De Minimis Changes Not Top of Mind for Ways and Means Members

Although the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee has been pushing to exclude Chinese goods from de minimis (see 2403060089), interviews this week with a half-dozen members of the 42-person committee show the momentum for changing the law is fairly muted.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who doesn't serve on the Trade Subcommittee but is on the full committee, when asked if it's time to change the law allowing goods worth less than $800 sent to an individual or business to enter the U.S. duty free, replied: "I don't know, it's the first time I've been asked that." Another senior Democrat on the committee, Rep. John Larson, of Connecticut, said: "I'm not familiar with it." But when told that Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the subcommittee's top Democrat, has a bill, he said he listens to Blumenauer, "and if it's reasonable, I usually support him."

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, showed more awareness, noting unprompted that Blumenauer had focused on the issue. "It probably is time to change," he said.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said, "We haven't gotten too far into it," but said that the committee is talking about adjusting de minimis. "We're still figuring that all out," she said. "I think there's going to be some tweaks and adjustments to it."

Malliotakis said she would like to see changes to China's eligibility, but she said some de minimis treatment needs to be preserved. "There's definitely concerns about China, but also with a recognition that it is an important protection, that if completely eliminated, would make a lot of smaller items we import cost-prohibitive."

Although Malliotakis was saying the Republican majority had not coalesced around a legislative proposal, she said, "I think there could very well be action this year."

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., took no position on changing the duty-free threshold or country eligibility. "I think we need to have a strong talk about it. This is a very difficult thing to figure out. We'll see," he said.

Only trade subcommittee member Rep. Greg Stuebe, R-Fla., directly endorsed the Blumenauer approach, which would both stop packages from China from qualifying for de minimis and bar duty-free entry for goods of Chinese origin, no matter where they're shipped from.

Stuebe said it's important to take away Chinese firms' "ability to go through other countries to utilize it. I support that for sure."

The issue has gained traction outside the Ways and Means Committee, including in the Homeland Security oversight subcommittee and in the House Select Committee on China (see 2305240042).

But Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., the ranking member on the Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee, said that while there were discussions in the subcommittee about the right approach -- limiting Chinese eligibility, lowering the dollar threshold, or restricting it for all e-commerce -- "I don't think there was a good consensus that was reached, certainly not from my perspective."

Ivey said he believes de minimis does need to be restricted from the current $800 per package per day per person law, but said, "how you do it, how far you go, we still need to do more investigative work to figure that out."

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said outside the House chamber March 22 that he thinks the de minimis law will be amended this year, but he thinks it won't be by excluding Chinese shipments, but rather by lowering the dollar threshold for duty-free treatment for all exporters. "Chairman [Jason] Smith has said good things about it, so I think there's a bipartisan appetite for it, but who knows when?"