Ways and Means, Finance Committee Leaders Talking About How to Change de Minimis

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said changing the terms of "de minimis is something that we are going to have a lot of fruitful discussions [on], we are doing that with the Senate. It's a very bipartisan concern."

Smith, who was responding to a question from International Trade Today after he participated in a Q&A hosted by Punchbowl News, declined to say if he supports cutting China out of de minimis eligibility as part of a customs modernization package.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., declined to say whether there would be any change to de minimis law at all as a result of these conversations. However, he said at the Capitol, "We continue to talk and I think the conversations are constructive."

The top Democrat on the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has been pushing to restrict China from being able to send de minimis entries for more than a year. In a hallway interview at the Capitol, he said the amount of attention de minimis has been getting from the House Select Committee on China is very encouraging. That committee, which doesn't have the power to introduce legislation, voted unanimously to reduce the $800 de minimis threshold for foreign adversaries, including China (see 2305240042).

Select Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said after that vote that he believed Congress could act before the end of 2024 to change de minimis treatment for Chinese packages.

Blumenauer said, "I welcome it." He added: "And we're getting attention from some of the people in the industry. I had somebody in my office today talking about how to transition this so that it's manageable," he said Sept. 19. Blumenauer did not say what company was visiting, but said it was one of the large sellers that sends a lot of packages under de minimis. He said the fact that the lobbyist was asking about transition plans means the company may be assuming "that it's moving forward. I found that encouraging."

Although Smith declined to take a position on Blumenauer's proposal, he said at a hearing earlier this year: "It appears that loophole is almost an $800 free trade agreement for China. That’s what it looks like to me" (see 2305090056). That language echoed a joke made by a CBP official a year ago at a conference, who said: "China has a free-trade agreement with the U.S. -- it's called de minimis."