“Minimis” | Mexico suspends the sending of packages to the United States: what impact it has and what countries have done the same

Poststones from Mexico processing packages — Photo foot, The postal services of Mexico will temporarily interrupt the sending of packages to the US.

- Author, Juan Francisco Alonso
- Author's title, BBC News World
3 hours

Millions of Mexicans residing in the United States will stop receiving the packages that their relatives sent them from their native country or directly bought online.

Correos de México has announced the suspension, temporarily, of the shipment of correspondence to its northern neighbor. The reason? Executive Order 14324 that President Donald Trump already signed through which he left the income, tax free, of the so -called “minimis” without effect; that is, those packages containing goods with a value of less than US $ 800.

The paralysis of shipments entered into force on August 27, the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs reported.

As of this Friday, the US will begin to collect rates to any package that reaches its territory from abroad and tariffs will be equal to those applied to other imports from countries of origin.

For example, 15% for the countries of the European Union (EU) or 50% for India. In the case of Mexico, the rate is 25% for products not covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The suspension of the exception to the “minimis” is part of the tariff war that Trump has launched against the world since he returned to the White House last January and with which he hopes to correct the bulky commercial deficit of his country.

Trump shows a decree he signed in the White House — Photo foot, Trump left without effect a regulation that since 1938 exempts small packages of paying taxes.

By surprise

The decision of Correos de México took more than one citizen by surprise.

Yunneth Hernández, for example, had taken his two children to a postal service office to send a letter and explain how they stayed in contact with their relatives on the other side of the border before email. However, he could not do it.

“We could not send the letter because they told us that with the tariffs the shipments to the US were canceled,” he told the AP agency.

Another woman, who asked not to be identified, cried at the doors of a mail branch because she could not send a letter of ten pages and some photos to her boyfriend who is in the US, said the same agency.

The Mexican authorities assured that they remain in contact with their American peers and “with international postal organizations, in order to define mechanisms that allow to resume services in an orderly manner, providing certainty to users and avoiding setbacks in the delivery of goods.”

Private correspondence companies operating in Mexico, meanwhile, have not announced any similar measure.

An customs agent checking packages — Photo foot, More than 1.4 billion “minimis” packages arrived in the US in 2024, according to official figures.

Closing leaks

Washington believes that the exception to the “minimis” had become a way to evade taxes.

The exception of “minimis” was introduced in 1938 and literally means “too small to be inspected.” The provision aimed to facilitate the flow of small packages with a value not exceeding US $ 5, the current equivalent to current US $ 109. However, in 2016 this threshold was increased to US $ 800, due to the rise of electronic commerce.

In 2024, 1,360 million packages, with an estimated value of US $ 64,400 million, arrived in the US under the regulation now suspended, according to the data of the border and customs protection service (CBP).

But how many packages came from Mexico? The most recent official figures available date from 2021 and they indicate that in the 2018-2021 period, 51,538,274 packages arrived from the other shore, according to the CBP data.

Mexico was the sixth issuer of “minimis” packages, while China occupied the first place with more than 1.4 billion. A trend that remains unchanged, according to US customs authorities.

A hand holds a telephone where the Logos of Temu and Shein are seen and in the background the US flag. — Photo foot, Chinese e -commerce giants, Temu and Shein, will be the main ones affected by Trump's measure.

Instead of making imports from China in traditional volumes, many importers have chosen to make numerous smaller orders to avoid paying tariffs, The Economist revealed.

The trend began during Trump's first administration, the British magazine specialized in economics said.

“In 2018-2019, tariffs increased to Chinese products, which increased incentives to find an evasive solution. During the Covid-19 pandemic, US imports of cheap products such as clothes and household items, which often do not reach the threshold, shot themselves,” reads the report.

In this practice, not only entrepreneurs have incurred, but final consumers.

The Economist also suggested that the US trade deficit is greater than the official figures show and that this distortion is the responsibility of the “minimis”.

“China claims to export about US $ 73,000 million than what the US believes, and some economists believe that the real difference could exceed US $ 150,000 million. The CBP figures suggest that at least US $ 37,000 million of this difference come from goods that are below the threshold of 800 dollars,” said the magazine.

A DHL worker pushing a cart with packages — Photo foot, The German courier company DHL also announced that it stopped sending packages to the US temporarily.

Adding to the group

Specialized media say that the greats harmed by Trump's decision will be the Chinese giant of electronic commerce, such as Temu or Shein.

The wave of minimis packages, mostly full of cheap clothes, is hitting the American textile sector.

A report from the US Congress revealed that the clothes sold for Temu or Shein is up to 60% cheaper than in chains with physical stores because they did not pay a dollar for its import, while the Swedish H&M had to pay US $ 205 million in 2022 and its US rival GAP paid US $ 700 million.

Mexico is not the first country that paralyzes packages of packages to the US.

Germany, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Spain, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, United Kingdom and New Zealand have done the same in recent days, claiming that they have not had time to adapt to change.

Most postal services have no capacity to start reviewing millions of packages that, so far, did not require inspections to determine whether or not they should pay taxes.

But not only public companies have taken this measure, also private correspondence companies such as the German DHL have announced their clients that they will interrupt their shipments to the US.