De Minimis

De minimis was the quiet subsidy underneath a decade of direct-from-China ecommerce. Parcels below a threshold entered duty free with light documentation, and entire business models were priced on the assumption it would hold. It has not held. The US, the EU and others have all moved to close or narrow it, and the direction of travel is one way. If your unit economics depend on a low-value exemption, this is the tag to watch. We cover threshold changes, the effective dates that matter, the documentation that replaces the exemption, and the models sellers are switching to: bulk import with domestic distribution, hybrid inventory positions, or DDP with duty priced in from the start. Losing de minimis does not end direct-from-China. It ends pricing it as if duty were free.