Section 321 De Minimis: What Importers Need to Know Now That the Exemption Is Suspended
Last Updated: August 30, 2025
For years, importers relied on Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to bring shipments valued under $800 USD into the United States without paying duties or filing a formal customs entry. That exemption is currently suspended, and a recent court ruling has made it clear that the suspension is likely to hold for the foreseeable future.
What happened to Section 231?
On May 2, 2025, Executive Order 14256 ended de minimis treatment for goods from China and Hong Kong. On August 29, 2025, Executive Order 14324 extended that suspension to every country of origin, closing the duty-free pathway entirely.
Separately, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, 2025, which repeals Section 321 for commercial shipments by statute, effective July 1, 2027. That gave importers a fixed long-term date to plan around, even as the earlier executive orders took effect much sooner.
On June 24, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection codified the suspension into its own regulations and formally discontinued Entry Type 86, the simplified entry process that had supported low-value shipments.
What does this mean for your shipments?
Commercial shipments that previously qualified for duty-free Section 321 treatment now generally require an applicable customs entry. Entry Type 86 is no longer available for the former Section 321 de minimis process. Importers must instead use the appropriate formal or informal entry procedure.
According to CBP, informal entries are usually valued at less than $2,500, although certain products cannot enter informally regardless of value. Commercial goods subject to quota, antidumping duties, or countervailing duties cannot use informal entry.
Postal shipments follow a separate customs process from non-postal shipments. Duties on covered postal shipments may be collected and remitted by the carrier, or a CBP-qualified party may file the required information and pay the duties. The applicable duty calculation has also changed during 2026, with postal shipments moving to the ad valorem method beginning February 28, 2026.
Certain postal shipments may also be subject to additional tariff measures, including applicable Section 122 duties. Postal shipments follow separate filing and processing procedures, so they should not be described as going through ACE in the same manner as non-postal entries.
What importers should do now?
It’s worth revisiting your landed-cost calculations to reflect duty and tax exposure on every shipment, not just the higher-value ones. Confirm with your broker whether your shipments fall under formal or informal entry, and make sure filings are being handled accordingly. If your business has relied heavily on per-parcel cross-border shipping, it may be worth comparing that approach against bulk importing and distributing domestically, since the cost calculus has shifted. Classification accuracy also matters more than it used to, since every shipment is now subject to duty assessment rather than a fraction of them.
Need help adjusting to the current de minimis rules? Contact one of our Trade Experts to review your import process, entry requirements, tariff classification, and potential duty exposure. Book a meeting below to discuss how the changes may affect your shipments and landed costs.
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