President Joe Biden has taken new executive action to crack down on illegal goods, such as fentanyl, that criminals are concealing in the millions of small e-commerce packages mailed into the United States daily, particularly from Chinese entities.
The Biden-Harris White House signed an executive order Friday to give officers at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations new tools to track and intercept illegal items in shipments, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“The actions announced today by the Biden-Harris Administration will help the Department keep pace with global electronic commerce and improve our ability to protect communities from fentanyl and its precursor chemicals,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
The action is meant to address the rise in shipments that fall under the “de minimis” exemption, which makes imports under $800 duty-free and does not require as many details and information, including on what is inside. More than 1.2 billion small packages come into the country every year.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Chinese companies have used the exemption to their benefit.
“American workers and businesses can outcompete anyone on a level playing field, but for too long, Chinese e-commerce platforms have skirted tariffs by abusing the de minimis exemption,” Raimondo said in a statement. “With these new actions, the Biden-Harris Administration is standing up for American consumers and cracking down on Chinese companies’ efforts to undercut American workers and businesses.”
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The new rules mean the DHS and the Justice Department will have a better chance of going after shippers who hide fentanyl or other illicit goods inside small packages.
Importers in the U.S. will have to file certificates of compliance with the federal government, and that will give the agencies a greater ability to go after importers and exporters who send and receive illegal items.
