De Minimis Mail Rule Delayed to January 2027 Ahead of Midterms

A 90-day pause on the small-parcel crackdown

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has pushed back new customs requirements for small international mail shipments by 90 days. The delay is expected to hold off higher prices on imported prescription drugs and other low-value goods until after the November midterm elections.3 The agency moved the mandatory compliance date for its new mail entry process from October 22 to January 20, 2027, and said international mail entry procedures will not change before then.3 The original deadline would have landed 12 days before the November 3 vote. With household affordability a central campaign issue and control of Congress at stake, that timing was awkward for President Donald Trump's Republican Party.310

The rule is aimed at the de minimis tariff exemption, which has made it easier to import shipments valued under $800.3 CBP proposed the rules in June. They would suspend that exemption for imports moving through the international postal network.6 Under the new process, postal shipments subject to Section 201, 232 or 301 duties, or overseen by a partner agency such as the Food and Drug Administration, would need electronic filing and a customs bond.4

The rule was meant to bring forward changes that Congress authorized in Trump's spending and tax-cut bill. Those changes are not scheduled to take effect until July 2027.3 The government had already tried to speed up the end of de minimis once. Now it is delaying the faster version of that same timeline.

Two explanations for the delay

The coverage gives two different accounts of why the delay happened.

CBP's own explanation is about logistics and enforcement. The agency said the extra time lets importers, brokers and logistics providers update their processes and avoid disruption, and it still describes the rule as a way to close gaps smugglers have exploited.4 CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner Susan S. Thomas said the end of the exemption would shut down routes criminals have used to send contraband through international mail.6

Reuters, whose report was widely syndicated, focuses on politics. Its account says the delay keeps prices down for "inflation-weary" voters through Election Day and notes that the old deadline sat just before the midterms.23 Other coverage of the economy supports that reading. Syndicated versions of the story ran next to a New York Fed study finding that tariffs raised prices in 67 consumer-goods categories by 2.9 percentage points, with higher prices expected to last into 2027.8

The two explanations can both be true, but the timing is hard to overlook. CBP has not said readiness problems appeared only in mid-October. The new date, January 20, 2027, is after the election. Our reading is that operational readiness was a real issue, but the election calendar decided how long the delay would be.

Prescription drugs drove the pressure

CBP's announcement does not mention medicines, and the rule does not name them either.4 Even so, nearly all the public pressure for a delay came from patients and the pharmacies that serve them. As the October deadline approached, patient advocates and industry groups warned that the data and bonding requirements could lead to delays, refused shipments or added costs for personal drug orders.1

The FDA officially bars individuals from importing foreign prescription drugs, though it has some discretion in limited cases. Some Americans buy from countries such as Canada, where prices can be much lower.4 The Canadian International Pharmacy Association said most routine personal orders from licensed foreign pharmacies could be disrupted.3 Seventy-one members of Congress, led by Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, signed a letter asking agencies to delay the procedures for prescription medicines unless personal-use drugs were protected.4

Merith Basey, CEO of Patients For Affordable Drugs, called the delay a welcome reprieve but not a permanent solution. She said disrupting personal importation would remove an important safety valve for patients who cannot afford drugs at U.S. prices.3 The Department of Health and Human Services referred questions to CBP. CBP did not immediately say whether it plans an exemption for personal-use imports.4

That question is still open. The delay changes when the rule starts, not what it requires. Unless CBP or the FDA creates a specific carve-out, the same bonding and filing requirements that worried patients will apply from January 20.

The scale of small parcels

The U.S. fight is about a very large flow of goods. One report said de minimis shipments grew almost tenfold over the past decade.6 That growth came largely from the cross-border e-commerce model built by platforms such as Temu and Shein. Their low prices depended on goods entering the U.S. duty-free under de minimis and entering the EU effectively duty-free under the €150 threshold. Both of those advantages are now gone.20 A trade court has also upheld Trump's authority to end the exemption early for low-value imports from China, Mexico and Canada.10

The U.S. has removed de minimis for China-origin goods, so American Temu orders now face standard import tariffs. Some items are being shipped from U.S. warehouses at prices that differ from the old direct-from-China listings.20 The mail-entry rule now delayed until January is one of the last pieces of that shift.

Europe's approach and what it shows

The European Union shows what happens when governments go ahead with this kind of change without pausing for elections. On July 1, 2026, the EU introduced a temporary €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from outside the bloc. That ended the duty exemption for imports worth up to €150.12 The duty is charged per tariff category, not per parcel. A package with three different types of product owes €9, while five identical T-shirts owe only €3.1719 The flat rate runs until July 1, 2028. After that, standard product-specific duties are expected to apply once the EU's customs data hub is working.1113

The European Commission's figures show why the EU acted. Parcels worth up to €150 made up 97.9% of packages moving through the EU but only 2.1% of their total value, with an average value of €8.86.11

The European Parliament also approved a broader reform of the EU Customs Code. It treats platforms that facilitate direct sales from outside the EU as importers and requires a separate handling fee by November 1, 2026, at the latest.14 Reports differ on how that fee will be charged. One says it is an extra €2 per item category, which would bring the combined surcharge to €5 per category.15 Another describes it as €2 per item.19 Either way, a logistics firm estimates a fixed cost floor of roughly €5 to €7 per parcel. That makes many very cheap products unprofitable to ship.17

Prices and parcel volumes after July

The early European data points in one direction, though the size of the effect varies by source:

• Parcel volumes: Estimates of the drop range from 30% to 70%. French customs estimated a 30% to 40% fall across the EU, and Belgian broadcaster RTBF reported that Shein and Temu arrivals at Liège airport had halved.14
• Low-value imports: Dutch broadcaster RTL reported a 60% year-over-year drop in low-value non-EU imports in July.15
• Market share: In card-spend data from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, Shein's share of apparel spending fell from about 7% to under 5% by September. Temu's share of online broadline spending fell from about 7% to 4.5%.16
• Order size: The number of orders fell sharply while the average order value rose. This suggests shoppers are combining purchases into fewer, larger baskets.16

The two platforms responded differently. Temu began showing the fee as a separate line, while Shein built it into higher prices.12 E-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukėnas said the duty has sometimes doubled the total cost of the cheapest orders.12 France has gone further. It introduced its own €2-per-item parcel tax in March and an ultra-fast-fashion levy in September that could reach nearly €20 per item by 2030.1416

The next question in Europe is whether Shein and Temu move stock into EU-based warehouses, which would avoid the duty, and how the first holiday season under the new rules goes.16

Why this matters

The U.S. and EU are moving toward the same result, but in different ways. Europe imposed a simple flat charge, accepted the price increase, and is already seeing parcel volumes fall. Washington has set out an even tougher set of rules but has now delayed a key part of them at a politically sensitive moment.

For cross-border e-commerce companies, the direction is clear in both markets: the era of duty-free direct-to-consumer parcels is ending. For American shoppers and patients, the Europe numbers suggest what to expect after January 20 if nothing changes: higher costs per parcel, fewer orders, and more pressure on people who rely on cheap imports. That includes those buying medicines from abroad, who still have no exemption written into the rule.