America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
Low-value 'de minimis' shipments entering the US by fiscal year, millions — until the exemption ended in 2025.
- 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
- 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
- 3. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
- 4. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
- 5. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
- 6. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
- 7. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
- 8. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
- 9. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
- 10. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
- 11. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
- 12. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
- 13. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
- 14. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
- 15. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
- 16. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
- 17. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
- 18. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
- 19. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
De minimis shipments rose almost tenfold between FY2015 and FY2024.
That is how many duty-free parcels crossed the US border on average in FY2024.
CBP estimates parcels fell to this in calendar 2025, after duty-free entry ended for China in May and everyone in August.
the numbers & method
| Year | All de minimis shipments (m) | Of which by air (m) |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 139 | |
| 2018 | 411 | |
| 2020 | 637 | 539 |
| 2021 | 772 | 661 |
| 2022 | 685 | 543 |
| 2023 | 1,000 | 880 |
| 2024 | 1,360 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate
Counts are Section 321 bills of lading (shipments), US federal fiscal years (Oct–Sep). FY2015 (~139m), FY2023 ('over one billion') and FY2024 ('over 1.36 billion') from CBP's Jan 2025 release; FY2020–FY2023 totals and air split from CBP's e-commerce page (https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/e-commerce). FY2018 (~411m) is CBP data quoted by Statista; consistent with USITC's '88% rise 2018–21'. FY2016–17 and FY2019 not published in a verifiable form, so omitted. 3.7m/day is derived (1.36bn / 366 days). 2025 figure is a calendar-year CBP estimate cited by CRS IF12891, not comparable fiscal-year basis. Duty-free de minimis treatment was suspended for China/Hong Kong in May 2025 and for all countries on 29 Aug 2025. Platform attribution (Temu/Shein) is interpretation, not in the CBP counts.
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