De Minimis Changes Will Impact Air Cargo

Changes to trade policy are shaking up the air cargo market, and the looming cancellation of de minimis eligibility for Chinese imports is expected to significantly reduce the surge of e-commerce goods arriving in the U.S. by air, which has kept planes full and air cargo rates highly elevated since late 2023.

This would also lead to increased delivery times and push price tags up by as much as 50% for items that continue to ship by air.

U.S. President Donald Trump early in February announced the suspension of the exemption as part of new tariffs that impose an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods but later reinstated the eligibility for Chinese e-commerce imports to the U.S. early this month due to the lack of infrastructure and workable solutions for customs and postal services to manage the volume and procedure.

Chinese e-commerce giants like Temu and Shein largely rely on the savings and speed they realise by using the de minimis exemption to export low-value goods by air cargo directly from China to U.S. consumers.