The De Minimis Loophole: How Trump's New Tariffs Target Temu and Shein

one story , one story only . Then we're going to get to the question of the day , which is related , sort of , to the story . All right , you know about the big , bad tariffs that Donald Trump , mr President , has put in place . Now , congress , I think it was , or Senate , it must have been Senate , because Mitchell Mitch McConnell voted against it .

Some Canada thing , I don't know , they voted down the tariffs for Canada . All right , you're going to hear about that later today . But this story I want to talk about because it focuses in a little bit more about some of this one particular tariff All right , trump imposes new tariffs on cheap Chinese goods sold by companies like Timu and Sheen .

I'm sure you've seen it out there . If you're on facebook and you're scrolling , you've seen these companies advertised . President trump signed on exec . I did not , not . Did not know what sheen was . A co-worker had to tell me what sheen was . It's just , you know , it's

like timo everything cheap coming from china , from coming from china . All right , but here , listen to this . President trump signed an executive order wed Wednesday closing a trade loophole on cheap goods from China that were previously exempt from tariffs .

Trump argued that the so-called de minimis exception allowed shippers from the People's Republic and Hong Kong to hide illicit substances in packaging and products . It goes on . These shippers often avoid detection due to administration of the de minimis exemption .

The president wrote claiming that duty-free exports from China play a significant role in the synthetic opioid opioid crisis in the United States . So order a pair of cheap ass shoes from sheen or timu and they might be coming with the fentanyl and the opioids , just to let you know . Okay , um , all right , let's see . We're going to read on .

Packages subject to the de minimis treatment are valued at less than $800 . This is a lot of stuff here . Online Chinese retailers such as Timu and Sheen have used the loophole to sell ultra low cost items to the US consumers and could be hit hard by new tariffs .

Now I've seen I've seen reels on Facebook and and I don't have TikTok yet , but I'm about to get it , I think Maybe We'll see and I see these women talking about look what I got from Timu , what I bought and what I really got and they're just making money off of this .

In february , trump briefly suspended the loophole before restoring the exemption to give the commerce of department more time to develop a plan on how to collect the new revenues . Okay , blah , blah , blah .

The new tariffs are on de minimis goods will be imposed in lieu of any other duties that shipments would otherwise be subject to , such as Trump's 20% levy on Chinese exports . Starting May 2nd , shipments under $800 will be subject to a valerian duty of 30% . Okay , blah , blah , blah , you don't care about that . Where was I ? Let's see , let's see .

Okay , the de minimis exception , where this came from , was initially implemented to allow tourists to bring souvenirs back home from abroad . Duty and hassle-free . You know , you've seen this . When you go on a cruise , you go overseas , you want a souvenir , you bring it . Ship it back , you want to bring it back . This is what that is for .

Uh , the cato institute , a libertarian think tank , argues that that the de minimis exemption serves as a crucial trade facilitation tool that particularly benefits low-income consumers . So I think this think tank is against it . I'm not sure against the tariff . The think tank points to research papers showing that the poorest zip codes in America receive significantly

more de minimis shipments , particularly from China , than the richest zip codes . Well , I mean , if you don't make a lot of money , of course you're going to buy cheap shit , right , all right ? So the president signed the executive order . Okay , that's the end of the story . I don't know if you're interested in that of order .

Okay , that's the end of the story . I don't know if you're interested in that . But my question of the day , I mean , what do you think about this whole tariff thing ? Is kind of confusing to me . I need some more clarification . You know , yesterday was supposed to be Liberation Day with this whole tariff thing . He did a whole presentation in the Rose Garden .

I kind of watched . It kind of was on in the background . I was trying to . I was doing other stuff online . I wasn't paying full attention . Maybe I should have . Maybe I'll hear more about it today . Tell me where I can go to read more about the tariffs and what this really means for America .

But my question of the day and then we're going to call it is what is the strangest thing you've ordered online Keep it clean the strangest thing that I think I've ordered ? I've always ordered from Amazon . Sometimes I order direct from the company , like if I'm doing makeup or something like that . Maybe I know from Besame Cosmetics , I'll order straight from them .

Takes a little bit longer to get here , but it's so worth it . It is made in the USA , by the way , besame Cosmetics , I ordered their Ella Fitzgerald 4 Quad Eyeshadow Lovely , and I get all my lipsticks from there too . Most of my red lipsticks , anyway , are from Besame . All right , moving on , question of the day what is the strangest thing you've ordered ?

The strangest thing I probably ordered was from Amazon and it was like a costume wig . At one point or another I was going to create an alternative anonymous ex account and I was actually going to use my picture . But I was going to dress myself up in this crazy wig and crazy makeup and stuff and try to pixelate it a little bit , but I never did do it .

I ordered the wig . It's sitting underneath my bed . I should bring it out sometime and do it . Maybe show it to you . You I'll do it sometime when I'm bored , or whatever . All

right , so , oh , another thing , real quick . I'm going to start a new segment on here , uh , the Americanist podcast . Probably once a week I'm going to put out a topic and I want you , the listeners , to send in your thoughts and remarks , record one to three minutes of the topic , of your opinion of it . Send it to me via email or I'll put out a link .

You can DM me . I'll give you the link to share a shared file and then I will put it all together in a weekly episode and put it out there . We're going to call it the Liberty Line . So when you see the Liberty Line is open , send it in the topic this week . That I want is what is your favorite US president from history , or , and why ?

Or what's your favorite US American history moment ? All right , gotta go . Thanks for listening . Love y'all , bye .