Trump delays tariffs on small packages from China

US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply.

The postal service temporarily stopped accepting packages from China as a result of the order, only to reverse course a day later.

The chaos left many in the US wondering about the fate of packages ordered from companies such as Shein and Temu, which had used the exemption for low-value packages to expand rapidly in the US.

Trump made the change last weekend as part of a wider decision raising border taxes on goods from China by 10% on 4 February.

His revision to the order on Friday said tariff-free treatment for packages from China worth less than $800 would remain in place until “adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue”.

The move comes as some of the other rapid-fire changes Trump has announced since taking office last month have also met with roadblocks, including legal challenges.

Last weekend he said he was putting 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, before rapidly suspending those duties for a month to allow talks to continue.

On Friday, Trump said he expected to announce “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries next week, a plan he had outlined on the campaign trail by which the US would levy tariffs at the same rates that other counties apply to the equivalent products made in the US.

The US had started to re-examine the so-called de minimis exemption for low-value packages before Trump entered office.

The US had raised the carve-out from tariffs and other fees for shipments from $200 to $800 in 2016 to facilitate trade and allow officials to focus on higher priority shipments.

But that decision has faced criticism as e-commerce has rapidly expanded and the number of packages entering the US under the carve-out surged from 140 million to more than 1 billion in 2023.

Former president Joe Biden proposed to tighten the rules on such packages from China in September, as politicians complained of unfair trade practices and “exploitation” of the rule by firms such as Temu and Shein.