Fast fashion giants such as Shein and Temu have been doing booming business in the United States in recent years, partly due to a tariff exemption that helped maintain low prices in packages sent from China.
Now, President Trump ordered that the closed lagoon be closed as part of the new tariffs, starting with China and Hong Kong packages. It could have the effect, probably involuntary, to make a dent in the global airfreight emissions linked to the fashion industry.
Last year, 1.36 billion packages entered the United States through that escape, which is known as minimis exemption and allows goods worth less than $ 800 to enter the country without tariffs. The biggest source of shipments under the exemption was China, and most of those packages crossed the ocean by plane, according to customs data and border protection.
And that means that many planet -dating emissions: flying a package through the sea is 68 times more carbon intensive than sending it by Freight Ocean, according to the Climaterero accelerator, a non -profit group based in Switzerland.
A $ 23 billion business
Many countries allow shipments below a certain value to cross their borders without exiles. In Europe, the threshold is 150 euros. In Argentina, they are $ 400. Since 2016, when Congress last increased the exemption of Minimis in a bipartisan vote, the United States has brought the line at $ 800.
These policies help simplify the customs process for small packages and avoid bottlenecks on the border. But the US exemption has also opened the door for foreign electronic commerce platforms to compete at national retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.
That has helped Shein forge a niche from the United States with low -cost clothes. The company receives another impulse from the “transport” videos on social networks, in which buyers show their purchases. And Temu, an electronic commerce platform that encouraged customers to “buy as a billionaire” in a Super Bowl commercial last year, was the most unloaded application in Apple’s App Store in 2023 and 2024.
Annual minimis shipments to the US have increased almost ten times in the last decade more or less, increasing to 1.36 billion in 2024 of 140 million in 2013. According to the estimates of the National Office of Customs of China, the small packages sent to the United States were worth approximately $ 23 billion last year.
President Joe Biden announced an offensive in these shipments last fall, citing concerns about the fulfillment of health and safety, potential smuggling such as fentanyl and intellectual property rights.
Trump also briefly ordered the end of Minimis exemptions in February, but restored the rule a few days later in the midst of concerns about implementation. Announced the end of the exemption again in April as part of its wider rates package.
The new rules will be eliminated in the coming weeks, with the greatest levies that will enter into force on June 1. The Trump administration has proposed rates of up to $ 200 per package or 120 percent of the value of the package, with the carrier choosing which option to apply, in shipments of Hong Kong and Continental China.
One billion packages, more greenhouse gases
Before the pandemic, Airfreight was largely used for perishable goods, said Josh Archer, a senior global corporate activist in Stand.Aarth, a non -profit environmental group. That was partly because air shipping, although more expensive, is faster than sea shipping. But the introduction of Amazon of one day sending the expectations of consumers about how fast their packages should reach, and other retailers increased their use of the air load to compete.
Airfreight emissions grew by 25 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to Archer’s investigation.
In 2024, more than one billion packages entered the US. Last year, the cargo data consulting estimated that Temu, Shein, Alibaba.com and Tiktok flew the equivalent of approximately 108 Boeing 777 loads full of packages every day.
“It has simply been an absolute explosion in the sector that we really do not have a solution to decarbonize,” said Archer.
Neither Shein nor Temu responded to requests for comments.
What follows?
Trump’s abortive attempt to close the escape in February offered an idea of ​​what could happen.
After announcing the end of the exemption, sales in Shein began to fall. Three days later, 41 percent fell compared to the same day of the week before, according to an analysis of the second measure of Bloomberg data of credit and debit card data. Temu saw a similar decrease, although smaller, in sales.
The change can shake electronic commerce even if sales do not have a success: companies could change to send much larger shipments to the US warehouses. That could mean lower rates, with a potential secondary benefit of the lowest emissions as well.
Temu is already doing this, and has said that approximately half of the products ordered in the US. UU. They are delivered from national stores.
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