On April 8, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a new Executive Order (EO) to address China’s retaliatory 34 percent tariff it is scheduled to impose on all goods imported into China originating from the United States beginning on April 10, 2025. The President has stated that effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 9, 2025, the reciprocal tariff on imports from China shall increase from 34% to 84%. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed this tariff rate increase in a Cargo Systems Messaging Service later in the evening. See CSMS # 64687696.

As a result of this reciprocal tariff rate increase, and the previous tariff rate of 20% on all goods coming from China due to President Trump’s February EO to address the synthetic opioid supply chain in China (see Thompson Hine Update of March 3, 2025), the effective overall duty rate on imports from China will now be 104%.

Further, and to ensure that these duties are not circumvented, the EO also modifies an earlier order addressing the application of tariffs on goods entering the United States from China under the “de minimis” rule pursuant to Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930; an exemption allowing imports valued at $800 or less to enter the United States with minimal filing requirements and duty-free. Accordingly, the new April 8 EO dictates that all postal items sent to the United States from China and Hong Kong through the international post that qualify for the de minimis exemption will be now be subject to submitting duties to CBP in one of two manners:

  • An ad valorem duty of 90% of the value of the postal item; or,
  • A specific duty “per postal item containing goods” of $75 between May 2 through May 31, 2025, and $150 beginning June 1, 2025.

For additional background on the previous EOs, see Thompson Hine Updates of April 3, 2025 (de minimis)and April 3, 2025 (reciprocal tariffs).