The U.S. Postal Service announced the suspension of all incoming packages from China and Hong Kong Posts on Tuesday evening—a likely fallout of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on all Chinese imports going into effect—in a move that will likely severely disrupt operations for major e-commerce platforms like Shein, Temu and Amazon Haul.
The USPS announced the suspension of all inbound packages from China and Hong Kong on Tuesday.
In a notice on its website, the United States Postal Service described the suspension as temporary, without specifying a timeline other than “until further notice.”
The postal service said this suspension only impacts international packages from the China and Hong Kong Posts, but the “flow of letters and flats from China and Hong Kong will not be impacted.”
The move comes after the Trump administration’s sweeping 10% tariffs on all Chinese goods went into effect after midnight on Tuesday—which also closed the “de minimis” exemption that allowed packages valued under $800 to be processed without paying any customs duties or tariffs.
Although the USPS did not specify a reason for the move, it was likely put in place to allow the postal service to come up with a procedure to process and charge duties on the “de minimis” packages shipped by mail.
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The USPS’ suspension is likely to cause a major disruption in the operations of popular low-cost e-commerce platforms like Temu, Shein and Amazon Haul. All three services, which offered products at “crazy low prices,” relied on both low-cost shipments from China and the duties exemptions offered under the “de minimis” rule.
Last month, Customs and Border Patrol reported that 1.36 billion “de minimis” shipments entered the U.S. during Fiscal Year 2024. This is a nearly ten fold increase from 139 million of such shipments reported in Fiscal Year 2015. Although the CBP did not specify how much of the imports were from China, the agency’s release included a statement from the Biden White House’s National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, who said: “We cannot let Chinese-founded e-commerce platforms gain an unfair trade advantage while American businesses play by the rule.” A study commissioned by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, found that nearly half of all “de minimis” shipments entering the U.S. originated from China. Temu and Shein specifically accounted for 30% of all inbound “de minimis” packages.
The USPS describes “flats” or large envelopes as packages with dimensions up to 15 inches long, 3/4 inches thick and a maximum weight of 16 ounces. These “flats” are exempted from the suspension, but it is unclear if e-commerce companies will be able to use these packages to ship merchandise.
This is a developing story.