(Yicai) Feb. 5 -- More than one billion low-price parcels from China to the United States are expected to be affected after US President Donald Trump canceled the de minimis tax exemption policy.

The executive order signed by Trump on Feb. 1 to eliminate the de minimis exemption, which was granting duty-free treatment for cross-border shipments under USD800 sent directly to US individual consumers, came into effect yesterday.

The number of low-price parcels imported to the US through the de minimis channel soared nearly 10-fold to 1.36 billion last year from about 139 million in 2015, according to data from the US Customs and Border Protection.

The de minimis exemption policy mainly benefited Chinese e-commerce platforms including Pinduoduo’s Temu, Shein, and Alibaba Group Holding’s AliExpress, which sell low-price clothes, household products, and small electronic devices to US customers.

Temu denied that its fast growth in the US depends on the de minimis exemption policy, and Shein said it gave import compliance the highest priority, fully supporting the US reform efforts.

Meanwhile, the two Chinese fast-fashion giants have explored new strategies. For example, Temu has been supporting Chinese sellers with warehouses in the US to join the platform to ship goods from within the country and avoid import tariffs, and Shein has opened distribution and supply chain centers in the US.

US retailers like Amazon and Walmart also import large amounts of goods that enjoyed no-tax treatment. In fact, the US International Trade Commission had previously warned that abolishing the de minimis exemption policy would cost American consumers billions of US dollars.

Amazon launched its budget retail platform Haul last year. With Haul, third-party sellers can directly ship products from China to US consumers. All the products available on Haul are priced at or below USD20.

Editor: Futura Costaglione