Is any Section 321 de minimis exemption still available?

No. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries on August 29, 2025, CBP interim final rules made the suspension indefinite for non-postal modes on June 24, 2026, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act strikes the statutory $800 clause from July 1, 2027. Only Chapter 98 special classifications and a few narrow program carve-outs remain.

What do low-value US entry requirements now involve?

The shipment needs a normal entry: an importer or broker filing, ten-digit HTS classification, declared customs value under 19 U.S.C. 1401a, duty payment plus the Merchandise Processing Fee of 0.3464 percent with a $34.58 minimum and $670.86 maximum in FY2027, and the 0.125 percent Harbor Maintenance Fee for vessel cargo. Informal entry under 19 CFR 143.21 remains available at $2,500 or less.

What does a formal entry cost without Section 321?

Duty at the applicable rate plus fees. A $750 garment parcel entered by air at a 16.5 percent rate owes $123.75 duty plus the $34.58 MPF minimum, $158.33 total, where the same parcel cleared with no border charge before August 29, 2025. The MPF floor alone adds at least 4 percent on small parcels until value reaches about $9,982.

Do postal shipments follow different rules than express cargo?

Yes. Postal items lost duty-free treatment on the same dates but clear through a dedicated postal informal-entry process created by CBP interim final rule CBP Dec. 26-13 (91 FR 37801), with full operator compliance required by October 22, 2026. Under EO 14324 postal duties were set by a six-month methodology at $80, $160 or $200 per item by value band; since February 24, 2026 the duty basis is the 10 percent temporary import surcharge of Proclamation 11012.

What are the penalties for wrongly claiming de minimis?

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) sets civil penalties of $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for subsequent violations of the de minimis provisions. Splitting one commercial order into fake personal consignments to stay under a threshold is misdeclaration, not optimization, and the entry date controls which regime applies.

Home / Guides / Section 321 Entry Requirements

Section 321 Entry Requirements After the De Minimis Suspension

Last updated October 17, 2026·Data: Federal Register de minimis actions 2016–2027 + FY2027 COBRA fee schedule

Short answer: shipping to the US under Section 321 no longer means a paperwork-free, duty-free crossing. Since the global suspension took effect August 29, 2025, every low-value shipment follows ordinary entry mechanics: classification, declared value, duty, and the MPF/HMF fee stack. Express and freight cargo enters formally or informally like any other merchandise; international mail moves through a new postal informal-entry process whose full compliance date lands October 22, 2026, with duties in the mail channel set by a 10 percent surcharge rather than the old per-item tiers. From July 1, 2027, the exemption disappears from the statute itself.

For nearly a decade, Section 321 of the Tariff Act (19 U.S.C. 1321) let shipments valued at $800 or less enter the United States duty-free and tax-free with minimal formalities — the famous de minimis exemption, raised from $200 to $800 by the TFTEA amendment of 2016 (130 Stat. 223, applying to entries on or after March 10, 2016). That era ended in stages through 2025, and the machinery that replaced it changes again this month. This guide walks through what the border actually requires now, channel by channel, with every date and dollar figure tied to its source instrument. Our De Minimis Exposure Calculator encodes the same event ledger interactively if you want your own dates and values scored.

The dates that rewrote low-value entry

Date	Instrument	What changed for shippers
Aug 29, 2025 (entries from 12:01 ET)	EO 14324, 90 FR 37775	Duty-free de minimis treatment suspended for all countries. Postal items moved to flat per-item duties of $80 / $160 / $200 by value band under a six-month methodology.
Jun 24, 2026	CBP Dec. 26-12, 91 FR 37789	Suspension made indefinite for every non-postal mode: express, freight, truck, rail, and sea all face ordinary entry requirements.
Oct 22, 2026	CBP Dec. 26-13, 91 FR 37801	Compliance date for the new postal informal-entry process. Foreign postal operators must transmit advance electronic data and duties move through the mail channel under CBP’s new procedure.
Jul 1, 2027	OBBBA, Public Law 119-21 (139 Stat. 72)	The statutory clause authorizing “$800 in any other case” is struck outright — the exemption dies in the statute, not just by executive action. Effective date per sec. 70511 of the public law text as reported in trade commentary; not yet reflected in eCFR.

