[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 68 (Thursday, April 18, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H2506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CLOSE THE DE MINIMIS TARIFF LOOPHOLE

  (Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, today, 14 U.S. textile 
manufacturing plants stand idle, and much of the rest of American 
manufacturing is endangered by a new threat from China that this 
Congress could end at a stroke.
  In just the last 2 years, roughly, Chinese online marketplaces have 
exploded in size, selling cheap goods at dumping prices into the 
American market.
  What is causing this? Well, they learned to exploit fully the de 
minimis tariff loophole. In 2023, nearly a billion packages entered the 
U.S. through the $800 de minimis loophole, nearly 4 million individual 
shipments per day. That is not de minimis business. It is big money.
  Chinese companies Temu and Shein alone account for roughly one-third 
of all de minimis shipments. Temu appeared on the American scene only 
in 2022, Shein not much earlier. You can go buy sneakers on Temu for 
$5, and a sweater for $7. Temu reportedly loses $30 per order in a 
deliberate strategy to flood the U.S. market with cheap crap and move 
toward market dominance. It is not only textiles.
  We should close this loophole today.

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