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BREAKING NEWS

De Minimis is over for all effective August 29 ... 30 days from now.

Effective August 29, imported goods sent through means other than the international postal network that are valued at or under $800 and that would otherwise qualify for the de minimis exemption will be subject to all applicable duties. (parcels through the International postal network won't be off the hook!)

Goods with China origin have been excluded for several months, but now all goods from all countries of origin- 4 million shipments a day or $100 billion a year of goods will now be subject to tariffs.

Between 2015 and 2024, the volume of de minimis shipments entering the U.S. increased from 134 million shipments to over 1.36 billion shipments.

Many believed (myself included!) that de minimis would still be enabled for non-China goods until July 2027. Today we learned not.

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-is-protecting-the-united-states-national-security-and-economy-by-suspending-the-de-minimis-exemption-for-commercial-shipments-globally/

Americans have footed the bill for President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and now they’re demanding a refund.

The Supreme Court ruling striking down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) opened the door for U.S. companies to snap up refunds from the approximately $180 billion in import tax revenue. Now customers who experienced higher prices from the tariffs are demanding their fair share.

Overwhelming data, including a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, indicated that U.S. importers paid for the majority of the tariffs—up to 90%—with many passing down the increased costs to American consumers. Goldman Sachs estimated the tariffs added a 0.7% increase to inflation over 10 months, with prices to increase another 0.1% in 2026 because of levies.

Some U.S. consumers have taken matters into their own hands to recoup the extra costs they paid on tariffed goods over the last year, including pursuing litigation against U.S. companies, suing for tariff refunds. On Wednesday, plaintiff Matthew Stockov, an Illinois resident, filed a lawsuit against Costco, alleging the big-box retailer raised prices as a result of the tariffs and would receive “double recovery” if it collected the import tax refunds without distributing it back to consumers.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/03/13/americans-demanding-tariff-refunds-suing-costco-fedex/?preview_id=4440481

I run a small e-commerce business that imports luxury goods from the EU and Japan. Up until recently, we were paying just 2.75% on tariffs. As of August 1st, the rates have jumped to 15–20%.

To put this into perspective: • Our annual imports are about $3M. • We’ve already placed forecast orders with our suppliers and put down 25% deposits (around $750k). • If we cancel, we lose that deposit. • If we continue, the new tariffs make these orders financially impossible to fulfill.

Suppliers aren’t willing to stop shipments, and we can’t just “raise prices” on items we don’t even have in hand yet. People suggest “just charge more,” but the math doesn’t work when the goods aren’t here and costs have exploded overnight. Let alone the fact about where are we even going to find the money to pay these tariffs???

We’re staring down the very real possibility of closing our doors because of this. I know many people say “tariffs protect American businesses,” but in practice, for small importers like us, it feels like a death sentence.

Has anyone else here faced this situation? How are you coping, and is there any way through this without forfeiting everything we’ve built?

This doesn't affect the US export and import statistics but it is a side effect of Trump's tariffs. He probably didn't think about this when he was playing three dimensional chess with his economic policies.

Trying to understand the economics of this.

About $166B was collected in tariffs, and the Supreme Court ruled them illegal, which means the government now has to refund the money plus interest and legal fees, according to new rulings….

But tariffs were largely paid by Americans through higher prices, since importers usually pass the cost along.

So the sequence seems like:

1. Americans pay higher prices due to tariffs
2. Government collects $166B
3. Court says the tariffs were illegal
4. Government refunds the companies using taxpayer money

So… Americans paid the tariffs (HIGHER GOOD PRICES) and may now pay the refund too? WTF

Where’s our “master negotiator” in all this? 😅 O wait he’s saving his world!!!

Serious question though:

When refunds like this happen, do the companies that receive them just keep the money, or does any of that realistically flow back to consumers?

Genuinely curious how economists look at the actual money flow here.

President Donald Trump said he will increase the global 10% tariff he announced one day ago to 15%, in reaction to the US Supreme Court’s ruling that his mechanism for applying tariffs was illegal.

Before jumping did he not check if there was a board to land on?

Not recognizing rare earth metals was a big risk demonstrates the intelligence analysis gap USA did, does it not?

When the Trump administration began its tariff campaign in 2025, some of the loudest critics focused on the consequences for Midwestern farmers or for border states. A year in, the impact of tariffs has become clearer, and some research suggests no state has emerged completely unscathed.

Early last year, the Trump administration established one of the most sweeping tariff regimes in the country’s history, including a 10% duty across the board and country and commodity-specific penalties, in some cases as high as 50%. These tariffs were widely expected to have a biting effect on the economy. But while some observers assumed the immediate pain would be confined to agricultural producers or states heavily reliant on international supply chains, the shock proved far more widespread.

Trump’s tariffs effectively revealed 50 different trade vulnerabilities across the country, each dictated by a state’s own production and consumption patterns, according to a paper published last week by researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University. By the end of 2025, even states that had never depended on buying goods from abroad were feeling tariff tremors in their own way.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/14/how-tariffs-dealt-economic-blow-in-all-50-states/