Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Protect American Consumers, Workers, and Businesses by Cracking Down on De Minimis Shipments with Unsafe, Unfairly Traded Products.
Administration Also Urges Congressional Action on De Minimis Reform Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking new actions to enforce our laws and
I buy a lot of electronic parts from AliExpress and they're actually decent quality. Many of these stores also sell on Amazon but charge way more since the product is already in the US and arrives in 2 days versus 2 weeks.
[…] addressing the significant increased abuse of the de minimis exemption, in particular China-founded e-commerce platforms, and strengthening efforts to target and block shipments that violate U.S. laws.
There is no reason for a factory in China to get nearly free shipping in America when it costs 20x for the American business. They can import through standard channels and tariffs and then distribute in the US if they want to do business. Just try and send a gift to someone in China and you will pay 50-100x the cost the other way.
all these same products are being sold by amazon, the difference being they're being marked up 400% due to drop ship/middlemen. that's it. that's the difference here, it's who is profiting. the manufacturers are the same, it's the same exact products.
The biggest difference is if they go thru Amazon's logistics they still have to abide by custom laws, containers are randomly checked, and they pay the same tariff as any other importer. Unlike De minimus that gets the individual package around tougher scrutiny.
If nothing else, this has a chance of doing things like helping stop hazardous products (electronics with cheaply-made batteries that might catch fire for example) entering the country.