(NewsNation) — Americans who have ordered items from overseas may find themselves out of luck as global shipping services pause some shipments to the U.S.
A growing list of at least 25 countries has announced they will no longer ship certain small packages to the U.S. as the “de minimis” tariff exemption is set to end tomorrow.
President Donald Trump signed an order to end the de minimis rule earlier in the year. Under the policy, shipments under $800 were exempt from duties or tariffs.
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It’s a rule that individual consumers and small businesses rely on to buy items from overseas, often at a much lower cost than in the U.S.
Trump already ended the exception for China, sending discount retailers like Shein and Temu scrambling to change their distribution models and raise prices for shoppers.
Now that the rule is set to end for the rest of the globe, many countries are putting a stop to shipments while they try to figure out how to handle the change.
Even people who’ve already placed orders with foreign companies may be out of luck, since shippers are putting a hold on packages that haven’t gone out yet because there is no guarantee they will arrive before Friday.
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The list of countries includes Japan, Australia, Mexico and almost the entirety of Europe.
Letters and personal packages will still be allowed, though the maximum value of personal packages allowed varies by country.
International shippers like FedEx are working to try to pick up the slack, and it’s likely that many of the countries will eventually resume shipments to the U.S.
However, it’s likely that those shipments will become much more expensive, with the tariffs hitting American consumers and small businesses with added costs.
