Temu and Shein’s favorite import policy is about to disappear

Adios, de minimis loophole

9/13/24 10:55AM

Last month, we discussed a proposal from five US senators to crack down on Chinese e-commerce companies taking advantage of the "de minimis" loophole to ship billions of dollars of goods to the US, duty-free.

The TL;DR: The US's Tariff Act of 1930 established a de minimis threshold that allowed low-cost imports to enter the country duty-free and tariff-free to expedite transit through customs. As recently as 2014, the total value of goods entering the country through de minimus was still under $1 billion, but the emergence of fast fashion e-commerce brands, especially in China, has caused an explosion in de minimis shipments, with more than $40 billion of de minimis imports entering the country each year since 2019. A 2023 congressional investigation showed that in 2022, 30% of de minimis shipments came from Shein and Temu alone, and 62% came from China.

As previously mentioned, the de minimis loophole could be costing the US government $400 million in missed duty fees, and today, the Biden administration announced that it would be cracking down on this loophole. According to The Wall Street Journal, around 70% of Chinese textile and apparel shipments will now be subject to tariffs that they were previously avoiding.

The de minimis loophole allowed Temu and Shein to pass cost savings on to their customers, but with this policy change, users will likely see prices tick up to account for the new fees. Not great news for Temu, especially, which has seen its app downloads flatline in the US.

Max Knoblauch22h

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.