Americans buying from drop shippers, like Temu and Aliexpress, is changing.
What is Drop Shipping?
This rule change applies to items shipped from outside to into the US. It does not apply to items shipped from warehouses in the US to US addresses.
A seller signs up with a drop shipper website and makes their own retail website, like on AliExpress. Let’s call the seller’s website ds.com. People can buy from ds.com but the seller doesn’t have to stock any products, which saves a huge amount of money, which reduces prices for consumers. The items are shipped right from the manufacturer or warehouser company.
Here are some highlights.
Changes were initiated by the Biden-Harris administration. This might destroy most drop shipping business from China to the US. Whitehouse fact sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/09/13/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-to-protect-american-consumers-workers-and-businesses-by-cracking-down-on-de-minimis-shipments-with-unsafe-unfairly-traded-products/
Sellers from China will now have to pay US customs fees and tariffs on all items. Items under $800 are no longer excluded under the “de minimus rule”. They will have to raise their prices.
Sellers will now have to get your social security number of each buyer. Expect this change in the near future.
These changes only apply to items shipping from China to the US. It will apply to all items now.
The effect date of this change was not clear.
Are some Chinese products dangerous? YES. I have been buying from AliExpress since 2016. Products from China regularly state they conform to ASTM lead-free standard but to not. This includes children’s toys, which they often put in their mouth. Other bad products include baby teething rings filled with kerosene, medical gowns that fall apart when you take them out of the box, medical masks that were stepped on at the factory floor before being shipped to non-China customers, baby formula that contains melamine that causes kidney damage and death, pet food that also contained melamine that killed a lot of pets in China, and a few in the US. For this reason I never buy pet food, baby formula, or baby toys from China.
Delivery of light goods from China to the US was also made cheaper by ePacket delivery. In early 2023 the price of shipping items from China to the US went up significantly for some reason. AliExpress eventually responded by having Choice items where the buy buys at least $10usd in items and gets shipping for free. But this did not start until early 2024.
Where this doesn’t apply.
If you buy items from a drop shipper (like AliExpress) warehouse in the US.
A few more notes
Some shippers from China sell on Amazon and Ebay as well. They might tell you the arrival time of your product is 5-7 days but it’s really 2-3 weeks. The shipping time changes when you pay for your goods.
Is this good for the US consumer? What about US producers and manufacturers? What do you think? It’s good to get a variety of opinions and reasoning.
Get more info from this video:
Links
De Minimus rules from US trade.gov. https://www.trade.gov/de-minimis-value
Section 321 is the section that describes “de minimus”. https://www.cbp.gov/trade/trade-enforcement/tftea/section-321-programs