Between those anchors, two earlier moves matter for anyone reconciling historical records: China and Hong Kong lost the exemption on May 2, 2025 (EO 14256, 90 FR 14899), after Canada and Mexico were terminated and briefly paused in February–March 2025. If you quote landed costs from a price list printed before mid-2025, it is describing a regime that no longer exists. The full sequence sits on our Section 321 timeline.

Channel split: express and freight versus mail

The single biggest practical mistake after the suspension is assuming one uniform rule. CBP regulates the two physical channels differently, and the difference survives the October 2026 compliance date:

Express and freight (non-postal). Ordinary entry rules apply in full. Shipments at $2,500 or less may still qualify for informal entry under 19 CFR 143.21, which swaps percentage-based MPF for a small flat fee — but they owe duty like everything else. Chapter 99 additional duties (Section 301, reciprocal actions) apply on top of the base rate exactly as they would for a container-load; see our stacked tariff mechanics.
International postal network. Mail items lost duty-free treatment on the same dates but cannot walk through a broker-style entry. CBP Dec. 26-13 builds a dedicated postal informal entry: advance electronic data from the foreign operator, duty collection through the postal stream, and full operator compliance by October 22, 2026. Duties under EO 14324 were originally fixed per item — $80 for goods whose ad-valorem equivalent falls below 16 percent, $160 for 16–25 percent, $200 above 25 percent — computed under a six-month methodology.

Since February 24, 2026, the postal duty basis is the temporary import surcharge of Proclamation 11012 (91 FR 9339): 10 percent ad valorem, within a 15 percent statutory maximum, set to run 150 days from its February 24 effective date. The continuation order of February 20, 2026 (EO 14388, 91 FR 9433) ties the postal duty basis to that same surcharge while the suspension remains in force. In plain terms: a $30 mail-order accessory from Europe carries roughly $3.00 of duty on this basis, where the per-item tier methodology would have charged $80 — which is precisely why the two channels must be modeled separately. Watch the calendar rather than assuming either basis is permanent; our policy timeline tracks every instrument as it lands.

What the border charges now: worked arithmetic

With duty-free entry gone, the fee stack decides whether small parcels are worth shipping at all. Formally entered merchandise pays the Merchandise Processing Fee at 0.3464 percent of customs value, clamped between a $34.58 floor and a $670.86 ceiling for FY2027 (effective October 1, 2026, per the annual COBRA adjustment), plus the 0.125 percent Harbor Maintenance Fee when cargo moves on a vessel. The floor dominates small-shipment economics: until value reaches about $9,982, every entry pays exactly $34.58 — a 4.6 percent effective bite on a $750 box, more than many MFN duty rates. Our MPF/HMF explainer breaks the clamp arithmetic out in full.

Scenario	Duty	MPF	HMF	Border total
$750 apparel parcel, air, 16.5% line	$123.75	$34.58	—	$158.33
Same parcel by sea	$123.75	$34.58	$0.94	$159.27
$30 mail-order accessory, EU origin	$3.00	—	—	$3.00

— = fee not applicable to that channel (MPF applies only to formal entries; HMF only to vessel cargo).

Two structural notes. First, the MPF is owed even when the underlying duty rate is Free — zero-tariff lines no longer produce zero-cost entries. Second, valuation disputes now carry double weight, because both duty and the ad-valorem fees ride the same 19 U.S.C. 1401a value (see which value Customs taxes).

Penalties: the $5,000 enforcement floor

The OBBBA overhaul did not just delete the exemption clause; it armed enforcement. Civil penalties start at $5,000 for a first violation and rise to $10,000 for subsequent violations (139 Stat. 72). The classic exposure is splitting one commercial order into multiple personal-addressed consignments to duck the old threshold — with the threshold gone, the scheme buys nothing and risks the penalty schedule. Remember also that entry date, not order date or ship date, decides which regime applied: a $750 parcel entered August 28, 2025 cleared free; the identical parcel one day later owes duty plus fees.

