End of de Minimis Disproportionately Impacts Small Shippers, Trade Experts Warn
Small shippers will "get hosed" by the end of the de minimis policy, while larger companies will find ways to manage, trade experts said on a podcast hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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William Reinsch, a senior adviser at CSIS, predicted on a "The Trade Guys" podcast episode that aired Sept. 2, that the end of de minimis will disproportionately impact small importers: "My impression is that what is going to happen is what usually happens, which is the big guys find a way to deal with it and the small guys get hosed."
Lalo Solorzano, who hosts the podcast, agreed, saying that big companies "have and will be able to deal with it" because they can consolidate their shipments and minimize compliance requirements. Reinsch responded that for small importers, "this is going to be an enormous paperwork burden."
Co-host Andy Shiles said that before the de minimis policy, importing low-value goods was "just a paperwork and compliance nightmare." With the elimination of de minimis, he said that "Guess what? All that starts over again ... it's going to create another paperwork nightmare for the private company."
Shiles also said that CBP is unprepared for the increased volume of entries through ACE, "that's going to flood into Customs' system." He said that the online systems will be able to process it, but that manual reviews will be time-consuming, "so they're going to get flooded." Reinsch agreed, saying that "nobody's ready for this. The government's not ready. The importers aren't ready. The retailers are not ready. So it's going to be a giant mess."
CBP recently said that it is prepared to process the low-value packages that used to qualify for de minimis (see 2508280062).
Reinsch said that the future is uncertain for de minimis, as the issue is being litigated. Should the government lose in court and importers qualify for rebates, he wondered, "how is that going to work? How is the Customs service going to refund all that money with the interest? And are they prepared to do that?"