If any part of your process still assumes a parcel under $800 clears the US border duty-free, stop and check it: as of September 2026, that exemption does not exist for any country of origin. What began as a China-only measure in May 2025 became a global suspension by the end of August 2025, survived a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a different set of tariffs entirely, and was then upheld directly by the Court of International Trade in August 2026. Entry Type 86, the electronic filing route built specifically to process de minimis shipments, stopped accepting new entries the same day the global suspension took effect and has not come back. This guide sets out exactly what changed, when, under what legal authority, and what a shipper or forwarder moving low-value parcels into the United States has to do instead.
What Section 321 and Type 86 actually covered
Section 321 of the Tariff Act, codified at 19 U.S.C. 1321, gives US Customs and Border Protection authority to admit low-value shipments free of duty and tax without a formal entry, provided the aggregate fair retail value imported by one person in one day does not exceed a set threshold. That threshold was $200 until the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 raised it to $800, the figure that applied until the 2025 suspensions.
Entry Type 86 was not the exemption itself. It was the electronic filing route CBP built to process it. Deployed as a voluntary test on September 28, 2019, it let a qualifying de minimis shipment, including one subject to partner government agency data requirements, clear through the Automated Broker Interface in the Automated Commercial Environment with a lighter data set than a standard entry. Type 86 existed only to process Section 321 shipments, so once the underlying exemption was gone there was nothing left for it to do.
2025: China first, then every country
The suspension arrived in two steps. Executive Orders 14256 and 14257, signed April 2, 2025, ended de minimis treatment for goods of Chinese and Hong Kong origin, effective May 2, 2025. Executive Order 14324, signed July 30, 2025, extended the suspension to every other country, effective August 29, 2025. CBP's own factsheet on the change states that goods valued at or below $800 from all countries would no longer be eligible for de minimis treatment and would be subject to all applicable duties, taxes and fees from that date. Both orders were issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the same statute behind the broader "fentanyl" and "reciprocal" tariff programs of 2025.
The Supreme Court ruling narrowed IEEPA, but not this
On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, consolidated with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The 6-3 decision struck down the IEEPA tariffs tied to the declared fentanyl emergency on Canada, Mexico and China, and the separate "reciprocal" tariffs tied to the declared trade-deficit emergency. Our guide to US tariffs in 2026 after the IEEPA ruling covers what that decision actually changed for ordinary duty rates.
That is a genuinely separate question from whether IEEPA let the President suspend an existing duty-free exemption, and the two should not be conflated even though the same statute and the same executive orders sit behind both. CBP had, in any case, already moved the de minimis suspension onto firmer ground before the ruling landed. The interim final rules it published on June 24, 2026 wrote the suspension directly into CBP's own regulations under its independent authority in 19 U.S.C. 1321(b), the same section that created the exemption in the first place, rather than resting solely on the IEEPA executive orders.
June 2026: the suspension becomes a regulation, and indefinite
On June 24, 2026, CBP published two interim final rules in the Federal Register. One, "Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal Network," covers ocean, air, truck and rail shipments. Its companion covers international mail and pairs with a new electronic informal entry process for postal shipments that took effect July 24, 2026. Both rules describe the suspension as indefinite: it stays in place until CBP itself determines that restoring the exemption would no longer be inconsistent with the statute's purpose, jeopardize revenue, or facilitate unlawful importation, not until a fixed calendar date.
A narrower step followed on the mail side. CBP opened a voluntary Entry Type 13 test on September 22, 2026, letting filers submit electronic informal entries, including HTSUS classification, origin, value, duty calculation and bond information, for mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less. It is a test of a future-state process for handling postal volume, not a return of duty-free treatment: every shipment filed through it still owes duty.
The suspension has now survived a direct court challenge
Importers did not accept the rescission without a fight. In Axle of Dearborn, Inc. d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Department of Commerce, a three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade granted summary judgment for the government on August 13, 2026, upholding the President's rescission of the de minimis exemption as a valid exercise of IEEPA authority. The court's reasoning is worth understanding on its own terms: it treated withdrawing an exemption as legally distinct from imposing a new tariff, since the withdrawal creates no new duty by itself, it simply exposes the goods to duties Congress had already enacted elsewhere in the tariff schedule. The same panel declined to grant the government summary judgment on a separate count challenging the underlying IEEPA tariffs, deferring that question in light of the Supreme Court's ruling.
Treat this as the position as of September 2026, not as a settled question for all time. A ruling from a three-judge CIT panel can be appealed, and trade litigation in this area has moved quickly and repeatedly through 2025 and 2026. Anyone making a shipping decision that depends on the exemption returning should check current status directly rather than relying on this or any other article to still be accurate months from now. Separately, Congress has already scheduled a full statutory repeal of the commercial de minimis exception under 19 U.S.C. 1321, effective July 1, 2027, so the underlying policy is not expected to reverse even if a specific rule is ever challenged successfully.
