Democratic Senators Ask Treasury to End de Minimis
Four Democratic senators are asking the Treasury Department to end de minimis treatment for all e-commerce shipments, arguing that the regulations under development to restrict de minimis would not go far enough to curtail fentanyl smuggling.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also asked for extensive information about current de minimis shipments, and the administration's expectations for how its intended rulemaking would reduce the volume and change the inspection regime.
"We write regarding our concern about use of the de minimis trade provision to facilitate the illegal drug trade and ship billions of dollars’ worth of imports into the United States, bypassing inspections, tariffs, and trade enforcement that protect American consumers and businesses from criminal behavior and illegal trade," they wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
They said that ending de minimis eligibility for goods subject to Section 301 and other trade remedies, and requiring 10-digit HTS codes, will not thwart fentanyl and fentanyl precursor shipping. They noted that on Oct. 1, Reuters reporters detailed "how one single smuggler was able to receive over 15,000 pounds of fentanyl precursors in small packages shipped to his home in Tucson."
They also said that de minimis enables evasion of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act "and disadvantages domestic manufacturers and other companies who play by the rules."
They asked DHS to tell them:
- how many de minimis packages are processed each day, by facility
- its estimate of illicit trade entering via de minimis annually
- how good that estimate is, given the lack of data and limited inspections
- how volume would be affected if e-commerce isn't eligible for de minimis
- how much staffing would be needed in that scenario
- what reduction in volume would be expected if proposed rules take effect
- how that reduction would affect what is inspected
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