American de minimis online shopping rules are creating a de maximus problem
The United States faces a worsening headache as a result of the huge volume of goods consumers are buying online, principally from China, and that could see it caught up in its own version of the Opium Wars inflicted on China in the mid-19th century by Britain.
The problem is small shipments of relatively low individual economic value, and which fall under the de minimis rules, which regulate imports that the authorities deem not worth bothering to inspect or impose taxes or tariffs on.
With Chinese giants such as Shein or Temu flooding the mailboxes and doorsteps of millions of Americans every day with packages, and with all these packages falling under these de minimis rules, border controls are faced not only with the practical impossibility of collecting taxes and duties, but also with the practical difficulty of carrying out these inspections due to sheer saturation, which leads to all kinds of illegal or dangerous products entering the country.
