Peter Leeb

WINNING: THIS IS HUGE Temu, SHEIN and all these tacky fast fashion companies that sell mostly crap have long relied on an unfair and unwarranted trade advantage. They have long been beneficiaries of what is called the "de minimis loophole." This loophole allows goods to be shipped directly from overseas to American consumers so long as the value of EACH PACKAGE is under US$800, without any customs declaration. It's cheap, direct, untaxed and unregulated. It's a law that's existed since the 1930s, long before the internet and the existence of e-commerce retailers. Last year the US received a BILLION packages from China through this loophole. CBP (Customs and Border Protection) cannot possibly inspect items at this scale so things do slip through the cracks - unsafe items, knock-offs, products made with forced labor from Xinjiang and yes, chemicals that are used to make FENTANYL. To put things in context: In 2022, GAP paid $700 million while H&M paid $200 million in import taxes. Temu paid ZERO. "Free trade" once again is not free. It's flooding our markets with cheap crappy potentially toxic goods, gutting our own retail markets, and allowing unsavory foreign competitors to exploit loopholes and gain unfair competitive advantages over retailers who HAVE to play by the rule because of... geography. Now, we have closed this loophole for goods coming in from China. 🏆