US court to review de minimis ban on imports from China & Hong Kong

The court instructed the parties to the suit to each provide responses within a month.

The US Court of International Trade (CIT) has lifted a stay on a lawsuit challenging the US administration’s elimination of de minimis eligibility for imports from China and Hong Kong.
After the elimination, an auto parts retailer and distributor filed suit asking the CIT to hold this change to be unlawful and halt its enforcement.
CIT instructed the parties to each provide responses within a month.

De minimis shipments that have a retail value of $800 or less and are imported by one person in a day are generally free of duty and taxes and subject to expedited clearance processing under Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

However, under an executive order issued by Trump, this exemption was eliminated as of May 2, 2025, for such packages from China and Hong Kong, which account for the majority of such shipments.

Later an auto parts retailer and distributor filed suit asking the CIT to hold this change to be unlawful and halt its enforcement.

The company claimed that the de minimis statute does not authorise the president or any other executive branch official to suspend or eliminate the exemption by administrative fiat and is arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act as it ignored the impact on those that rely on the exemption, failed to consider related economic costs and benefits, did not take reasonable alternatives into consideration, and “has no articulated or apparent link to the problem the government cited as justification,” law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg said.

The case was suspended pending the resolution of litigation challenging tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which was also the authority under which the China de minimis executive order was issued.

In the meantime, Trump signed into law a bill terminating the de minimis exception for commercial shipments from all countries as of July 1, 2027, and issued a separate order moving that date up to August 29, 2025.

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning the IEEPA tariffs, the CIT on March 5 agreed to let the China de minimis case proceed.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)