One Big Beautiful Bill Act Slaps Huge New Penalties and Fees on Global Imports; Mandatory $5,000 Fin | Selling

da6170 · 2025-07-08T21:59:35.895000Z

(Bloomberg Terminal - Intelligence) Washington, 7 July 2025 — President Trump’s newly signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act is already reshaping the economics of low-value e-commerce parcels and deep-sea shipping alike. Section 70531 of the law abolishes the long-standing $800 de minimis duty-free threshold for commercial imports on 1 July 2027 and, starting 3 August 2025, slaps violators with $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for each repeat attempt to move merchandise through the now-curtailed fast-parcel lane. The Customs and Border Protection agency in the USA is preparing guidance warning that the new civil penalties apply whenever a shipper’s de minimis filing “violates any other provision of U.S. customs law,” a standard broad enough to cover everything from under-valuation to counterfeit goods. Fines may be levied against multiple parties, including the individual receiving the goods, the shipper that presented the goods for clearance, and the company that transported the goods.As of July 1, the CBP reached its initial goal of hiring 2,200 new Customs inspectors, more than 1,500 dedicated exclusively to handling small value packages that formerly swept through Customs without a formal inspection. With the passage of the OBBBA, CBP has received funding to hire more than 6,000 additional inspectors through 2027. By the end of 2025, new rules for packages will include requirements to submit a photograph of each imported product, a breakdown of its components/ingredients and country of origin, and a receipt or invoice proving the item’s value.The OBBBA also raises fees on ocean carriers’ bottom lines. Title X, Section 100002 raises the federal tonnage duty by 125 percent—the first increase since 1909. At today’s rates a container vessel sailing from China pays six cents per net ton per call, capped at 30 cents in a calendar year. Beginning 1 October 2025 those figures jump to roughly 13.5 cents and 67.5 cents, respectively, while voyages originating in the Western Hemisphere see the two-cent rate climb to about 4.5 cents with the annual cap moving from 10 cents to 22.5 cents. The statutory language earmarks the extra revenue for Coast Guard assets and a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data-integration overhaul. Logistics analysts say the paired measures will “force a wholesale re-engineering of direct-to-consumer supply chains.” Supply Chain Dive notes that 76 percent of de minimis parcels handled by CBP in FY 2024 originated in China; firms such as Shein and Temu must now contemplate bulk ocean containers and U.S. fulfillment centers to avoid five-figure fines and per-parcel formal entries. CBP, for its part, began a $420 million technology upgrade funded partly by the higher tonnage duties, but customs brokers warn the agency will still face an entry-volume surge once the de minimis repeal takes effect. Industry trade counsel cautions that the enlarged tonnage tax will also bite cruise lines and trans-border ferries, which historically enjoyed the Western-Hemisphere’s lower two-cent rate; a typical 40,000-net-ton vessel calling weekly at U.S. ports could see its annual tonnage-duty cap rise from $800 to more than $1,800. Shippers have until the new fiscal year to fold the increase into freight contracts, after which CBP will begin collecting the higher duties on every port call. Taken together, the penalty regime and port-entry fee hike cement the administration’s pledge to “close every loophole” for what it labels unfairly cheap imports. With penalty clocks already ticking and fee tables set to reset in October, compliance teams across retail and maritime transport now have firm dollar figures—and firm deadlines—to guide their next moves, starting with curtailing the import of suspect goods to avoid the steep new fines taking effect next month. How would these new rules work if buying from a private seller here on Ebay?

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One Big Beautiful Bill Act Slaps Huge New Penalties and Fees on Global Imports; Mandatory $5,000 Fin | Selling | eBay Canada EN