United States: deferral of new taxes to August 7 and global removal of exemption « de minimis » as from 29 August

New rebound in the US tariff saga. After announcing the entry into force of the new import taxes in the United States as from 1 August (cf. EU-US Trade Agreement: An Asymmetric Deal), the U.S. President finally postponed this date to 7 August 2025. This announcement was made by the executive order. « FURTHER MODIFYING THE RECIPROCAL TARIFF RATES» issued on 31 July 2025. Annex I of this document contains the rate of the Reciprocal Tariffs for more than 70 countries or blocs, of which the European Union (15%) is aware that any country not listed therein will be subject to a rate of 10%. These rates will therefore apply to goods offered for sale or withdrawn from a warehouse for sale from 00:01 on August 7. If US customs suspected that a transshipment was used to circumvent the Order, the goods will be subject to an additional 40 per cent duty rate instead of the rate prescribed by the Order, with fines and penalties at the key.

Another blow for exporters, the US President also decided to suspend, Global, treatment « de minimis » duty-free, which allowed the importation without duty or formalities of low-value packages (less than USD 800), from 29 August 2025. To date, only China has been subject to this sanction since 2 May 2025 (cf. Exporting to the United States: operational clarifications against surtaxes). The Decree «SUSPENDING DUTY-FREE OF MINIMIS TREATMENT FOR ALL COUNTRIES», signed on 30 July 2025, provides that all international commercial shipments shall be subject to all applicable duties, taxes, royalties, levies and charges, regardless of their value or mode of entry, with the exception of certain international postal shipments, which shall follow a separate tariff structure.

International postal items will be subject to one of the following two methods of taxation:

• Ad valorem duty: a duty corresponding to the tariff rate provided for by IEEPA applicable to the country of origin of the product will be calculated on the value of each package containing goods intended for consumption.
• Specific duty: a fixed duty, between $80 and $200 per item, based on the tariff rate provided by the EIEPA applicable to the country of origin of the product.

The method of calculating the specific duty may be used by carriers for a period of 6 months, after which all consignments must comply with the method of calculating the ad valorem duties.

For companies that sold directly to U.S. consumers by optimising via the USD 800 threshold, it is undoubtedly time to think about a new alternative. Moving from a B to C model to a B to B (USA) to C model could be a relevant solution. Our team remains at your disposal to help you adapt to the situation and explore new paths to optimize your flows.

Attention, this information may change at any time to the pace of presidential announcements and other regulatory changes.

ACTE International Network