Price skyrockets and doubles! Delivery urgently halted! Companies withdraw from the United States! $800 tax-free cancellation ignites market 'super storm'
Date：2025-05-07 09:38:00 View：
CCTV News Report: Starting from May 2nd, the United States officially terminated the policy of exempting small packages from China with a value not exceeding $800 from tariffs. The boots of this policy landed like a giant rock thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples in the global trade field and triggering a chain reaction.
Affected by this policy, some retailers in certain countries have recently had to adjust or even suspend their business with the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal on May 2nd, the scope and depth of the impact of this policy change are astonishing. In fiscal year 2024 alone, approximately 1.36 billion packages entered the United States through this small exemption channel, with the majority coming from Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms.
Faced with the impact of high tariffs, Reuters pointed out that some e-commerce platforms have been forced to undergo significant restructuring of their own businesses. On the one hand, they have to raise the selling price of their goods to partially offset the cost of tariffs; On the other hand, accelerating the construction of local warehouses in the United States, attempting to bypass the direct impact of high tariffs through localized warehousing and distribution.
In addition, some foreign brands have stopped shipping to the United States due to the inability to withstand tariff pressure, and some small and medium-sized enterprises have reluctantly chosen to withdraw from the US market.
Bloomberg further revealed that the prices of some products on some e-commerce platforms have even doubled, and users have been complaining about delayed shipments on social media platforms.
Some domestic American companies have also failed to survive this policy storm. The Wall Street Journal revealed that a well-known shoe brand in the United States quickly responded by transferring its inventory from Canada to local warehouses in the United States. Originally, a pair of Chinese made sports shoes originally priced at $175, if shipped from Canada, would incur taxes and fees exceeding $300, which would undoubtedly make the product lose competitiveness in the market. This case vividly reflects that domestic companies in the United States have to re plan their supply chain and logistics layouts to reduce operating costs in response to policy changes.
The ultimate payer of policies is often consumers. With the adjustment of tariff policies, consumers have clearly felt the pressure of price increases. Experts point out that this policy has a particularly significant impact on low-income families. Low income families typically rely more on lower priced cross-border e-commerce products, such as clothing, daily necessities, and small electronic devices. Nowadays, the rise in prices of these goods will undoubtedly increase their living burden. This means that consumers not only have to face higher product prices, but may also encounter slower logistics services, truly "paying the bill" for this policy. It is estimated that this policy could result in a combined annual loss of up to $47 billion for businesses and consumers, with low-income groups undoubtedly being the first to suffer.
For Chinese sellers and platforms that have long relied on the "tax-free direct mail" model, the cancellation of tax-free policies is undoubtedly a "cost earthquake". Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers have stated that they have suspended shipments last week and have processed refunds for orders that were not shipped. Logistics companies have also made corresponding adjustments in response to the cancellation of the small exemption policy in the United States, which not only increases freight prices to varying degrees, but also adds high prepaid taxes.
The new policy stipulates that small postal packages under $800 sold from China to the United States must pay a tariff of 120% of their value or $100 per package. Moreover, most packages under $800 are transported through non postal channels, which means they also need to pay high tariffs. In this' cost earthquake ', Chinese sellers and platforms are actively seeking ways to break through, either choosing to raise prices to pass on costs, or accelerating the layout of overseas warehouses.
On May 3rd, CCTV Finance cited a report from CNN on May 1st that the last batch of duty-free cargo ships carrying Chinese goods are continuing to enter US ports inland this week. This means that from next week onwards, due to the impact of high tariffs, the number of ships and cargo arriving at the port will significantly decrease.
An estimate from the Oxford Institute of Economics suggests that if the US government wants to impose individual customs duties on all small parcels, it would require at least billions of dollars in additional budget to expand the system and increase manpower, otherwise it would face a nationwide risk of port backlog.