Updated August 2026. The rules below changed recently and much of what's published online is already outdated — including several popular guides still telling you the $800 rule exists. It doesn't.

If you import anything from China into the United States — even a single $40 parcel — the ground shifted under your business in 2025, and it shifted again going into 2026. The "de minimis" exemption that let small packages sail into the US duty-free is gone. Here's what actually changed, what it costs you now, and what you can realistically do about it.

What De Minimis Was (and Why It Mattered)

Under Section 321 of US customs law, any shipment valued at $800 or less could enter the United States duty-free, with almost no paperwork. No formal customs entry, no tariffs, minimal inspection.

For years this was the backbone of two whole business models:

  • Direct-to-consumer brands shipping single parcels from China straight to US customers.
  • Small sellers testing products by shipping low-value samples and trial batches without touching customs.

Millions of parcels a day crossed under this rule. It was the reason a $20 product could leave a Guangdong factory and land on a US doorstep with zero duty.

What Changed: The Timeline

Here's the sequence, because the dates matter for planning:

  • May 2, 2025 — de minimis ended for shipments originating in China and Hong Kong. Every China parcel, regardless of value, suddenly required a customs entry and owed duties.
  • August 29, 2025 — the exemption was removed for all countries. De minimis effectively died worldwide.
  • February 20, 2026 — an executive order (EO 14388) reaffirmed and continued the suspension into 2026. There is no active $800 exemption today.

The practical result: every shipment from China into the US now needs a proper customs entry and pays whatever duties apply to those goods — no matter how small the value.

What You Actually Owe Now

This is where it gets product-specific, so be careful with anyone who gives you a single "China tariff rate." The total duty on your goods is a stack of layers, and it depends on your product's HTS classification code:

  • Base MFN duty — the standard rate for your product category (anywhere from 0% to 20%+ depending on the item).
  • Section 301 duty — a China-specific tariff on covered goods. A new 12.5% Section 301 round took effect July 24, 2026, replacing the 10% Section 122 baseline that expired the same day.
  • IEEPA / reciprocal tariffs — additional China-specific duties layered on through 2025 executive orders (for a period these pushed the all-goods China rate to roughly 30% combined).
  • Section 232 — 50% on steel and 50% on aluminum articles, charged separately if your product contains them.

Two honest caveats: these rates have changed multiple times in the past 18 months and they vary by product, so before you commit to an order, have your supplier or forwarder confirm the current rate for your specific HTS code. Treat any blog post (including this one) as a map, not a quote.

What This Means for Your Business Model

The impact isn't uniform. Here's how it lands differently:

If you're direct-to-consumer, shipping single parcels

This model took the hardest hit. Every individual parcel now needs a customs entry and pays duty — the per-parcel clearance cost can exceed the value of cheap goods. Many DTC-from-China operations have had to either raise prices sharply, consolidate to a US warehouse, or shut the channel down.

If you're Amazon FBA or ship in bulk

You were already doing formal customs entries, so the mechanics don't change — but the duty bill does. The stacked tariffs mean your landed cost is materially higher than it was two years ago. The winning move is tightening everything you can control: unit price, freight, and consolidation.

If you're sampling or testing products

Even low-value sample shipments now clear customs and owe duty. Budget for it, and consolidate samples into one shipment instead of sending five separate parcels.

What You Can Realistically Do

I'll be straight with you — there's no magic loophole, and the "route it through Vietnam" tricks you see recommended are, in my experience, costly and legally risky (US customs actively pursues improper transshipment). But there are legitimate levers:

  • Verify your HTS classification. Misclassification is common, and some products have multiple plausible codes with very different rates. Getting this right is the single biggest legal saving available.
  • Check for exclusions. Certain goods have Section 301 exclusions or exemptions. It's worth a targeted check for your category.
  • Consolidate shipments. Fewer, larger shipments mean fewer clearance events and better freight rates.
  • Re-run your landed cost. With duties this high, the factory unit price matters less than it used to — a 5% price win can be bigger than it looks. Negotiate hard.
  • Consider a US bonded warehouse / 3PL. For DTC, bulk-importing into a US warehouse and shipping domestically often beats per-parcel international clearance now.

The Bottom Line

De minimis is dead — for China since May 2025, for everyone since August 2025, and it stayed dead into 2026. Every US-bound shipment from China now clears customs and pays stacked duties that vary by product. The businesses surviving this aren't the ones dodging tariffs; they're the ones who know their exact HTS rate, consolidate smart, and squeeze every legal dollar out of landed cost.

This is most of what I do all day now — classify correctly, confirm current rates before an order commits, and rebuild landed costs so my clients aren't blindsided at customs. If you've got a product and you're not sure what it'll actually cost to land it in the US in 2026, send me the details and I'll give you a straight number.