As of 5/13/2025As of April 2, 2025:
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Closes De Minimis Exemptions to Combat China’s Role in America’s Synthetic Opioid Crisis
CLOSING LOOPHOLES IN THE TARIFF SYSTEM: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order eliminating duty-free de minimis treatment forwww.whitehouse.gov
It is unlikely to change once the implementation date occurs but who knows these things for sure?
It's worse than that. Sales tax in the US can vary intra-state base on locale. You can literally cross a city and/or county line and encounter different rates of taxation. For example, I used to live in the state of IL and I always said that corruption must be expensive given how the tax system worked. (IL is noteworthy for the number of its governors, judges, and city legislators that have ended up in jail. So much so that there is a bumper sticker to the effect of "Illinois: Where the governors make the license plates.)
There are companies like Avalara that actually specialize in providing up-to-date taxation calculations for eCommerce vendors because it's so complicated.
Once upon a time it was customary for us to travel 20 miles to the next county to buy big ticket items, like cars, to take advantage of their lower sales tax rate. That practice, for cars at least, was ended when the state declared that sales tax for cars was based on county of registration rather than county of purchase.
Those companies that address sales taxes are a blessing to small businesses.
It occurs to me that Chinese and other overseas manufacturers could have someone like AliExpress set up a US presence to buy items for a nominal amount - say $1 - warehouse them, and sell them in the US at full price. Then they would return the expected price to the Chinese seller in cash, after purchase, minus a warehousing/handling fee. In effect, they would be a US-resident consignment shop.
I don't know if that would legally circumvent tariffs, but I'll almost bet you someone is thinking about something along those lines.
It occurs to me that Chinese and other overseas manufacturers could have someone like AliExpress set up a US presence to buy items for a nominal amount - say $1 - warehouse them, and sell them in the US at full price. Then they would return the expected price to the Chinese seller in cash, after purchase, minus a warehousing/handling fee. In effect, they would be a US-resident consignment shop.
I don't know if that would legally circumvent tariffs, but I'll almost bet you someone is thinking about something along those lines.
Mail Fraud (using the mail system to commit a fraud across state lines) is a US federal offense punishable by a lot of years in federal prison.
a better method of what China is doing is sending goods made in China through secondary countries like Vietnam. The goods are re-marked Made in Vietnam and shipped to the USA with lower tariffs for Vietnam goods.
Which is almost certainly fraud as well.
Mail Fraud (using the mail system to commit a fraud across state lines) is a US federal offense punishable by a lot of years in federal prison.
a better method of what China is doing is sending goods made in China through secondary countries like Vietnam. The goods are re-marked Made in Vietnam and shipped to the USA with lower tariffs for Vietnam goods.
It is. But all the prepertrators are in China and Vietnam. It's why we just applied very high tariffs to Vietnam goods as well as Chinese to convince the Vietnam government to stop this pass- through deceipt.
The importer would likely be caught up by something like this.
If they turn a blind eye, they are participating in the fraud.
If they are fooled by it, they still will have to deal with consequences.
I have a sort of technical legal question here that you may be able to answer.
Is "fraud" actually a defined thing under international trade law? I realize that failing to comply with the various trade laws can have consequences all they way up to severe fines and possibly, even prison. As just one example, US laws concerning smuggling can be applied.
But my understanding was that "fraud" is a specific kind of felony which is defined as such only by Federal or state/provincial laws.
What am I missing here?
Whether something is or is not a crime or offence depends on the jurisdiction and the law there.
Whether something is fraudulent or deceitful depends on what values you live by.
There is lots of overlap.
And you can have one action bring rise to different legal consequences in several places all at once - particularly when you are talking about importing or exporting something - because actions can have effects in more than one jurisdiction.
This stuff is wonderfully complex, because the world is wonderfully complex, and people in one jurisdiction are assumed to rely on the actions of other people in other jurisdictions.
Yes, all that make sense. But, I was specifically wondering whether "fraud" was a specifically defined legal term in international laws of commerce. Domestically, of course, we have wire fraud, or bank fraud, or ... <something>fraud. I was just asking whether this term had meaning in international law.
Yes, all that make sense. But, I was specifically wondering whether "fraud" was a specifically defined legal term in international laws of commerce. Domestically, of course, we have wire fraud, or bank fraud, or ... <something>fraud. I was just asking whether this term had meaning in5
international law.
Lying on a government forms to avoid taxes, tariffs, or cheat the government or people for other reasons is fraud.
I'm ready to skirt all this nonsense. Canada has always been our lovely cousins and friends, same with Mexico. The southwest of the United States was a very fluid area where people from Mexico and the US would travel freely well into the 20th century.
It's the big businesses and as Granny Clampett called them "The Revenuers" that have spoiled things.
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a better method of what China is doing is sending goods made in China through secondary countries like Vietnam. The goods are re-marked Made in Vietnam and shipped to the USA with lower tariffs for Vietnam goods.
The importer would likely be caught up by something like this.
If they turn a blind eye, they are participating in the fraud.
If they are fooled by it, they still will have to deal with consequences.
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