For nearly a decade, one quiet customs rule made cross-border e-commerce cheap and fast. It’s gone now — and if your brand ships to US customers, this is the single biggest change to your economics in years.

Here’s what happened, what it costs you, and the fulfillment model that actually works on the other side of it.

What actually changed

Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — the "de minimis" rule — let any shipment valued at $800 or less enter the United States duty-free, with minimal paperwork and near-instant clearance. It’s the rule that powered a generation of direct-from-overseas e-commerce, from dropshippers to major marketplaces.

The change came in stages:

• May 2, 2025 — de minimis eliminated for goods from China and Hong Kong.
• August 29, 2025 — de minimis suspended for shipments from every country.
• June 24, 2026 — the suspension moved into permanent regulation.
• July 1, 2027 — full statutory repeal takes effect, making the end permanent by law.

The practical takeaway: treat US import duty as permanent. This is not an executive order that a future administration flips back with a signature. It’s now written into both regulation and statute.

What this costs you now

Under the old rule, a $60 order shipped from a warehouse abroad cleared US customs free and fast. Today, that same parcel is treated like any commercial import:

• Duties apply regardless of value — even a $1 item now owes applicable duties.
• Formal customs entry is required through CBP’s ACE system, filed by an authorized filer.
• A 10-digit HTS classification is required on every shipment.
• Broker fees and a Merchandise Processing Fee now attach to shipments that used to carry none.
• Clearance takes longer — hours became days for goods that were previously released off the manifest.

For a low-margin product shipped direct-to-consumer from overseas, the math often simply stops working. Duties, brokerage, and processing can add more to a small parcel than the product’s own margin.

The one exception worth knowing: CUSMA

There’s an important carve-out. Goods that are produced or substantially transformed in North America — and shipped by a commercial courier with proper Certification of Origin — can still enter the US duty-free under CUSMA (the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement), even after August 29, 2025.

This is the crack of daylight in an otherwise closed door, and it’s central to how smart brands are restructuring. It’s covered in depth in our CUSMA guide, but the short version: where your goods ship from, and whether they qualify under CUSMA’s rules of origin, now directly determines whether your customer pays a surprise duty bill.

The fulfillment model that works now

The old model — hold inventory overseas, ship each order individually across the border — is no longer viable as a cost or speed strategy. The compliant, competitive replacement is straightforward:

Import in bulk, then fulfill locally.

Instead of 1,000 individual parcels each triggering duties, a customs entry, and days of clearance, you move one bulk shipment through customs once, store it in a US (or Canadian) warehouse, and ship domestically to your customers. That means:

• Duty and customs handled once, on a bulk entry, not on every order
• Domestic-speed delivery (1–3 days) instead of 10–15 day international transit
• No surprise customs bill landing on your customer’s doorstep
• Predictable landed cost you can actually build into your pricing

This is exactly the model TXG is built for: bulk import into our US and Canadian warehouses, customs and duty handled at the border, then fast domestic fulfillment and returns on the other side. The de minimis collapse didn’t break cross-border e-commerce — it just ended the shortcut and made real local fulfillment the only path that works.

What to do this quarter

1. Recalculate your landed cost with duties now included on every unit — see our landed cost guide for the full method.
2. Check whether your products qualify under CUSMA rules of origin; if they do, that’s your duty-free lane.
3. Move from parcel-by-parcel to bulk import + local fulfillment if you’re still shipping direct from overseas.
4. Decide on DDP vs. DAP so customers aren’t hit with unexpected charges at delivery — covered in our DDP vs DAP explainer.

FAQ

Is the de minimis exemption coming back?
No. The suspension was made permanent by regulation in June 2026, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repeals it by statute effective July 1, 2027. A statute is far harder to reverse than an executive order, so brands should plan around US import duty being permanent.

Does the $800 threshold still matter for anything?
Shipment value can still affect whether an entry is processed as informal (generally $2,500 and under) or formal, but it no longer provides any duty-free treatment. Duties apply from the first dollar.

Can I still ship duty-free to the US at all?
Yes, if your goods qualify under CUSMA — meaning they’re produced or substantially transformed in Canada, the US, or Mexico — and ship by commercial courier with a valid Certification of Origin. That’s the main remaining duty-free path.

How does this affect delivery times?
Direct-from-overseas parcels now face formal customs entry and can take days to clear. Bulk-importing inventory and fulfilling domestically restores the 1–3 day delivery speed customers expect.

What’s the fastest way to adapt?
Shift to a bulk-import-plus-local-fulfillment model so customs is handled once per bulk shipment rather than on every order. That single change restores both cost predictability and delivery speed.

Selling into the US and rethinking your fulfillment after the de minimis change? TXG imports your inventory in bulk, handles customs and duties at the border, and fulfills fast from our US and Canadian warehouses. Get a fulfillment quote →

Regulatory details in this article reflect published guidance as of mid-2026 and are general information, not legal or customs advice. Confirm your specific obligations with a licensed customs broker.