administration’s new executive actions, announced today, to protect American consumers, workers, retailers, importers, and manufacturers by tackling the exponential growth of small packages claiming the de minimis exemption. CBP plays a vital role in implementing these Executive Actions by targeting and blocking shipments that violate U.S. laws as they arrive in airports, express consignment facilities, international mail facilities, and ports of entry across the country. CBP enforces trade laws to protect consumers, eradicate forced labor from supply chains and protect U.S. workers and businesses from unfair competition, ensure national economic security, and prevent dangerous and illicit products, including illicit opioids like fentanyl, from entering the United States.
The Executive Actions announced today are designed to combat a significant increase of shipments in recent years that claim the de minimis exemption, particularly from Chinese e-commerce platforms, by strengthening information collection requirements to improve accountability and enforcement, prevent the misuse of the exemption for allowing high-volume shipments of de minimis packages, and prevent shippers from circumventing safety standards. De minimis shipments, also referred to as Section 321 low-value shipments, refer to goods that are exempt from duty and tax under 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C) and 19 C.F.R. § 10.151. The de minimis exemption allows CBP to pass free of duty and tax, merchandise imported by one person on one day that has an aggregate fair retail value in the country of shipments of $800 or less. Every day CBP processes nearly four million de minimis shipments entering the United States. Although these packages have a low value, they may pose the same potential health, consumer safety, and economic security risks as larger and more traditional containerized shipments. As of July 30, 2024, 89 percent of all seizures in the cargo environment this fiscal year originated as de minimis shipments, including 97 percent of narcotics seizures, and 72 percent of health and safety seizures of prohibited items.
“The actions announced today by the Biden-Harris Administration will help the Department keep pace with global electronic commerce and improve our ability to protect communities from fentanyl and its precursor chemicals,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Our Administration remains ready and eager to work with Congress to pass badly-needed, long-overdue comprehensive de minimis reform legislation and ensure border officials have the resources and tools they need to track and target the millions of small-dollar shipments that enter our country every day.”
“Today’s actions will give us strong tools to ensure that imported goods comply with U.S. laws that serve to protect Americans,” said Robert Silvers, DHS Under Secretary for Policy and Chair of the federal Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force. “We will leave no stone unturned in keeping fentanyl out of this country. We will not tolerate forced labor in our supply chains. With regulatory and statutory updates to modernize its enforcement mechanisms, CBP will have the instruments it needs to keep illicit goods out of our markets, while facilitating the legitimate trade that is the lifeblood of our economy.”
“CBP employs a multilayered enforcement strategy, but the fact remains we are operating under the constraints of outdated laws passed more than 30 years ago, with significant resource and enforcement limitations in a heightened threat environment,” said CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner, Troy Miller. “These executive actions are a critical first step in modernizing our enforcement mechanisms in the small package environment so we can better protect the health and safety of Americans. However, we still need to modernize and enhance our trade laws so that CBP can implement a more strenuous enforcement architecture to further crack down on the individuals and networks attempting to abuse the de minimis environment.”
The new Executive Actions targeting the abuse of the de minimis exception and protecting U.S. consumers, workers and businesses include:
- New Rulemaking to Improve Accountability and Enforcement in De Minimis Shipments: Specifically, this proposed rule would strengthen information collection requirements to promote greater visibility into de minimis shipments. That additional level of transparency would help CBP protect consumers from purchasing goods that do not meet health and safety standards, and protect U.S. workers and businesses—including retailers, importers and manufacturers—from unfair competition.
- New Rulemaking to Reduce De Minimis Volume and Strengthen Trade Enforcement: Specifically, this proposed rule would make ineligible for the de minimis exemption shipments containing products subject to U.S. trade enforcement actions, such as those driving the increase from China-founded e-commerce platforms like low-value textiles and apparel, closing a major loophole. Those products would no longer enter the U.S. market duty free.
- Final Rule to Prevent De Minimis Shipments from Circumventing Safety Standards: Specifically, this Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed final rule would require importers of consumer products to file Certificates of Compliance (CoC) electronically with CBP and CPSC. That would strengthen CBP’s and CPSC’s ability to target and block unsafe products, and prevent foreign companies from abusing the de minimis exemption to circumvent consumer protection testing and certification requirements.
These Executive Actions will be carried out through the federal regulatory process in the coming weeks and months. For the full White House fact sheet, visit: FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Protect American Consumers, Workers, and Businesses by Cracking Down on De Minimis Shipments with Unsafe, Unfairly Traded Products
The Administration is also ready to work with Congress to pass comprehensive de minimis reform legislation by the end of the year, which is urgently needed even as these regulatory processes move forward. Key reforms Congress should advance include:
- Exclusion from de minimis of import-sensitive products.
- Exclusion of shipments containing products from the de minimis exemption that are covered by Section 301, Section 201, or Section 232 trade enforcement actions.
- Passage of previously proposed de minimis reforms in the Detect and Defeat Counter-Fentanyl Proposal.
- These proposed legislative reforms would, among other actions, increase transparency and accountability under the de minimis program by requiring more data from shippers, including the product tariff number, and give border officials the tools they need to more effectively track and target the millions of shipments coming in claiming the de minimis exemption. The Detect and Defeat Counter-Fentanyl proposal incorporates many of the bipartisan ideas put forward by Members of Congress, and will increase CBP’s ability to detect and seize illicit drugs and their precursor chemicals, as well as the machinery used to make counterfeit pills, and hold drug traffickers accountable.
- CBP would be granted the authority to demand additional documentation and other information about de minimis packages. The change would enable customs officials to more effectively analyze risk, identify patterns of concern, and take action against those who try to abuse our system. The legislation would also add a user fee for de minimis packages to help pay for the staff and equipment needed to better identify, and seize, illicit fentanyl being shipped in small packages into our country.
- The Detect and Defeat Counter-Fentanyl Proposal would also result in stronger penalties that will more effectively deter synthetic drug and precursor trafficking in the de minimis environment and incentivize the private sector to self-police their supply chains for narcotics risk.
DHS is continuing to build on recent successes to strengthen enforcement of U.S. textile and apparel trade laws to support U.S. textile manufacturers and workers, and continues to prioritize eliminating forced labor from U.S. supply chains, including through the enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). In April, DHS outlined an enhanced strategy to combat illicit trade and level the playing field for the American textile industry, led by CBP and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In Fiscal Year 2024 through September 1, CBP has:
- Launched 18 Trade Special Operations (TSOs) that focus on physical inspection of small shipments and cargo containing textile and apparel products, as well as post-release reviews to determine eligibility for preferential treatment under free trade agreements, verify classification, valuation, and right to make entry.
- Initiated over 553 full USMCA and CAFTA-DR, classification, valuation and right to make entry summary verifications on more than $150.8 million in textile and wearing apparel trade.
- Initiated trade audits on more than $22.6 billion in textile imports.
- Doubled the number of Textile Production Verification Team (TPVT) visits in comparison to FY23, reaching 109 factories and 6 raw material providers.
- In July, the interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), with DHS as Chair, added 26 entities in the high-priority textile sector to the UFLPA Entity List, which will restrict imports of goods from these entities into the United States. DHS and the FLETF will continue to prioritize examination of entities in the textile and apparel sector for possible addition to the UFLPA Entity List, which currently includes 73 entities across a wide range of industry sectors.
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