Washington.- The administration of Joe Biden, President of the United States, announced this Friday a strengthening of customs control measures directed at low-cost Chinese articles, particularly those marketed through online sales platforms, which used to enter the country exempt from tariffs.
Previously, products worth less than $800 enjoyed a tax and tariff exemption when imported to the United States. However, this situation is about to change with the implementation of the new policy, which will not be applied immediately, but will be presented as a proposal subject to comments from the business sector and the general population prior to its execution.
High-ranking officials in the United States have indicated that this mechanism represented a legal loophole in the commercial strategy that was mainly exploited by Chinese companies.
According to them, the number of shipments benefiting from the “de minimis” exemption (a Latin term meaning “of minimums”), established by Congress in the 1930s, has grown exponentially in the last decade, from approximately 140 million per year to over 1 billion annually.
They explained that most of these shipments from China are marketed through e-commerce platforms and are admitted to the United States under the mentioned exemption.
This policy allows the entry of low-value products without the imposition of tariffs or taxes. However, certain foreign companies have managed to benefit from this regulation by fragmenting a shipment into several packages to reduce the declared value of each one, ensuring that each shipment remains within the exempt limit.
The Administration emphasizes that this practice represents a risk to American consumers, harms local businesses and their employees by facilitating the entry of large shipments of low-value merchandise, such as textiles and clothing, free of any tariff.
In addition, this condition hinders the application of U.S. commercial regulations, health and safety standards, intellectual property rights, consumer protection laws, and the prevention of the entry of synthetic illegal drugs, including fentanyl, its precursors, and necessary machinery for its production.
After the comment period closes, the new disposition will come into effect, although a specific date has not yet been determined.
credits of the images of this post: Deultimominuto.net