What is still exempt, and it is narrow
CBP's guidance carries forward an exemption under 50 U.S.C. 1702(b) for bona fide donations and informational materials, and the agency's messaging around the 2025 rollout referenced continuing duty-free treatment for genuine personal gifts and travel-related personal items within long-standing limits. None of that is a substitute for a commercial low-value channel, and none of it is something a shipper or forwarder moving freight for resale should plan around.
What a low-value shipment needs now
Every import that would once have cleared duty-free under Section 321 now needs a standard entry, and which kind depends on value and, in some cases, on what the goods are.
- Entry type. Under 19 C.F.R. 143.21, merchandise valued at $2,500 or less generally qualifies for informal entry, the lighter of the two standard tracks. Goods valued above $250 that fall under Chapter 99, Subchapters III or IV of the tariff schedule, the headings used for trade-remedy and national-security duties, are excluded from informal-entry eligibility regardless of the shipment's total value, so check the applicable HTS heading before assuming the $2,500 figure applies. Above $2,500, or where informal entry is unavailable, the shipment needs a formal entry, which brings its own bonding and documentation requirements.
- Classification and duty. Every shipment now needs a correct HTS classification, because that classification is what determines the duty owed, not just eligibility for a preference program. Ordinary Column 1 duty applies, plus whatever trade-remedy duties, such as Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-origin goods, attach to that specific heading. The IEEPA "fentanyl" and "reciprocal" tariffs that applied through early 2026 no longer apply following the Supreme Court's ruling, but that does not mean nothing else does.
- Fees. Formal entries carry the Merchandise Processing Fee on an ad valorem basis; informal entries carry it at a flat, lower rate. The Harbor Maintenance Fee can also apply where the mode of transport is water-based.
- Postal shipments specifically. International mail now runs through the postal informal entry process CBP built alongside the June 2026 rules, with the voluntary Entry Type 13 test available since September 22, 2026 for filers ready to submit full electronic data. Carriers moving postal packages need an active customs bond on file.
- Who files. A shipment that used to clear itself through Type 86's lighter data set now needs the same level of customs expertise as any other formal or informal entry. If your business was built around a high volume of automatically clearing sub-$800 parcels, this is the point to talk to a licensed customs broker rather than assume your existing process still works. Our guide to whether you need a customs broker walks through when self-filing still makes sense and when it does not.
| Before August 2025 | As of September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Section 321 de minimis: duty-free entry for shipments up to $800 | Suspended indefinitely for every country of origin |
| Entry Type 86: lightweight electronic filing for de minimis shipments | Not accepting new entries since August 29, 2025 |
| Most low-value parcels moved without a duty assessment | Standard informal or formal entry required, with HTS classification and duty owed on essentially every commercial shipment |
| International mail cleared with minimal data | New postal informal entry process (July 24, 2026) and voluntary Entry Type 13 test (from September 22, 2026) |
What to do next
- Stop assuming any shipment clears duty-free under $800. Build classification and duty into landed cost for every SKU, not just the ones that used to sit above the old threshold. Our guide to calculating import duty from China to the USA walks through the arithmetic.
- Confirm entry type before you ship, checking whether the specific HTS heading falls under the Chapter 99 carve-out that drops the informal-entry ceiling to $250.
- Rebuild your customs paperwork chain. A process built around Type 86's reduced data set will not satisfy a standard informal or formal entry. Our import documentation checklist and customs clearance guide cover what a complete filing actually needs.
- If you ship by international mail, check whether the new Entry Type 13 test fits your volume, and confirm your carrier or broker has the bond CBP now requires.
- Watch the litigation, but do not plan around it reversing. The suspension has survived one direct court challenge, and a separate statutory repeal is already scheduled for July 1, 2027. Treat the exemption as gone rather than paused.
The de minimis suspension is one piece of a wider 2025-2026 shift in what US importers actually owe at the border, and the European Union has moved in a similar direction on its own low-value imports around the same time, covered in our guide to the EU de minimis removal. If your shipments are coming from China specifically, our guides to importing from China to the USA and shipping from China to the USA cover the wider process end to end, and US customs bonds explained covers the bonding side of a formal entry.
Finding a forwarder or broker who has actually adjusted their own filing process to the current rules matters more this year than most. You can search more than 29,300 logistics companies by country and service in the CargoLinked directory, or post your shipment and let forwarders come to you.
Customs law in this area has moved quickly and unevenly through 2025 and 2026, and litigation is ongoing. Confirm current de minimis, entry-type and duty rules directly with CBP or a licensed customs broker before relying on any figure or status described here.
Sources consulted directly: US Customs and Border Protection, "Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal Network," Federal Register (June 24, 2026); CBP, Section 321 Programs; CBP, "CBP Ready to Enforce End of De Minimis Loophole" national media release.
