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The end of de minimis, 14 months on: what small and medium importers and online sellers are dealing with now

Updated October 19, 2026. Facts current as of that date.

For years, a small business could order samples, spare parts or inventory in small parcels from overseas and, if each shipment was worth $800 or less, bring it in without paying duty and without filing a formal customs entry. That was the de minimis exemption, set out in 19 U.S.C. § 1321.

It was used on a very large scale. CBP’s e-commerce statistics, which count de minimis bills of lading, show 1.36 billion in fiscal year 2024, with a declared value of $64.6 billion. In fiscal year 2025, which ended September 30, 2025 and includes the first month after the suspension, the count fell to 942.5 million worth $48.1 billion.

That route is now closed, and the rules that replaced it are still changing.

How the exemption ended

July 30, 2025. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries, effective for goods entered on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern on August 29, 2025. It stated that such shipments “shall be subject to all applicable duties, taxes, fees, exactions, and charges,” and that entry must be filed in ACE “by a party qualified to make such entry.” Shipments from China and Hong Kong had already lost the exemption earlier in 2025 under a separate order. Only the general $800 exemption in 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C) was suspended. The separate exemptions for bona fide gifts and for personal articles accompanying travelers, in § 1321(a)(2)(A) and (B), still apply.

For goods sent by international mail, the order gave carriers a temporary choice of methods, including a flat specific duty per package of $80, $160 or $200, depending on the tariff rate of the country of origin.

The immediate effect on mail. The Universal Postal Union, the UN agency for postal services, reported that postal traffic from its member countries to the United States on August 29, 2025 was down 81 percent from the previous Friday, and that 88 postal operators had told it they had suspended some or all services to the US. The UPU said carriers had “signalled they were unwilling or unable” to take on duty collection.

February 20, 2026. When the Supreme Court held that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, many importers asked whether de minimis would come back. It did not. The same day, Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension “regardless of value, country of origin, mode of transportation, or method of entry,” and set a temporary method for mail duties tied to the new Section 122 surcharge.

June 24, 2026. CBP published two interim final rules putting the suspension into its regulations: one for shipments arriving by all modes other than international mail (effective June 24, 2026), and one for mail shipments that also created a new electronic postal entry process, Entry Type 13 (effective July 24, 2026).

Congress has also acted. Section 70531 of Public Law 119-21, enacted in July 2025, strikes the commercial-shipment de minimis privilege from the statute effective July 1, 2027. So even if the executive suspension were lifted, the statutory exemption for commercial shipments is scheduled to end. The same section added, from 30 days after enactment, a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for a first violation and up to $10,000 for each later one, for anyone who uses the de minimis privilege to bring in goods whose import violates other customs laws. That penalty provision is itself repealed on July 1, 2027, along with the commercial exemption.

The newest changes: October 2026

A proposed rule on low-value shipments (October 8, 2026). CBP’s “Low-Value Shipments” proposed rule would modify filing requirements for informal entries of goods valued at $2,500 or less and create a new electronic informal entry type for mail. Among the proposals:

  • Informal entries (type 11) would have to be filed electronically, on or before the date of importation.
  • Filers would have to identify a “Final Deliver-To Party” when it differs from the ultimate consignee.
  • All type 11 and type 13 filers would have to obtain a basic importation and entry bond, either a single transaction bond or a continuous bond.
  • A new minimum of $1,000 in liquidated damages would apply for each breach of a listed bond condition on those entries.
  • Goods subject to Chapter 99 duties, such as Section 232 tariffs, could use informal entry up to $2,500. Today those goods are limited to informal entry at $250 or less.
  • A consignee that is not the owner or purchaser of the goods, such as a carrier, freight forwarder or postal operator, would have to appoint a licensed customs broker to act as importer of record (proposed 19 CFR 143.26(a)).

Comments must be received by December 7, 2026, under docket USCBP-2026-0298 on regulations.gov.

The mail entry deadline moved (October 14, 2026). CBP extended the date on which Entry Type 13 becomes mandatory from October 22, 2026, to January 20, 2027. From that date, international postal shipments subject to Section 201, 232 or 301 duties, or under the jurisdiction of a partner government agency, will need to use Entry Type 13 for informal entry; otherwise formal entry is required. CBP said there are “no changes to international mail entry procedures before Jan. 20, 2027.”

What sellers and small and medium importers have experienced

The end of de minimis hit businesses on both sides of the border, and most of the detailed reporting so far has focused on sellers shipping into the US.

A study of Etsy by researchers Nadia Abou Nabout, Işın Acun, Maximilian Kaiser and Jura Liaukonyte, posted as a working paper in June 2026 and not peer-reviewed, used data from “one of Etsy’s largest categories.” It found that weekly unit sales by non-US sellers fell by about 18 percent after the suspension and stayed similarly depressed more than five months later. Some demand shifted to US sellers, but not enough to offset the losses, producing a net contraction in sales.

The Globe and Mail reported in February 2026 on Canadian small businesses that lost US customers. Jess Sternberg, founder of the Vancouver fashion brand Free Label, said she stopped shipping to the United States, giving up nearly half of her customer base. “We decided that we just couldn’t go through it any more,” she said. “It was just too much.” Jon Joel of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, who runs seminars for affected businesses, told the paper that many “didn’t have relationships with brokers, compliance specialists, freight forwarders, logistics hubs. The rules changed very suddenly.”

On the US side, the change shows up as a new set of tasks for businesses that never had to handle them. NPR’s reporting on Richard Brown of Proof Culture, a two-person sneaker accessory company that Brown runs from Ohio, described a supply chain stitched together from FedEx, Amazon and supplier-arranged freight forwarders, in which the business “rarely handled customs forms.” Once every low-value shipment needed an entry, someone had to file it, and someone had to be the importer of record.

What it means in practice

For a US business that buys from overseas in small parcels, the end of de minimis raises questions that used to be irrelevant:

  • Who is the importer of record? On express and postal shipments, a carrier or its brokerage arm may file the entry. The importer of record is the party responsible for the duties and the accuracy of the entry.
  • What was paid, and under which tariff? The entry number and the HTS codes used, including any Chapter 99 lines, show which tariff actions applied to a shipment.
  • Is the country of origin right? Since July 24, 2026, Section 301 tariffs of 10 or 12.5 percent have applied to most goods of the 60 economies in USTR’s forced-labor investigations, with exemptions that include goods subject to Section 232. For some economies, the normal duty plus the Section 301 duty totals 10 or 12.5 percent. Origin drives the rate.
  • Will a bond be needed? If CBP’s proposal is finalized as written, informal entry filers would need a basic importation and entry bond. That would be a new cost and process for small and medium importers that now rely on carriers to file.
  • Mail versus express. The mail rules and the express rules have diverged. For goods shipped by post, the January 20, 2027 Entry Type 13 date is the one to track.

Dates to watch

  • December 7, 2026: comments due on CBP’s Low-Value Shipments proposed rule.
  • January 20, 2027: Entry Type 13 becomes mandatory for informal entry of covered international postal shipments.
  • July 1, 2027: the statutory repeal of the commercial-shipment de minimis privilege takes effect under Public Law 119-21.

Sources

Low-value shipping rules are still being written. Subscribe free to the Importer Weekly briefing for each change, comment deadline and compliance date as it happens.

For decisions about your own entries, refunds or filings, talk to your licensed customs broker or trade attorney.

General information, not legal or customs advice.

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