🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

De minimis repeal adds at least $10.9 billion in U.S. consumer costs

• In May 2025, president Trump scrapped de minimis duty-free treatment for Chinese shipments. He ended it for all countries in August 2025, three years early 1. De minimis lets U.S. imports of $800 or less enter without tariffs.
• SHEIN plus Temu now pay tariffs. Tapestry, parent of Coach and Kate Spade, sees about $160 million profit hit in 2025 from duties tied to de minimis changes 1. Research puts the consumer hit at least $10.9 billion a year, with low-income shoppers bearing more of the cost 1. Both raised prices 1. The forecast depends on whether they absorb duties without losing price‑sensitive buyers, who spent an average of $708 on TikTok Shop in 2024 2.

Returns consolidators can capture margin from cross-border ecommerce returns

• By early 2025, only one in four TikTok users had bought there 2. Cheap impulse items often bounce back as returns that hurt margins.
• De minimis repeal hurt large parcel carriers like FedEx and opened room for specialized logistics networks that consolidate, refurbish plus resell returns in the U.S. instead of shipping them back to China 3. Reverse logistics moves goods from customers back to sellers for returns, repair or resale. Target providers with this infrastructure in beauty plus fashion, which made up 85% of top U.S. purchases on TikTok Shop in 2023, as about 70% of Americans shop Chinese marketplaces while female Gen Z buyers purchase nearly three times more beauty items than males 24.