cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29369418
The de minimis exception probably should go away, Trump or no. The only argument I can really see for keeping it would be that getting rid of it adds to transaction cost, but aside from that, it just doesn’t make sense to impose tariffs on people importing in bulk but exclude people importing small quantities.
If — and I don’t know if this is actually the case for this guy — your business model fundamentally depending on leveraging being exempt from paying tariffs when a number of competitors had to pay them…I mean, you were on pretty dangerously thin ice to begin with.
Just from your description, isn’t the point of the de minimis exception to support small businesses and help them compete against larger companies that can bulk import?
Without De minimis you would need a customs structure say, a hundred times larger, or more, I dont have the figures, but it’d be ridiculous.
Also, it would make people buy from the big importers, who would have the capacity to process many shipping containers in one go, and these would have it easier to impose the prices they want, since consumers woulnd be able to source from overseas. De minimis makes a lot of sense.
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