De Minimis Bill Introduced in House
Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Neal Dunn, R-Fla., introduced a bill to change the scope of packages eligible for de minimis. No bill text was available Jan. 10 from Suozzi's office, but former Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said before he retired that Suozzi would be taking over his push to curtail de minimis.
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In 2023, Blumenauer and Dunn introduced a bill eliminating Chinese shippers' eligibility for de minimis, keeping the ban on China, and adding a requirement that remaining de minimis shipments include at a minimum: a description; a Harmonized Tariff Schedule code; a country of origin, shipper and importer; and a U.S. value. It also raised the civil penalty to $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for subsequent offenses if the data submissions are false (see 2306150061).
This is a slightly different approach to the one passed by the Republican majority on the Ways and Means Committee last year, which eliminated de minimis eligibility for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs, but that bill also required HTS codes and set $5,000 first offense and $10,000 repeat violation penalty levels.