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US targets trade loophole used by ecommerce groups Temu and Shein

Biden administration seeks to slow flood of cheap Chinese goods with proposed new rules around ‘de minimis’ exemption

The China-founded ecommerce groups have supercharged their growth by shipping cheap packages direct to American consumers by air and claiming what is known as the de minimis exemption to skip paying import tariffs on the shipments. The Biden administration’s proposed rules, which will go through a public comment period before being finalised, threaten the business model that the Chinese groups have used to undercut and gain market share from online retailer Amazon. “American workers and businesses can outcompete anyone on a level playing field, but for too long, Chinese ecommerce platforms have skirted tariffs by abusing the de minimis exemption,” US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said.

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