The de minimis exemption is a U.S. customs rule that allows goods valued at less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. It applies to all countries, not just China, and was raised to $800 by Congress in 2016 as part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act. This rule is designed to reduce administrative burdens by simplifying customs processing for low-value goods, such as personal purchases made by U.S. consumers from foreign e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.

Chinese sellers on platforms like AliExpress and Wish take advantage of the de minimis threshold to sell low-cost goods directly to U.S. consumers without paying U.S. tariffs. This includes a wide variety of small electronics, apparel, accessories, and other consumer products. Chinese sellers benefit from this rule to ship low-value goods tariff-free. However, this practice is not unique to China, and addressing it requires careful consideration of potential unintended consequences, such as higher costs for U.S. consumers and complications with international trade rules.

Full contextual analysis of Section 4.6: Trade here.