(This story was updated to add new information.)
Waiting on a Temu or Shein order? It could be a while as the U.S. Postal Service announced it suspended the acceptance of incoming packages from China and Hong Kong until further notice.
A few hours after USPS announced the ban, it lifted the suspension with an update on their website: “Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery.”
The suspension from USPS came on the heels of President Donald Trump’s 10% tariff imposed on Chinese goods and his executive order that terminated the de minimis exemption — a loophole that allowed smaller value packages to to be shipped to the U.S. without paying tax or needing to undergo inspections.
The suspension is likely to impact e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Shein, which sell a wide variety of trendy clothes, fashion accessories and more and whose business model revolves around the de minimis tax loophole.
According to news reports, Chelsey Tam, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar said that “USPS would need time to figure out how to execute the new taxes before allowing Chinese packages to arrive in the US again.”
“This is a significant challenge for them because there were 4 million de minimis packages per day in 2024, and it is difficult to check all the packages — so it will take time,” she said.
Currently, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the authority to open and inspect all international packages, though in practice it doesn’t open every single item.
Where is Temu located?
Temu is an online marketplace operated by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings, registered in the Cayman Islands. It was founded in 2022 and based in Boston, Massachusetts. However, the company ships its goods from China.
