Views on Restricting de Minimis Don't Follow Party Lines

As the House Ways and Means Committee discusses moving toward a proposal closer to the Senate Finance Committee chairman's bill to restrict de minimis, the top Republican on the Finance Committee is not publicly opposing the core ideas of that bill -- removing apparel and footwear from eligibility from all countries, and not allowing goods subject to Section 301 tariffs to enter duty-free.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the Republican with the most leverage to shape or stop legislation restricting de minimis, said he was not committing to any specific avenues, such as removing eligibility for Section 301 goods, or removing eligibility for apparel, footwear and other "import sensitive" goods. "It's a very important issue, and I'm willing to work with them on that," he said in a brief hallway interview.

Restricting de minimis has built support from some Republicans on the Finance Committee (see 2407100064), such as North Carolina's Sen. Thom Tillis and Louisiana's Sen. Bill Cassidy.

Many Democrats on the committee strongly support restricting the scope of packages that can qualify for duty-free entry.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that he thinks restricting de minimis eligibility so that fewer direct-to-consumer packages are imported is "necessary." He called de minimis a loophole, and said it dramatically expanded, "and has now been, I think, a significant danger in terms of both avoided tariffs, and in terms of allowing dangerous cargo into the country."

Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden's bill is co-sponsored by committee member Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., as well as two Republican co-sponsors who don't serve on the committee.

Any bill that could become law would need enough Republican support to exceed the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a longtime China hawk, said he's been supportive of proposals to shrink the number of de minimis entries by restricting eligibility. He said, ideally, CBP would be able to identify which low-value packages were "being produced from forced labor or unfair practices. But that's become practically impossible. So it's serving as this massive loophole. We're always open to ways to make [restrictions] as least onerous as possible, but ultimately that may not be possible."

Even some of the advocates of expanding duty-free eligibility in the past are expressing openness to changing course.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., was one of the authors of the higher de minimis threshold in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act nine years ago. He said that while the authors wanted to make it easier to import goods worth between $201 and $800, "when we enacted it, we didn't have a fentanyl issue. So we're trying to figure out how to make it work in a way that attacks the fentanyl issue, but doesn't undermine the goal, which is to try and create more of an open trading system that makes it easier to get goods to and from the country."

Thune said Chairman Wyden had asked him to talk about the problem, and he would be doing so. "He's been thinking it through, and we have, too, and we want to come up with a solution."

However, while many Democrats have called for restricting de minimis, it's not the case that there's unanimity for this approach among the 51 senators who caucus with the Democrats.

Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., when asked about restricting de minimis in the Capitol, replied: "I'm for trade." She said policymakers should be focusing on how to expand exports, given that 95% of consumers live outside the United States.