4/2 Now tariff news! *Reversed* USPS mail disruption China and Hong Kong

[hopemax]

For those of you who use shopping services to get pins from Asia. This is in addition to the recent 10% tariffs announced for China.

International Service Alerts - Newsroom - About.usps.com

Information about disruptions that may affect service for customers shipping internationally.

about.usps.com

2-4-25

Temporary Service Disruption
Effective Feb. 4, the Postal Service will temporarily suspend only international package acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts until further notice. Note the flow of letters and flats from China and Hong Kong will not be impacted.

 

[hopemax]

Mail has been restarted.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/business/us-postal-service-suspends-parcels-china-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[hopemax]

Unfortunately, bumping this up. As part of today's tariff announcements, the administration announced an end to the de minimus exemption for China. This is the $800 personal exemption of small packages we receive in the mail. So if you order from Shanghai or Hong Kong based sellers on Facebook, Instagram, etc. expect your packages to be disrupted. They tried this in February, but had to walk it back due to escalating package volumes. We'll see what happens now.

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Closes De Minimis Exemptions to Combat China’s Role in America’s Synthetic Opioid Crisis

CLOSING LOOPHOLES IN THE TARIFF SYSTEM: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order eliminating duty-free de minimis treatment for

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[hopemax]

Update from today 4/10. This is from the NBC News feed, so I can't link directly. Please, be mindful of any Shanghai or Hong Kong Disneyland pickups you may be waiting on.


"Trump’s latest executive order hiking tariffs on Chinese imports also raises a separate U.S. duty on low-value packages imported from China — for the third time in eight days.

Until this year, the so called de minimis tariff exemption had provided the China-based online retailers Shein and Temu with a major advantage over many of their competitors.

Starting May 2, U.S.-bound packages from China valued at $800 or less will face a 120% tariff rate, according to the order.

This is an increase of 30 percentage points over a previous executive action signed Tuesday, which tripled de minimis tariffs to 90%.

The order signed Wednesday also increases the “per postal item” cost for those low-value shipments to $100 starting May 2, rising to $200 on June 1.

The order allows transportation carriers delivering the shipments to choose whether to pay the percentage rate or the flat rate — but they are locked into that choice and can only change it once a month."

 

[hopemax]

Hong Kong is suspending postal shipments to the US rather than attempt to collect tariffs. Airmail packages can be sent until 4/27.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366368/hong-kong-post-office-tariffs