Delivery company DHL Express is suspending business-to-consumer shipments of over $800 to U.S. customers until further notice because of delays caused by increased U.S. customs regulations.
The logistics giant recently announced the changes on its company website after President Donald Trump imposed stricter regulations on goods entering the U.S. worth at least $800, a decrease from the former $2,500 threshold.
“This change has caused a surge in formal customs clearances, which we are handling around the clock. While we are working diligently to scale up and manage this increase, shipments over USD 800—regardless of origin—may experience multi-day delays,” the DHL webpage reads.
The company’s temporary shipping pause went into effect Monday, more than two weeks after Trump’s new customs regulations began. It will be in place until further notice.
DHL’s business-to-business shipments for items valued over $800 will not be paused, but may still face delays. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer deliveries of products worth less than $800 will not be impacted.
DHL is part of German multinational delivery and supply chain company Deutsche Post. The company’s stock dropped slightly Tuesday and is down nearly 10 percent over the past month as markets continue reeling.
The White House created the new customs regulations in an executive order designed to close the “de minimis” loophole, a rule that allowed Chinese and Hong Kong retailers to ship packages directly to Americans without having to pay tariffs or face the typical customs inspections. On May 2, the de mimimis loophole will close, impacting millions of daily shipments to the U.S.
The loophole provided a boom to Chinese companies including direct-to-consumer retailers Shein and Temu, both of which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party and have been suspected of exploiting forced labor. Shein is known for its women’s fashion products and Temu offers a wide range of consumer goods, making it a competitor to Amazon and other U.S. e-commerce companies.
Trump signed the executive order to crack down on Chinese exports of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals that can use the de minimis rule to avoid detection. He used a similar justification for levying 20 percent tariffs on Chinese imports into the U.S. and similar tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
Trump’s tariffs on China have reached 145 percent after tit-for-tat retaliation between the world’s two largest economies following his “Liberation Day” tariff package. Trump paused his sweeping global tariff package earlier this month soon after announcing them because Wall Street suffered its worst meltdown since the Covid-19 pandemic as stock market indexes plummeted.