Five-step entry checklist for low-value US shipments

Classify to ten digits. The rate lives on the statistical line; start from finding your HS code.
Pick the channel deliberately. Express/freight and postal follow different processes and different duty bases; model both before promising DDP prices.
Compute duty, then layer fees. Base rate plus any Chapter 99 actions, then MPF (clamped) and HMF if vessel-borne.
Respect the calendar. October 22, 2026 postal compliance and July 1, 2027 statutory repeal are the next two nodes; neither is cosmetic.
Screen for remedy overlap. AD/CVD orders and Section 301 lists apply at any value — run the pair through the AD/CVD screener before quoting.

If your volume justifies monitoring every one of these nodes automatically, that is what the paid tier of ExportSonar plans watches for you.

Frequently asked questions

Is any Section 321 de minimis exemption still available?: No. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries on August 29, 2025, CBP interim final rules made the suspension indefinite for non-postal modes on June 24, 2026, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act strikes the statutory $800 clause from July 1, 2027. Only Chapter 98 special classifications and a few narrow program carve-outs remain.
What do low-value US entry requirements now involve?: The shipment needs a normal entry: an importer or broker filing, ten-digit HTS classification, declared customs value under 19 U.S.C. 1401a, duty payment plus the Merchandise Processing Fee of 0.3464 percent with a $34.58 minimum and $670.86 maximum in FY2027, and the 0.125 percent Harbor Maintenance Fee for vessel cargo. Informal entry under 19 CFR 143.21 remains available at $2,500 or less.
What does a formal entry cost without Section 321?: Duty at the applicable rate plus fees. A $750 garment parcel entered by air at a 16.5 percent rate owes $123.75 duty plus the $34.58 MPF minimum, $158.33 total, where the same parcel cleared with no border charge before August 29, 2025. The MPF floor alone adds at least 4 percent on small parcels until value reaches about $9,982.
Do postal shipments follow different rules than express cargo?: Yes. Postal items lost duty-free treatment on the same dates but clear through a dedicated postal informal-entry process created by CBP interim final rule CBP Dec. 26-13 (91 FR 37801), with full operator compliance required by October 22, 2026. Under EO 14324 postal duties were set by a six-month methodology at $80, $160 or $200 per item by value band; since February 24, 2026 the duty basis is the 10 percent temporary import surcharge of Proclamation 11012.
What are the penalties for wrongly claiming de minimis?: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) sets civil penalties of $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for subsequent violations of the de minimis provisions. Splitting one commercial order into fake personal consignments to stay under a threshold is misdeclaration, not optimization, and the entry date controls which regime applies.

Sources and methodology

Every date and parameter in this guide is drawn from our structured ledger of 21 de minimis policy events (data/de_minimis.json), each record carrying its Federal Register citation and captured timestamp, cross-checked against the FY2027 COBRA fee constants in data/entry_fees.json. Headline figures were recomputed from those files at generation time; nothing is hand-copied. The OBBBA effective date of July 1, 2027 rests on Public Law 119-21 as reported in trade commentary rather than a first-hand FR text — flagged here per our sourcing standard.

[1] Global suspension: EO 14324, 90 FR 37775 (FR published Aug 5, 2025; entries from Aug 29, 2025).
[2] Non-postal indefinite suspension: CBP Dec. 26-12, 91 FR 37789 (Jun 24, 2026).
[3] Postal informal entry: CBP Dec. 26-13, 91 FR 37801 (FR published Jun 24, 2026; operator compliance by Oct 22, 2026).
[4] Postal duty basis: Proclamation 11012, 91 FR 9339 (Feb 20, 2026), 10% surcharge eff. Feb 24, 2026.
[5] Statutory repeal and penalties: Public Law 119-21, 139 Stat. 72.
[6] Original $800 threshold: TFTEA, 130 Stat. 223, entries on or after Mar 10, 2016.

Verify your own line

De Minimis Exposure Calculator — score your own entry date and value.
US De Minimis Policy Timeline — all 21 events with citations.
Where the $800 rule still lives abroad.
Landed-cost duty calculator.
Tariff monitoring plans.

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