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Biden’s 2024 Shein and Temu Crackdown: What Changed and What It Means for U.S. Orders

The 2024 Biden-Harris announcement proposed tighter rules for some low-value imports. Later orders broadly suspended duty-free de minimis treatment, affecting potential costs and customs processing—but not establishing a specific Shein or Temu delivery delay.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The Biden-Harris administration’s September 2024 announcement proposed tighter treatment of some low-value imports, including certain goods covered by trade tariffs. It did not immediately change every Shein or Temu shipment. Later executive orders went much further: as of the latest order dated February 20, 2026, covered imports no longer receive duty-free de minimis treatment, and applicable duties are to be collected, including on international-postal shipments. That can affect what buyers pay and how shipments are processed, but the official sources do not establish a specific delivery delay for either retailer.

What is the de minimis exemption?

De minimis is a U.S. customs provision that historically allowed qualifying low-value imports to enter without duties. When the Biden-Harris administration announced its action on September 13, 2024, the exemption generally applied to qualifying shipments with an aggregate fair retail value of $800 or less. The threshold did not mean that every package under $800 was exempt from every law or requirement.

The policy matters to shoppers because duty treatment and customs processing can influence the final cost and handling of an imported order. Whether a particular Shein or Temu purchase is covered depends on the shipment and the rules in effect when it is imported.

What did the Biden administration announce in 2024?

On September 13, 2024, the administration announced steps responding to the growth and alleged misuse of de minimis shipments. One proposed change would exclude shipments containing products subject to certain trade-remedy tariffs—those imposed under Sections 201 or 301—from de minimis treatment. The Department of Commerce framed the broader effort as a way to enforce trade, safety, intellectual-property, and consumer-protection rules and to help stop illicit synthetic drugs and related materials. The Commerce announcement described an initiative and proposed action, not a rule that immediately changed every order from Shein or Temu. Commerce’s statement

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How did the rules change after 2024?

July 2025: broad suspension

A July 30, 2025 executive order suspended the duty-free de minimis exemption under 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C) for covered shipments regardless of value, country of origin, transportation mode, or method of entry. For non-postal shipments, the order provides for applicable duties, taxes, fees, and charges and calls for appropriate customs entries. It prescribes separate treatment for international-postal shipments. Read the July 2025 order.

The White House said the change took effect August 29, 2025. Its contemporaneous fact sheet described a postal duty method using an ad valorem rate or, temporarily, a specific amount per item depending on the applicable effective tariff rate. That was implementation guidance at the time; the later order governs the current policy description. See the White House fact sheet.

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February 2026: suspension continued

A February 20, 2026 executive order continued the suspension. It says covered imports remain subject to applicable duties and directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect duties on international-postal shipments under the amended order. Read the February 2026 order.

What does this mean for Shein and Temu shoppers?

Possible changes to cost

Orders that would previously have qualified for duty-free treatment may now face applicable duties and, depending on the shipment, other taxes, fees, and charges. The amount owed on a specific purchase is not established by the policy announcements alone; it depends on the applicable tariff and the shipment’s circumstances. Check the checkout terms and any import-charge disclosures, but do not assume that the displayed item price is the final landed cost.

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Customs processing is not the same as delivery speed

Additional duties and customs-entry requirements can change how a shipment is handled. The executive orders establish changes to duty treatment and entry requirements, not a guaranteed number of extra delivery days. They also do not show that every order from either retailer will be delayed. The cited official sources provide no reliable Shein-versus-Temu delivery-time comparison.

For a particular order, the relevant details include when it ships, its country of origin, whether it travels by postal or non-postal service, the applicable duty treatment, and whether the merchant disclosed import charges. Without those details, a broad claim about the order’s final cost or arrival date would be unreliable.

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Why did the administration focus on de minimis shipments?

The White House said reported de minimis volume rose from 134 million shipments in 2015 to more than 1.36 billion in 2024, citing CBP data, and that CBP processed an average of more than 4 million such shipments per day. It also reported that in fiscal year 2024, de minimis shipments accounted for 98% of narcotics seizures by number of cases, 97% of intellectual-property seizures, and 77% of health-and-safety or prohibited-item seizures. These are administration-reported enforcement figures; they describe the origin of seizures, not independent proof that the policy changes will produce particular outcomes. The White House fact sheet provides the figures and attribution.

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