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Rule that allows vintage, antiques and secondhand valued at or below US$800 to enter the U.S. duty free will expire Aug. 29
Vintage and secondhand lovers are set to get hit with more tariffs after the United States government announced it will remove a rule that allows low-value packages to enter the country duty-free.
On Jul. 30, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that packages arriving into the U.S. valued at or under US$800 would be charged new duties as of Aug. 29.
The de minimis exemption covers a large portion of the vintage, antiques and secondhand goods from independent sellers being sent into the U.S.
How much each buyer will owe in tariffs as of Aug. 29 depends on how their item arrives into the U.S.
For packages shipped via express carrier (such as DHL and UPS), "all applicable duties" will apply. This means the tariff rates that have been adjusted in 2025 for more than 180 countries, plus any pre-existing duties.
For packages shipped through the international postal system, tariffs will be applied in one of two ways: via the tariff rate that corresponds to the package's country of origin, or, for a period of only six months, via a special rate of US$80 to US$200 per item in the package, depending on the product and country (details of which items and countries this might apply to have not been released).
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The move is intended to earn revenue on the 1.36 billion de minimis shipments that enter the U.S. every year, mainly from large e-commerce companies such as Temu and SHEIN. In 2015, only 134 million de minimis shipments entered the U.S — a difference of over 900 per cent.
On May 2, the Trump administration already removed the de minimis exemption, also known as Section 321, for goods that were originally made in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
It's already had an effect on volume: Reuters reported in July that the amount of shipments arriving via air cargo from Asia has decreased by 10.7 per cent since the de minimis exemption was lifted.
For all you need to know on how this may affect you as a buyer or a seller, who pays the tariffs and what you can do about it, visit our main resource on this topic: How tariffs work in the vintage & secondhand market — and what's affected.
