 De Minimis Ban on Chinese Imports to be Reviewed in Court |
Source |
American Shipper |
Post Date |
03/20/2026 |
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The Court of International Trade has lifted a stay on a lawsuit challenging the Trump administrations elimination of de minimis eligibility for imports from China. The court instructed the parties to the suit to each provide responses within a month.
Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 allow for the informal entry of articles that have a retail value of $800 or less and are imported by one person in one day. These de minimis shipments are generally free of duty and taxes and subject to expedited clearance processing.
However, under an utive order issued by President Trump, this exemption was eliminated as of May 2, 2025, for low-value packages from China and Hong Kong, which the White House said account for the majority of de minimis shipments to the U.S. Several weeks later an auto parts retailer and distributor filed suit asking the CIT to hold this change to be unlawful and halt its enforcement. Among other things the company claimed that (1) the de minimis statute does not authorize the president or any other utive branch official to susp or eliminate the exemption by administrative fiat and (2) is arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act because it ignored the impact on those that rely on the exemption, failed to consider related economic costs and benefits, did not take reasonable natives into consideration, and "has no articulated or apparent link to the problem the government cited as justification."
The case was susped ping the resolution of litigation challenging tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which was also the authority under which the China de minimis EO was issued. In the meantime President Trump (1) signed into law a bill terminating the de minimis exception for commercial shipments from all countries as of July 1, 2027, and (2) issued a separate EO moving that date up to Aug. 29, 2025.
Following the Supreme Courts recent decision overturning the IEEPA tariffs, the CIT on March 5 agreed to let the China de minimis case proceed. The CIT instructed the federal government to submit by March 26, and the plaintiff company to submit by April 9, responses that address (1) how the Supreme Courts decision may affect the China de minimis EO, (2) whether the congressionally-specified date for termination of the de minimis exemption has any impact on the interpretation of IEEPA in relation to the EOs at issue, and (3) the implementation of the special procedures for collection of duties as specified in the EOs at issue.
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