Trump Canada, Mexico, China Tariffs suspend gaps behind fentanel transports

By David Lawder

Washington (Reuters)-New Tariffs of President Donald Trump against Canada, Mexico and China contain all clauses that suspend a fee for low-value $ 800 transport taxes that is widely seen as a lacuna that has allowed the fentanel deliveries and its precursor chemicals in the United States.

Stabching that the flow was a primary motivation cited by Trump in imposing the taxes of import imports on the goods on the three largest commercial partners in the US. In the absence of a fully global end of the so-called “de minimis” exemption, it is not clear how effective Trump’s approach will be to reduce the Fentanil flow.

The suspension of the exemption should last as long as Trump’s rates are in force. It could also cause problems for Chinese electronic commercial companies, including Shein and PDD Holdings’, which exploited the exemption to send individual consumer goods from China to avoid previous American tariffs to Chinese imports.

Such small shipments are not often analyzed in the input ports, allowing drug transport and their ingredients to enter undetect. A Reuters investigation revealed last year the way chemical chemical traders use the exception of minimis from precursor transport to the United States, from where they are transported across the border to the fentanyl laboratories in Mexico.

Fentanil overdoses, a powerful and addicted heel drugs, killed almost 75,000 Americans in 2023, according to American centers for disease control and prevention.

In announcing punitive taxes of 25% of the goods in Canada and Mexico and with 10% additional to Chinese imports, the white house officials said on Saturday that De Minimis Halt was applied especially to Canada. Officials criticized Canada because they did not collapse at the transport of fentanil trafficking.

But the orders for all three countries contain the same language that addresses the exemption of minimis: “In order to avoid doubts, the treatment of minimis without taxes according to 19 USC 1321 will not be available for the articles described in subsection (A) of this section. – that subsection of each order broadly identifies imports subject to tariffs.

Trump’s orders do not contain any language that suggests a global or permanent suspension of the status of minimis, leaving the possibility that the transport of fentanil can reach uncontrolled, as long as they do not come from China, Canada or Mexico.

A white house spokesman did not immediately respond to the comment requests on exemption.

“These executive orders seem to eliminate the de minimis records for all three countries, which will have wide impacts on many companies and industries, said Tim Brightbill, Co-president of Wiley Rein’s commercial practice. of imports of industries – a problem well recognized by the Congress, as well as by the current and previous administrations. “

While China suppliers and criminal bands in Mexico have long been accused of Tentanil in the United States, Trump’s tariff order has included a long preamble, saying that Canada drug trafficking is growing.

“The challenges on our southern border are primarily in the public consciousness, but our northern border is not exempt from these problems,” the order shows. “Criminal networks are involved in human trafficking and smuggling operations, allowing unseen illegal migration across our northern border. There is also an increasing presence of Mexican cartels operating Synthetic and Nitasen synthesis laboratories in Canada.”

Nitasens are similar to fentanel.

The order added that drug trafficking by exempting de minimis “created a public health crisis in the United States.”

Deliveries grow

The de minimis transport in the United States has increased significantly since 2015, when the threshold for tax -free treatment has been picked up to $ 800 per previous USD.

The US Agency and Border Protection Protection now estimate that they are processing more than 1 billion such shipments, and the census office data shows that low -value estimated transports were the largest US import category in China, at $ 4.7 billion in 2023, more than more than the 2014 doubling.

The administration of former President Joe Biden, in January, issued the last-minute proposed rules to reduce the minimis exemption globally, denying it in accordance with other punitive rates and imposing the experiences to identify the contents of the package through their 10-digit tariff codes. .

It is not clear whether the protection of the customs and border, now under Trump’s direction, will act to complete this rule.

(Reporting by David Lawder, additional reports by Jarrett Renshaw and Andrea Shalal; editing by Dan Burns and Will Dunham)