Fast Fashion Deliveries No Longer in Peril After USPS Reverses Shipment Ban
The United States Postal Service hastily reversed a decision to stop accepting packages from China and Hong Kong on Wednesday, roughly 12 hours after causing mass confusion with its initial announcement.
“Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts,” the agency said, in a statement. “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.”
In confirming its abrupt turnaround, USPS revealed that Tuesday’s previously unexplained announcement was related to new 10 percent tariffs President Donald Trump levied on China Tuesday.
Those levies, which escalated an ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies, sealed off a trade loophole that allowed fast-fashion retailers, such as the wildly popular Temu and Shein, to ship packages worth less than $800 into the US duty-free.
Temu and Shein, which specialize in discount goods are expected to raise prices with the so-called “de minimus” loophole closed. Prices at Amazon’s rival app Haul, which imports cheap products China-based sellers, could also be impacted.
Temu—which sells clothing, makeup and home goods—blew past Amazon as the most-downloaded shopping app in the US in 2023 and retained its crown last year. Shein is especially popular for bargain hunting clothes shoppers and has staked out a major foothold among online influencers.
A House report completed in 2023 alleged there was an “extremely high risk” Temu’s supply chain relied on forced labor, and said both discount online retailers failed to cooperate with U.S. reviews of their human rights practices. Last year, Swiss corporate watchdog Public Eye reported that Shein workers were subject to 75-hour work weeks. Shein denied the Congressional report’s claims and told the BBC it was “working hard” to address the labour claims raised by the Public Eye report.
The USPS reversal was the latest sign that Trump’s global trade war may not—in the short term—be as damaging as markets initially feared.
Chinese e-commerce stocks Alibaba, Tencent and PDD rallied Tuesday, seemingly counterintuitive given that their country slapped retaliatory tariffs on the United States.
But Beijing’s countermeasures were perceived as mild by many investors and Trump’s decision to delay tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a month was viewed as a signal that his administration is open to dealmaking
