So long, farewell, super cheap tariff-free shopping

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In late July, President Trump signed an executive order to get rid of de minimis, a kind of a loophole where packages valued less than $800 could come into the US without tariffs.

Last week, post offices from India to Austria to France suspended some types of packages to the US. We speak to an Australian jewelry maker, a logistics expert and an economist to learn how this is changing shopping in America.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.1	Jess Van Dead makes sterling silver jewelry in Australia.
0:16.2	These are the long leaf earrings.
0:18.1	They have the leaf shape on the front, so it's like a leaf with a stem behind it. Jess has a business selling her long leaf earrings. They have the leaf shape on the front. So it's like a leaf with a stem
0:21.3	behind it.
0:22.3	Jess has a business selling her long leaf earrings and her other jewelry on Etsy. It's called
0:27.3	Eferial and she's been doing that since 2008.
0:30.6	Oh, it makes this a couple of thousand dollars a month, so that's important to our livelihood.
0:36.2	About 30 to 40 percent of her customers are American.
0:38.8	But about a month ago, that changed.
0:41.7	Jess woke up one morning and was scrolling through social media.
0:45.3	Somebody was like about the de minimis exemption ending and there's going to be tariffs.
0:48.8	I'm like, what?
0:49.7	The de minimis exemption meant that until now, packages valued less than $800 could come into the U.S. without tariffs or much inspection.
0:58.4	It was like a tariff loophole.
1:00.1	But in late July, President Trump signed an executive order to get rid of it on August 29th.
1:05.5	I looked into it and promptly freaked out. Like, oh my God.
1:10.5	Since that executive order in July, post offices from Australia to Austria suspended shipping
1:17.0	to the US.
1:18.5	And businesses like Jess Van Denz are now simply saying no to American customers.
1:24.5	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
1:26.2	I'm Darien Woods.
	...

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