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An overlooked executive order, crowded out by the administrations new tariff schedule, could have big implications for relatively small imports. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that ended de minimis treatment for small or low-value Chinese imports. That’s as Trumps team is pushing ahead to close the trade loophole that has allowed certain goods from China to dodge tariffs. Trump had previously suspended the loophole in February and tasked the Commerce Department with putting together a more comprehensive plan. Now that the loophole is closed, there could be many implications for Chinese retailers that specialize in selling inexpensive goods to American consumerscompanies like Temu or Shein. Here’s what to know. What is de minimis? Under previous standards, imports with values of less than $800 were granted de minimis exemptions from tariffs. Effectively, that meant that companies specializing in selling cheap goods to American consumers could avoid existing tariffs and added duties. The phrase de minimis is Latin, and loosely translates to minimal things. As it relates to tariffs, it basically boils down to a translation of, tariffs dont apply to relatively small imports. The de minimis rule had existed under U.S. tax law, but small shipments and imports utilizing the loophole have increased significantly in recent years, which caught the attention of regulatorsand Trump. In fact, the number of shipments has more than doubled since 2018. Trumps executive order claims that the loopholes closure has to do with imports of drugs or drug-producing compounds. President Trump is targeting deceptive shipping practices by Chinese-based shippers, many of whom hide illicit substances, including synthetic opioids, in low-value packages to exploit the de minimis exemption, the White House said. What does it mean for consumers? Closing the loophole likely means higher prices for American consumers, and a potential knockout blow to Chinese retailers who have exploited the loophole in recent years. That could potentially make American retailers more competitive. Forever 21, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that it was closing all of its U.S. stores, blamed part of its faltering on Chinese rivals like Shein and Temu. So the trade-off appears to be that American retailers may be more competitive, but that consumers will likely pay higher prices.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump on Friday said is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but Chinas ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely-held algorithm, has insisted the platform is not for sale. My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress, Trump posted on his social media platform. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days. Trump added: We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and Chinas Foreign Ministry has said Chinas government has never and will not ask companies to collect or provide data, information or intelligence held in foreign countries. Trumps delay of the ban marks the second time that he has temporarily blocked the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for ByteDance to divest. That law that was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security. If the extension keeps control of TikToks algorithm under ByteDances authority, those national security concerns persist. Chris Pierson, CEO of the cybersecurity and privacy protection platform BlackCloak, said that if the algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, then it is still controlled by a company that is in a foreign, adversarial nation state that actually could use that data for other means. The main reason for all this is the control of data and the control of the algorithm, said Pierson, who served on the Department of Homeland Securitys Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee for more than a decade. If neither of those two things change, then it has not changed the underlying purpose, and it has not changed the underlying risks that are presented. The Republican presidents executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but his order delaying a ban on TikTok has barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the law banning TikTok. The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if theres a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trumps actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota. Rozenshtein pushed back on Trumps claim that delaying the ban is an extension.Hes not extending anything. This continues to simply be a unilateral non enforcement declaration, he said. All hes doing is saying that he will not enforce the law for 75 more days. The law is still in effect. The companies are still violating it by providing services to Tiktok. The national security risks posed by TikTok persist under this extension, he said. The extension comes at a time when Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they werent sure. Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report. Daniel Ryave, in Washington, D.C., runs the TikTok account @SATPrepTutor with about 175,000 followers. It offers testing advice and helps Ryave find tutoring students. He has Instagram and YouTube accounts, but TikTok is better for reaching people, he said. Almost all of my new students come through TikTok, he said. A big chunk of my revenue is from one-on-one tutoring, and thats a great way to source clients. When he heard about the extension, he was relieved, he said. This extension will allow students to continue accessing high quality short form educational content that they arent seeking out elsewhere, he said. Fatima Hussein and Sarah Parvini, Associated Press AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this story.
Category:
E-Commerce
For all of the risks and potential dangers associated with crypto, it is still becoming an increasingly mainstream asset. Thats according to the latest data from the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA), a non-profit aimed at helping Americans better understand cryptocurrency and digital assets. One in five Americans currently owns cryptocurrency in some shape or form, according to the NCAs 2025 State of Crypto Holders Report. The report, which was produced with The Harris Poll, also finds that nearly 40% use crypto to pay for goods or services, and that two-thirds say that crypto has a positive impact on their lives. The data was sourced from a Harris Poll survey conducted in January and February this year, from a pool of 54,000 respondents that was winnowed down to 10,000 crypto holders. It’s the largest survey conducted to date of crypto holders. A couple of other interesting findings include that nearly 40% of American crypto holders live in the Southmore than double the amount that live in the Midwest (17%) or the Northeast (18%). Twenty-six percent live in the West. Also, while 14% of crypto holders work in the tech sector, 12% work in construction. And only 7%, a perhaps surprisingly low number, work in finance. The report also notes that crypto owners are a fairly diverse set, and that one reason is that crypto has a surprisingly low bar for entry. That is truein many cases, all thats needed to start purchasing crypto is a brokerage account and a few dollars, as many cryptocurrencies have low values. But that also makes it a fairly risky field. In 2023, for instance, the amount lost to crypto scams added up to more than $5.6 billion, according to FBI data. Early estimates seem to indicate that the total lost to crypto scams during 2024 will be at least double that amount. Either way, the report points to a rather obvious conclusion: Crypto seems to be growing, and even becoming more mainstream. Of course, that’s as the NCA is also pushing for more mainstream adoption of crypto itself. The organization launched just one month ago.
Category:
E-Commerce
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